Posted by Vicky Loehr on July 05, 1999 at 22:51:14:
In Reply to: Re: Woman Knights in the Middle Ages posted by J Fowler on December 02, 1998 at 05:53:36:
Hmmm...the closest I can come to your picture is a book called "Women Warlords" by Tim Newark, pub 1989, ISBN 0-7137-19656. The lady on the front cover of the book is Matilda of Tuscany (La Gran Contessa), who took to her first armor at age 15 to learn to defend her lands. She rode out with her father and her mother. Neither she nor her mother were knights, per se, but in those days if you were a great heiress, you'd better learn warfare pretty quickly to defend your estates. This book has several pictures of of Matilda, but many of them are apocryphal or based on description rather than actual illuminations. A nickname for Matilda was "Maud". In addition, there is a picture on the next page of Eleanor of Aquuitaine, Queen of France, riding into constantinople in full chain mail carrying a spear. This is a wonderful book on ladies who did some pretty intense fighting. An interesting source for some more armored ladies is Barbara Tuchman's "A Distant Mirror" containing the story of the Countess of Montfort in her armor. June Stephenson in her book "Women's Roots"also lists some more ladies who were armor-clad of necessity. Richard Barber, in his book "The Reign of Chivalry", even discusses women crusaders who died with their men, and the moslem historian Imad Ad-din was horrified that the "Franks"had women who fought in battle like men ! (And we are not talking camp followers picking up a sword. We are talking archers and mounted "knightly " type accoutrements !)
Hope this answers your questions!
V L Loehr