Were medieval women always waiting in towers to be rescued?
Were medieval women always waiting in towers to be rescued?
Not quite.
Sometimes they're the ones defending the castle.
Look closely at this medieval manuscript image.
A man is climbing a ladder towards a castle wall.
And waiting for him at the top is a woman.
With a sword.
This is from the Smithfield Decretals, a fourteenth-century English manuscript, made around 1340.
We don't know who she is.
We don't know if the artist had a real woman in mind, or a story, or just liked the idea of it.
But it wasn't as far-fetched as it sounds.
When a husband was away, imprisoned, or dead, responsibility for a castle could fall to his wife โ including its defence.
Nicola de la Haye, for example, played a major role in the defence of Lincoln Castle during the First Barons' War.
So maybe this is her.
Maybe it's no one in particular.
Either way, somewhere around 1340, someone decided a woman with a sword on a castle wall was a perfectly reasonable thing to draw.
And I rather like that.
Source
British Library, Smithfield Decretals, Royal MS 10 E IV, England (London?), c.1340.