Women in War

[Suraknar]

Alrighty, it is as of quite some time a historical fact that women did hold their place in Military Affairs some exemples:




Historical references to women fighting -
Prehistory and the Ancient World
Ancient warrior queens included Vishpla, Aahhotep I, Zabibi, Samsi, Tomyris, Himoko, Jingo Kogo, Mavia, Saimei and Dihya al-Kahina. There are depictions of Hittite women warriors dating from 1300 BC. The Bible describes the Judge, Deborah, as a war leader and the Greeks had legends of the Amazons which may have been based upon Scythians or women from Turkey or Libya. Vietnamese rebels included Trung Trac, Trung Nhi, Tran Thi Doan, Phung Thi Chinh and Trieu Thi Trinh. Fa Mulan fought in the Chinese army.
more information and pictures

Celtic and Roman
Roman gladiatorial shows included "women of rank" in 63 AD. There was also a female chariot fighter competing against men. Women gladiators were described again in 88 AD. Women were members of the venatores, (gladiators who fought wild animals in the Roman arena). Emperor Alexander Severus issued an edict prohibiting women combatants in the arena in 200 AD.
A display of captured enemies in the 3rd Century included several women warriors.

Legendary Celtic women warriors included Medb (Maeve) of Ireland, Aife (Aoife) of Alba (Scotland), and Queen Scathach of Skye.
The Romans in Britain fought against Queen Boadicea (or Bodiecia, Bouddica, Voadica, Voada) of the Iceni in 61AD, but they were allies to Queen Cartimandua of the Briganties in a war against her consort in 43AD.
more information and pictures


Vikings and Saxons
An English Saxon Princess led an invasion of Jutland in the 6th Century. In the 8th Century Queen Aethelburgh destroyed Taunton. In the 9th Century Queen Thyra of Denmark led her army against the Germans.
In the 10th Century Aethelflaed, Lady of Mercia led troops against the Vikings and Olga of Russia ended a revolt in which her husband had died.

The Viking Sagas and Saxo Grammaticus' "History of the Danes" mention many warrior women. Hetha, Visna and Vebiorg led companies of the Danish army. Sela and Alvid were pirates. Stikla ran away from home to become a warrior. Rusilla fought against her brother for the throne. Gurith took part in a battle to help her son. Freydis Eiriksdottir, Auðr and Þórdis all used weapons against their enemies.
more information and pictures


11th Century
Aristocratic ladies who led troops in seige and battle included Emma Countess of Norfolk, Matilda Countess of Tuscany (and her mother), Sichelgaita Princess of Lombardy, Urraca Queen of Aragon, and Teresa of Portugal.
Matilda of Ramsbury (mistress of the Bishop of Salisbury) held the Bishop's Castle in his absence.
more information and pictures


12th Century
Aristocratic ladies who led troops in seige and battle included Alrude Countess of Bertinoro, Eleanor of Castile, Queen Urraca of Aragon, Marguerite de Provence, Florine of Denmark and Berengaria of Navarre, Queen Tamara of Georgia and the Empress Maud (also known as Matilda, Empress of Germany, Countess of Anjou, Domina Anglorum, Lady of the English, Matilda Augusta and Matilda the Good)
Maude de Valerie was a Welsh revolutionary.
Women took part in the Crusades in the armies of Emperor Conrad and William Count of Poitiers in spite of a papal bull forbidding them to do so.
more information and pictures


13th Century
Nicola de la Haye, daughter of the castellan of Lincoln defended the town against several raids and was made sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1216.
Jeanne of Navarre led her army against that of the Count de Bar.
Ladies were admitted to the Chivalric Order of the Dragon, The Order of St Anthony in Hainault and the Order of the Garter.
more information and pictures


14th Century:
Isobel MacDuff Countess of Buchan, Jeanne de Danpierre Countess de Montfort (also known as Jane, Countess of Montfort), Isabelle of England, Christian Lady Bruce, Marjory Bruce, Mary Bruce, Phillipa of Hainault, Lady Agnes Randolph (also known as Black Agnes), Agnes Hotot of Dudley, Adelaide Ponthiey, Jeanne de Belleville, Margaret of Denmark
Ladies were admitted to the Chivalric Order of the Dragon, The Order of St Anthony in Hainault and the Order of the Garter.
more information and pictures



