Did women receive Knighthood in the Middle-Ages? Could a woman have been a real Knight in medieval times? Did women fight as Knights on the domestic and foreign battlefields?
After Netflix released its new series "The Witcher" there was quite a bit of applause from the Witcher community – a community of enthusiasts culled from both the Books and video games of the Witcher series. Even those who were unaware of the background of the Witcher stories were delighted to see another medieval fantasy genre that was produced quite well. However, not all critics were king in their review of the new Netflix series. For conservative commentator and host on the Daily Wire Podcast, Andrwew Klavan was particularly repulsed by the series and not due to the stories story line, its lack of good character development or maybe due to the over use of nudity. Andrwew Klavan was concerned about one thing – women fighting with swords. Speaking of the character of Queen Calanthe in the new series Mr. Klavan stated:
"Immediately I was put off by the fact that there's a queen in this who fights like a man," said Klavan. "There's a couple of scenes where women fight with swords. And I just hate these scenes, because no women can fight with swords. Zero women can fight with a sword."
The pundit continues his rant against women fighters by further asserting:
"What I mean by that is in a situation where you are fighting men who are used to fighting with swords, you are going to get killed if you are a woman fighting with a sword 100 percent of the time."
Never mind that history is full of women warriors who were known to have bested men and never mind that our hobby of HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) proves that women can not only fight masterfully with a sword but routinely beat men who are likewise trained to fight with a sword. The sword is truly the great equalizer in a literal battle of the sexes.
There are many rumors, anti-intellectual and a-historical meanderings from self-proclaimed experts of history. YouTube is another home to a plethora of false information peddlers who perpetuate their modern myths under the guise of expertise. For example, a YT commentator who goes by the name of the Metatron emphatically declares that women were never "real" Knights and that the minor occurrences of such in history were merely "honorary titles." He further states: "I don't care if this offends people because it's the reality." But is this reality as reflected in the historical annals or a reality concocted in his own mind based upon his own misogynistic revisionism?
Accounts of Medieval Women as Knights
In the earliest of Knightly Orders we find Orders of particular veneration, that being the Knights Templars and the Knights Hopitaller. We know that the Knights Templar and the Hospitallers admitted women into their Order of Knights and like their male counterparts had taken vows of poverty, chastity and allegiance to the Church. We also do know that during the Crusades the male Templars fought side- by-side with women; women who wore armor and were combatants with the weapons befitting a Knight. It was the Muslim author and combatant Ibn Al-Qulanisi who documented the dead on the battlefield and remarked concerning the women dead being scattered among the men. To his complete shock and amazement these armor clad women fought in the Crusades alongside their male counterparts. They fought within the Orders of Knights Templars and Hospitallers with the full endorsement of the Church. However, women warriors were anathema in the Muslim culture of Ibn Al-Qulanisi and therefore he justified his own misogynistic imaginings by excusing the women dead as simply being imposters who dressed up as Knights unbeknownst to their male counterparts. Historically this assertion is untrue but possibly brought some sense of justification to the killing of the women and possibly played into the traditional Muslim belief that if a woman kills a Muslim man then that man will not inherit Paradise in the next life.
There have been many women warriors throughout history: Boadicea the Queen of Celts, Artemissia the Queen of Halicarnassus, Medb of Connacht and of course the infamous Jeanne d'Arc. Of course history only mentions those worthy of being written in its pages and so countless women throughout the generations who contributed to the Knightly culture of women will remain forever forgotten. We don't know if Jeanne d'Arc herself was Knighted but she did have Knights in her charge and led them into battle. However, we do know that women were properly Knighted in history. In the High Middle Ages Knighthood could be gained in one of three ways: holding land and supporting the local noble when called upon, by being inducted into an Order of Knighthood (which were aplenty in the Middle Ages) or by inheriting the title from one's husband. In the Middle-Ages it was common for land to be inherited and passed through the female line, which is why Henry V went to war with France.
In medieval France a female Knight was called a "Chevaliere" if she shared a title of Knighthood with her husband. If she did not share her title then she was referred to as "Chevaleresses," which was a title for women who had either inherited lands or taken vows of Knighthood within an Order and this title is recorded as being in use between the 14th to the 17th centuries. Menetrier, a 17th century scholar of Chivalry wrote:
"It was not always necessary to be the wife of a Knight in order to take this title. Sometimes, when some male fiefs were conceded by special privilege to women, they took the rank of chevaleresse, as one sees plainly in Hemricourt where women who were not wives of Knights were called chevaleresses."
The first religious Order to grant the title of "militissa" or Knight to women was the Order of the Glorious St. Mary, founded in 1233. Pope Alexander granted official recognition of this Order in 1261. Likewise the Teutonic Order of Knighthood accepted women as Knights referring to them by the title "consorores" and their base of operations resided in Buckland, England until 1540. The author DuCange, writing in the 17th century notes, in his work Glossarium, that the female canons of the canonical monastery of St. Gertrude in Nivelles, after a probation of three and a half years are made Knights; complete with ceremony of investiture that included the giving of an accolade and ceremony at the altar with sword dubbing.
Outside of the religious Orders, we see secular Knighting being given to women as well. Raymond Berenger, the Count of Barcelona, honored the women of Tortosa for having fought off Moorish invaders with Knighthood in a new Order of the Hatchet in 1149. In 1441 and 1451 orders of knighthood were founded by Catherine Baw and the House of Hornes which were open exclusively to women of noble birth. Edmund Fellowes in his book, Knights of the Garter, lists 68 women appointed to the Order of the Garter between the years 1358 to 1488. Some of these women were not noble born nor were they the wives of male Knights rather earned their title for the same reasons that their male counter parts earned the title.
There are many examples throughout history of women attaining the honor of Knighthood, whether it be called chevaleresses, chevaliere, equitissa, militissa or simply Knight; the terms were all the same just expressed in varying languages. Italy, Spain, Germany, England and France all had female Knights.
Conclusion
Women received the accolade of Knighthood in a variety of ways and many were not simply an "honorable mention." Women could also fight and were led into battle with their male counterparts, some led the charge with Knights under their authority and some served their Lords and provided military assistance in times of battle. Women have their own special heritage of Knighthood. A heritage that we shall no longer hide or deny to them in ignorance of the historical context.
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