29. Sometimes the menses abound beyond what is natural, which has happened because the veins of the womb are wide and open, or because sometimes they break open and the blood flows in great quantity. And the flowing blood looks red and clear, because a lot of blood is generated from an abundance of food and drink; this blood, when it is not able to be contained within the vessels, erupts out.
31. The cure. If, therefore, the blood is the cause, let it be bled off from the hand or the arm where the blood is provoked upward. Any sort of gentle cathartic ought also to be taken.
34. Let her eat hens cooked in pastry, fresh fish cooked in vinegar, and barley bread. Let her drink a decoction made from barley, in which great plantain root is first cooked, and boil it with the decoction and it will be even better. And afterward boil [the root] in seawater until it cracks and becomes wrinkled, and let vinegar be added and let it be strained through a cloth and let it be given to drink. Let her drink red wine diluted with seawater. And if great plantain root is boiled with the decoction, so much the better.
43. In another fashion, take shells of walnut and make a powder and give it in a drink with seawater. Then make a plaster of the dung of birds or of a cat [mixed] with animal grease and let it be placed upon the belly and loins.
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From ‘Women’s Lives in Medieval Europe : A Sourcebook’ edited by Emilie Amt (Taylor & Francis Group, 2010).
Snippets from the introduction of a recent essay I wrote on women and gender in the crusades:
Besieged in Jerusalem in 1187, Margaret of Beverly proved herself an active participant in the crusades by patrolling the walls, describing herself as ‘a fierce warrior woman’.
Crusading was unmistakably gendered with socially constructed, rather than biologically determined, masculine and feminine roles. Participation was geared towards men, narratives favoured male exploits and contemporary gender constructs dictated women should merely support and encourage the masculine pursuit of warfare.
Despite being discouraged and marginalised, many women joined the crusade as pilgrims and camp followers where they provided services such as moral support, menial labour, cookery and prostitution. They assisted with siege warfare, defence and the provision of supplies to frontline fighters. In emergencies, noblewomen took leadership roles and lay women likely took part in direct combat. Those left at home took on the challenging burden of managing families, estates and businesses to facilitate the absence of male relatives.
Women within the army and crusader settlements faced a myriad of grave dangers including starvation, captivity, rape, family separation, injury and death.
The contribution of women to crusading was significant and varied, but the tendency to define a ‘crusader’ only as a direct combatant has led some historians to suggest only women who fought could be considered crusaders. As the crusades were a spiritual and societal movement as well as a military enterprise, I argue it is more appropriate to define a crusader as a participant. It is oversimplified to ignore the vast contribution of women who, like their male counterparts, took vows and committed to the Christianisation of the east at great personal risk. Therefore, I argue women should be called crusaders for their dedication, courage and sacrifices for the crusade effort.
An interesting segment on medieval Muslim women from the Memoirs of Usamah Ibn Munqidh in ‘The Crusades: A Reader’, edited by S.J. Allen and Emilie Amt
Queen consort of England and Countess of Angoulême
Born c. 1186/c. 1188 - died 1246
Claim to fame: a feisty young queen who defied the English monarchy and rebelled against the French.
At the age of 12 or 14, Isabella became the second wife of 34 year old King John of England in 1200. Though young, she was already a renowned beauty with blonde hair and blue eyes. It was reported by his critics that John was so infatuated with her that he neglected his duties as king to stay in bed with her. She became the Countess of Angoulême in her own right in 1202. She had five children with John, including his heir Henry III. She oversaw the coronation of Henry after John’s death in 1216 but left her son and returned to France a year later although he was just nine years old.
In 1220 Isabella married Hugh X of Lusignan, Count of La Marche. Interestingly, she had been betrothed to his father prior to her marriage to John and Hugh X was engaged to her daughter, Joan, but decided he preferred Isabella who was still still a beautiful woman of around 30 years old. She married without the consent of Henry III’s council which lead to a stoush whereby her dower lands were confiscated and she threatened to prevent the marriage of her daughter to the King of Scots. Her son tried to have her excommunicated but eventually came to terms. She had a further nine children with Hugh.
Apparently disgruntled with her lower status as countess, she took great offence to being publicly snubbed by the French Queen Dowager, Blanche of Castile, whom she already hated due to her support of the French invasion of England in 1216. In retaliation, Isabella reportedly conspired with other disgruntled nobles to form an English-backed confederacy against the French King Louis IX. By 1244 the confederacy had failed but Isabella was implicated in an attempt to poison Louis. To avoid arrest she fled to Fontevraud Abbey where she died two years later.
The first image is of her effigy at Fontevraud Abbey. The second is her seal, presumably designed before she had fourteen children…
During the medieval period the property, consisting of more than 4 km2 (990 acres), was part of a group of 32 villages near-by that created the then known as “L'Anjou”. The Mountreil-Bellay fief, first belonged to Gelduin le Danois afterward by regal heredity passed to Berlay le Vieux who became the first Sir of Bellay, in 1025 the castle was seized by Foulques NerraaPlantagenetmakingGiraud Berlay his vassal during the second half of the 12th century. After the defeat of the English by Philip II, the fief returned to a descendant of the Berlay le Vieux family Sir of Bellay, Guillaume de Melun, during this period the fief went under a big renovation by the creation of high massive walls construction including 13 interlocking towers, with entry only via a fortified gateway and the name was anglicized from Barley to Balley.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Montreuil-Bellay
In June 1192 Crusaders under the command of Richard the Lionheart marched on to Jerusalem, but they were turned back. The Crusader efforts were seriously hampered by the Muslim’s leader Saladin’s scorched-earth tactics, which denied the Crusaders food and water during their campaign. The Battle of Jaffa came soon after wards becoming a decisive encounter. The battle illustrated the determined spirit of Saladin and the courage and tactical skill of Richard. It ended up being the final battle of the Third Crusade and led Saladin to negotiate. The Treaty of Jaffa was signed on the 2nd of September in the year 1192 and had put an end to the hostilities of the Third Crusade. The negotiation was clever, Christian pilgrims were granted special rights of travel around Palestine and in Jerusalem. Richard had also managed to capture the cities of Daron, Jaffa, Acre, and Ascalon - an improvement over the situation when Richard first arrived, but not much of one. Although the Kingdom of Jerusalem was never large or secure, it was then still very weak and did not reach inland more than 10 miles at any point. Later in October 1192, King Richard returned home to England. The Third Crusade had ended. (inspiration)
The legend of the green children of Woolpit originates in 12th century England. The tale tells a story about how one day, during the harvest time, two green-skinned children, a boy and a girl, wondered into the village. According to the legend the two spoke in an unknown language and refused to eat anything but green beans. They claimed they have come from “the land of St. Martin’s” where everything was green as their skin, and, even as time has passed, could not explain how they managed to end up in the village. Read more
