Several notorious women come to my mind and each belies the fallacy that medieval women possessed little power.
Candidate number one is Empress Mathilda, the daughter of Henry I of England and granddaughter of William the Conqueror. Mathilda first married Holy Roman Emperor, Henry V, hence the ‘empress’ reference. After her husband’s death, Mathilda married Geoffrey, Count of Anjou—a step down in her mind but that’s another story.
King Henry I died with no male heir, designating Mathida to succeed him. Mathilda’s cousin, Stephen of Blois, usurped the throne with support from many noblemen unwilling to accept a woman as ruler. Mathilda didn’t take the situation lying down; she raised an army and battled Stephen for the next fifteen years, a period in England’s history known as The Anarchy.
But what, exactly, qualifies Mathilda for the title of ‘baddest woman of the Middle Ages’? During the conflict, cornered and besieged at Oxford Castle in the middle of a blizzard, Mathilda donned all-white clothing, shimmied down the ramparts on a rope, and gave Stephen’s forces the slip. Imagine Stephen’s surprise at finding her gone. What a bodacious woman!
Next up is Isabella of France, daughter of King Philippe IV, known as the She-Wolf of France. Why is it that women are often dubbed with derogatory monikers and men are bestowed with names like Richard the Lionheart? Sorry, I digress.
Twelve-year- old Isabella married England’s Edward II. In the early years of their marriage, Isabella’s naivety kept her oblivious to Edward’s proclivity for male favorites, though over time, his preference became obvious. When Isabella was maneuvered out of the king’s regard, members of her household arrested, and her lands and income seized, she removed herself to her brother’s royal court in France, under the guise of a diplomatic mission. Her eldest son, Edward, soon followed.
In Paris, Isabella hooked up with Roger Mortimer, an exiled English nobleman with an axe to grind. With Prince Edward in tow, Isabella and Mortimer sailed to Hainault, (near what is now the border between Belgium and France), raised an army, and returned to England. There, supported by many disgruntled nobles who were fed up with King Edward’s generosity toward his favorites, Isabella and Mortimer captured Edward II and forced him to abdicate in favor of his son. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
Several generations later, another French noblewoman, Marguerite of Anjou, came to power through her marriage to England’s King Henry VI. Poor Henry suffered from mental illness likely inherited from his maternal grandfather, King Charles the Mad. During Henry’s bouts of incoherence, his cousin, Richard, Duke of York, stepped in and was named Lord Protector. Queen Marguerite, not about to cede any of her power, rallied support from the king’s Lancastrian kinsmen, setting the House of Lancaster against the House of York. The resulting civil war, known as the Wars of the Roses, inspired George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones, pitting the Lannisters against the Starks.
If Queen Isabella was considered a she-wolf, Queen Marguerite was an enraged mama bear protecting her cub for she feared York might depose Henry and claim the crown, thus disinheriting her son, Edward. Marguerite was ruthless. After her last Lancastrian champion was defeated and killed at the Battle of Barnet, she took up the gauntlet herself, leading her army at the Battle of Tewkesbury where she suffered defeat and her son met his demise.
We come now, not to the end but the beginning of the Plantagenet Dynasty, with the most infamous bad-ass queen of them all, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor was raised in the land of troubadours, where courtly love was celebrated and venerated in song. At thirteen, Eleanor married France’s chastely King Louis VII. Many years later, when Count Geoffrey of Anjou and his son visited court, it is said sparks flew between Eleanor and young Henry.
After fifteen years of marriage and the births of two daughters and no son, at Eleanor’s urging, Louis sought and was granted an annulment. Not six weeks later, Eleanor married Henry, nine years her junior, making her a ‘cougar’ long before the term was coined. (2002) Henry and Eleanor’s early marriage must have been satisfying in a manner her previous marriage was not for she bore Henry five sons and three daughters. To say their marriage was tumultuous is an understatement. One area of contention centered on control of her duchy of Aquitaine, and another, her preference for her third son, Richard.
When their sons, Henry, Richard and Geoffrey, allied with France’s King Philippe II and rebelled against Henry, he blamed Eleanor and imprisoned her. At Henry’s death, Richard succeeded and his first order was to free his mother. Eleanor immediately traveled to Westminster to receive oaths of fealty on Richard’s behalf. During Richard’s absence while fighting in the Third Crusade, Eleanor ruled in his name. As Richard made his way back to England, he was captured and held captive. Through Eleanor’s Herculean efforts, she raised the outrageous sum of 100,000 pounds in silver demanded by Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII for Richard’s release. Some might say Eleanor had her revenge upon Henry for her imprisonment. She witnessed Richard ascend to the throne, and upon his death, she saw her youngest son, John, crowned. Eleanor lived to the age of eighty, spending the last years of her life at Fontevraud Abbey, near Chinon, in the former duchy of Anjou. Eleanor’s many exploits are legendary and too numerous to include here. She more than earned the right to be crowed The Baddest Queen of the Middle Ages.
Good one!