Queens of the Crusades
As promoters, propagandists, patrons, and warriors, medieval women were everywhere during the Crusades.
The Crusades may seem to be an undertaking for men. Medieval European Christians called them ‘pilgrimages’ (a penitential journey to a sacred place) and ‘Christ’s business’, both of which concern women as much as men, but to modern readers the most striking aspect of the Crusades is that they involved war. Until recent years, battlefield combat has been an overwhelmingly male affair in Western society. It is easy to overlook how widely women were involved.
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