15th Century
Margaret of Denmark, Jacqueline of Bavaria (Countess of Holland, Hainault and Zealand), Jehanne la Pucelle (better known as Joan of Arc), Isabella of Lorraine, Maire o Ciaragain, Isabella I of Castile. The Bridport muster roll (a list of ordinary citizens called up for a battle) of 1457 lists Alis Gare, Alis Hammel, Sally Pens, "Condefer Wife" and Margaret Athyn, three of these women brought their own weapons and armour with them.
Ladies were admitted to the Chivalric Order of the Dragon, The Order of St Anthony in Hainault and the Order of the Garter.
more information and pictures


16th Century
Graine Ni Maille (also known as Grace O'Malley) was an Irish pirate. A group of 350 girls defended fortifications in Paris. Ameliane du Puget led a troop of women in Marseilles. Beatriz de Pardes and María de Estrada fought with the Conquistadors in the New World. Lilliard led the Scots into battle against the English. Isabella I of Castile led her army. Marguerite Delaye and Captain Mary Ambree fought in battles. Explorers in South America reported seeing native women leading warbands.
more information and pictures


17th Century
Kit Cavanagh (also known as "Mother Ross") started her military career disguised as a man, but later fought open;y as a woman soldier. Mme de Saint Baslemont de Neuville and La Maupin, as well as two unnamed aristocratic sisters fought duels. Other notable women included Lady Ann Cummingham, Blanche the Countess of Arundel, Brilliana the Countess of Harley, Alyona of Russia, Anne Chamberlyne and Anne Marie Louise d'Orleans Montpensier.
During the English Civil War ordinary women frequently reloaded guns, as well as carrying powder and bullets to the front during battles. The Scots army which marched on Newcastle in 1644 is reported to have included women regular soldiers.
more information and pictures


18th Century
Women involved in the Jacobite Rising in Scotland in 1745-6 included Jean (Jenny) Cameron, Lady Anne Macintosh, Lady Margaret Oglivy, Margaret Murray and Lady Lude.
Women soldiers included Ann Mills, Phoebe Hessel, Virginie Ghesquiere, Angelique Brulon, Margaret Catchpole, Olympe de Gouges, Rose Lacombe, Theroigne de Mericourt, Mademoiselle de la Rochefoucalt, Jemima Warner and Hannah Snell
Duellists included Mademoiselle La Maupin, Mademoiselle de Guignes, Mademoiselle d'Aiguillon, Mademoiselle Leverrier, Lady Almeria Braddock, Mrs Elphinstone, Comptesse de Polignac and Marquise de Nesle.
Catherine the Great of Russia led her army in several campaigns.
more information and pictures


19th Century:
Women soldiers and rebels included Augustina the "Maid of Saragossa", Marie Schellinck, Gertrudis Bocanegra, Elizabeth Hatzler, Dr "James" Barry, Mary Ann Riley, Ann Hopping, Jane Townshend, Louisa Battistati, Clemence Louise Michel, Sylvia Mariotti.
Duels were fought by many women including Princess Pauline Metternich, Countess Kilmannsegg, Lady Almeria Braddock and a Mrs Elphinstone.
more information and pictures


20th Century:
Increasingly accurate records and improved communications mean that many more women are recorded as regular troops, pilots, rebels, partisans, martial artists etc.
more information and pictures



Warrior Women in Scotland
These include the Celts, Aife of Alba and Scathach of Skye.
Isabelle of England: (A.D. 1285?-1313?) took up arms against her husband and she was forced to flee to Scotland by Edward III.
In 1297 the Countess of Ross led her own troops during William Wallace and Andrew de Moray's battles with the English.
Isobel MacDuff, Countess of Buchan (1296-1358) fought for Robert de Bruce.
Christian, Lady Bruce defended Kildrummy Castle from the English during the Wars of Independence.
During the same war, the widow of David of Strathbogie defended the island fortress of Lochindorb against three thousand Scots.
Lady Agnes Randolph (1300?-1369?), known as Black Agnes, fought for de Bruce. In 1334, she successfully held her castle at Dunbar against the besieging forces of England's earl of Salisbury for over five months.
Phillipa of Hainault, Queen of Edward III, led twelve thousand soldiers against invading Scots in 1346 and captured their king, David Bruce.
In 1545, Lilliard led the Scots at the Battle of Ancrum.
The Scots army which marched on Newcastle in 1644 during the English Civil War is reported to have included women regular soldiers.
Jean (Jenny) Cameron, Lady Anne Macintosh, Lady Margaret Oglivy, Margaret Murray and Lady Lude were all involved in the Jacobite Rising in Scotland in 1745-6.
more information


Laws forbidding women to fight:
These provide evidence that women were definitely fighting immediately before each law was passed, and probably in reasonably large numbers, otherwise there'd be no need for the law. Also, the fact that a law exists doesn't mean that it is universally obeyed, or that those disobeying it would be social outcasts. (consider: traffic laws such as speed limits and parking restrictions, dog licencing in the UK, pirate videos and computer software, and so on)

