[WAR] [WOMEN IN WAR] [HERALDRY] [BIOGRAPHIES]
An army was not the safest place to be during the Middle Ages. Being a knight required immense strength and endurance. Knights were well-protected by their armor, but protection came with a price. Armor alone could weigh half as much again as the knight. During the Crusades, European armor became an oven. Many knights died from heat stroke and dehydration. Weapons were unwieldy and could inflict great damage. Horrible wounds were often infected because of unsanitary conditions and poor medical care -- army surgeons were not usually of the university caliber. A shattered bone might heal, but the wounded soldier might be crippled for life (Tuchman 63-4). As the knight rose to prominence in armies, the foot soldier was increasingly despised for his (or her) inadequacies -- namely deficiencies in training and experience. It didn't help matters that foot soldiers were usually insufficiently armored (in leather jerkins) and encumbered with weapons like pikes, which could do a lot of damage but only if used by extremely well-trained companies (86).
Despite the stereotype of medieval women which persists to modern times, not all of them were docile, subservient, and brainless. The last place most people would expect to find a medieval woman making a living is in the armed forces of her country. It is true that the majority of soldiers were men. However, it is also true that women fighters were included in the ranks of many mercenary and national armies. Before the Romanization of Britain, the matriarchies often employed entire companies of female warriors. They were greatly feared because they appeared to have lost their natural maternal and loving instincts . Both men and women were expected to help defend a town or a castle, should it be attacked (Moriarty 131). When the men of a town were away fighting, the women were expected to take care of business at home (131).
Heraldry is the study of armorial
bearings -- the insignia of a noble house. The formal heraldic tradition,
crafted for identification and display, began in the mid-twelfth century.
A lord's soldiers needed to be able to identify him -- and the enemy --
in battle (Bedingfeld and Gwynn-Jones 10). When the earliest rolls (records)
of arms were written, a language called blazon was used to describe the
arrangement of geometry, colors, and insignia. Highly formalized and complex,
the shield design was actually sort of a secret code which could make a
pun on a knight's name, give a nod to his accomplishments, personify his
characteristics, or even denote his illegitimacy (42-9). For men, the base
of a coat of arms is the familiar shield shape (42); for women, the lozenge
or diamond shape. Women did not have arms in their own right. Unmarried
women bore their father's arms on a lozenge. Married women combine their
husbands' and fathers' arms on a shield (46).
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Joan of Arc is probably the best known medieval woman warrior. Our familiarity with her comes from the miracles associated with her and also from the injustice of her death. She was not the only woman ever to join a medieval army, however, so click on the picture to find out more about her and her contemporaries. |
