Women's role in crusades and crusading examined through a close
investigation of the narratives in which they appear.
Narratives of crusading have often been overlooked as a source for the
history of women because of their focus on martial events, and
perceptions about women inhibiting the recruitment and progress of
crusading armies. Yet women consistently appeared in the histories of
crusade and settlement, performing a variety of roles. While some were
vilified as "useless mouths" or prostitutes, others undertook menial
tasks for the army, went on crusade with retinuesof their own knights,
and rose to political prominence in the Levant and and the West.
This book compares perceptions of women from a wide range of historical
narratives including those eyewitness accounts, lay histories
andmonastic chronicles that pertained to major crusade expeditions and
the settler society in the Holy Land. It addresses how authors used
events involving women and stereotypes based on gender, family role, and
social status in writing their histories: how they blended historia and
fabula, speculated on women's motivations, and occasionally granted them
a literary voice in order to connect with their audience, impart moral
advice, and justify the crusade ideal.
NATASHA HODGSON is Lecturer in Medieval History at Nottingham Trent
University..