Emperor Alexander Severus issued an edict prohibiting women combatants in the arena in 200 AD
Women were barred from military participation in a law passed at the synod of Druim Ceat in 590 A.D. The law proved to be unenforceable when the women warriors refused to lay down their arms.
Papal Bull of 1189 prohibited women from joining the Third Crusade
In 1644 King Charles issued a proclamation banning women who were with the armies during the English Civil War from wearing men's clothing.
In 1795 the French revolutionary government ordered Frenchwomen to return to their homes and prohibited them from attending political meetings, or gathering in groups of more than five.
Women were ordered out of the front lines of the Israeli Army by David Ben Gurion in 1950 (the last one left in the mid 1960s)


For more on the subject...

Ancient Women Warriors (http://www.lothene.demon.co.uk/others/women.html)

Enjoy!

[Mouzafphaerre]

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:medievalcheers:
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[Hurin_Rules]

For the high medieval period, Megan McLaughlin's "The woman warrior: gender, warfare and society in medieval Europe", Women's Studies, 17 (1990): 193-209, has become the standard introduction. You might also want to see David Hay (that's me), “Canon Laws regarding Female Military Commanders up to the Time of Gratian: Some Texts and their Historical Contexts,” in ‘A Great Effusion of Blood?’: Interpreting Medieval Violence, eds. Mark Meyerson et al. (University of Toronto Press, 2004), 287-313. I've also got a book on Matilda of Canossa/Tuscany (mentioned by the original poster) coming out with Manchester University Press next year, tentatively entitled, "The Military Leadership of Matilda of Canossa, 1046-1115".

~:cheers:

[Red Harvest]

Women disguised as men appeared several times on American Civil War battlefields. In several battles I've read of surgeons noting on the field that a soldier who had been ripped apart by artillery was actually female.

[Suraknar]

Very Nice,

Thank you Gents :bow:

[Red Harvest]

I distinctly recall at least two very similar incidents of female soldiers being killed on ACW fields. I can't recall what the 2nd was, but the 1st I remember reading was during General Crook's expedition against the Virginia and Tenn. Railroad that burned the New River Bridge after defeating the rebels at Cloyd's Mountain. During the artillery duel across the New River Bridge, Col. Rutherford B. Hayes (yes, the future President) ordered some dismounted cavalry troopers to take cover. One from the 5th West Virginia Cav. refused, saying "he" would take cover when Hayes dismounted and did the same. Hayes repeated the order and again the soldier refused. Before Hayes could say anything else, an exploding shell killed the private. Dr. J.T. Webb discovered the soldier was a woman when he examined the body. Confederate neighbors had killed her father and brother, so she enlisted as a man to take revenge. I don't have a name for her unfortunately.

(This anecdote came from The Battle of Cloyds Mountain by Howard Rollins McManus.)

Wish I could remember what the other was, I came across it within the past few months, but I'm not sure which battle and would have to dig through dozens of books to locate it again. What struck me was how similar it was to the New River Bridge incident.

[Abdel Hakam]

Several Muslim women led armies, and a few were known to have fought personally, especially early in Islamic history.

Here is a quote about Um Amara. I heard somewhere she wounded 12 men at the battle of Uhud, fighting next to Muhammed:

"This was a historic occasion when leaders of Yathrib/Madinah came to the Prophet (saw) in Makkah, where he and his followers were being persecuted, and pledged allegiance to him. They sent one small party first, then the larger party which is the better known; both pledges took place under cover of darkness, without cognizance of the Makkan chieftans. Both the First and Second Pledges of Aqabah have political as well as spiritual implications.# That is, those who pledged were not only declaring their faith in Islam, but promising political support and, if necessary, military protection, to the Prophet. Here is the relevant passage from the compendium on the Companions by Ibn Hajar al Aqalani, Al Isaba fi Tamyiz al Sahaba.

Naseeba (often called Nusaiba) bint Ka'b bin 'Amr al Ansariya al Najjariya Um Amara, who is as well-known by her kunya Um Amara as she is by her name.

Ibn Ishaq mentions, narrations from multiple sources, that in the Second Pledge of Aqabah there were from the Madinan tribe of Bani Khazraj sixty-two men and two women, and the narrators claim that the women pledged... [Note here the incredulity of the historian Ibn Ishaq and his reluctance, writing as he was in a period well after the time of the early Muslims, to believe that the women really participated! # Despite the verification of this fact by more than one narrator!# In the historian's time, women were already pushed out of most forms of public political participation.] ... claim that the women pledged the Prophet peace and prayers be upon him, and he did not used to shake hands with women; rather, he used to put them to the question, and if they agreed, he said, "You may go."# The two women were from the family of Bani Mazin bin al-Najjar, Naseeba and her sister, both the daughters of Ka'b. Naseeba had her husband, Zaid bin 'Asim, there with her, and her son by him, Habib, the one who was later killed by Musailama# [a claimant to prophethood after the death of Muhammad].# She also had Abdullah, who later narrated a hadith about wudu.

[The following is an abridgement]

When she heard the news that Musailama had killed her son Habib, she swore an oath to God that she would kill Musailama or die trying, and she participated in combat in the battle of Yamamah (waged against Musailama).# She sustained twelve wounds in that battle and her hand was lopped off.# [Musailama was killed in the battle.]

She also participated in combat at the Battle of Uhud (much earlier), and was party to the Pledge of Ridwan as well."

Also a bit later there was Um Hakim:
######
"Another example of courageous womanhood is Um Hakim, daughter of Al Harith who Participated in the battle against the Romans while she was still a newly-wed bride. Her husband had been martyred before her eyes, but instead of wailing over his dead body, she seized the pole of the tent in which her marriage had been consumated and killed Seven of the enemy at the archway which is still known as the Archway of Um Hakim."

There also was a Syrian woman named Zenobia from the city Tadmor or Palmyra who lead a rebellion against Rome with some success. I don't know if she fought personally.

[Suraknar]

Quite right :)

Queen Septima Zenobia of Palmyra governed Syria from about 250 to 275 AD. She led her armies against the Roman armies of Emperors Claudius and Aurelian.

And thank you for the Muslim Women references, this was great to read :book:

[Brutus]

Hmm, are you sure Jaqueline of Bavaria (Jacoba van Beieren, 1401-1436, countess 1417-1433), countess of Holland, Hainault and Zealand actually fought herself? That seems rather unlikely to me. It is true that she was at war with her uncle John of Bavaria, bishop-elect of Liege and claiming to be count himself, and later with duke Philip the Good of Burgundy, but not as warior herself.
Otherwise, I got some further examples of women 'generals' for you:
Margareth of Bavaria, countess of Holland, Hainault and Zealand (1311-1356, countess since 1345/46) was in civil war with her son William V, who she had first installed as regent.
Jeanne of Brabant (1332-1406, duchess of Brabant and Limbourg 1355-1406) was in 1356 entangled in a succesion war with Louis of Male, count of Flanders.
By the way, all these women eventually lost.

[Hurin_Rules]

It is my impression that women were more frequently commanders than most people expect, but that they rarely fought with their own hands. One didn't need to be a 'warrior' to be a 'commander' in the Middle Ages. Although being able to fight personally was certainly a plus, it was not an absolute necessity. Think of all the kings who simply directed actions and never had a sword get near them.

[Kraxis]

I heard somewhere she wounded 12 men at the battle of Uhud, fighting next to Muhammed:


She sustained twelve wounds in that battle and her hand was lopped off.# [Musailama was killed in the battle.]

She also participated in combat at the Battle of Uhud (much earlier), and was party to the Pledge of Ridwan as well."
Interesting coincidence... Wounded twelve and was later wounded twelve times herself (it isn't clear if the hand is considered one of the twelve). If we are to believe it then fate has come back to even the score it seems.

[Abdel Hakam]

Kraxis: Concerning the coincidence you mention, I probably am having a confused memory. I like the idea about fate since it is a little rash to swear oaths to Allah to kill an enemy. Why assume Allah wants this?

Anyway until I find a reference it would seem the recurrance of the number 12 is an error on my part. It seems too strange. It could also have been a bad translation. I would of course prefer to blame the source, but sadly I can't find it now!! ~:)

If I find there WAS a coincidence I will post about it.

[edyzmedieval]

Also, the Legend of Aiyaruk, a Mongolian Princess.....

[Kraxis]

Kraxis: Concerning the coincidence you mention, I probably am having a confused memory. I like the idea about fate since it is a little rash to swear oaths to Allah to kill an enemy. Why assume Allah wants this?

Anyway until I find a reference it would seem the recurrance of the number 12 is an error on my part. It seems too strange. It could also have been a bad translation. I would of course prefer to blame the source, but sadly I can't find it now!! ~:)

If I find there WAS a coincidence I will post about it.
Well, I have to admit that I believed that it might have been an error of some kind during the line of thought. I experience it too often myself to not recognize it in others.~:)
But it would indeed be cool to know if it is a coincidence.