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Lack of sources written by women
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1st hand accounts:
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Héloise (12th cent)
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Hrotsvitha (10th cent)
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Hildegard of Bingen (Abbess, 12th cent)
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Christine de Pisan (14-15th)
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Previously assumed: more lit men
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Questioned now because:
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Noble women's reading & devotion
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Nuns
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Bayeux tapesty
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Opportunities for women didn't expand until High Middle Ages
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Respectable occupations:
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Childbearing
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Marriage
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Religion
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Noble women - pawns used by father for dynastic strategies
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12th century English noblewomen 2x more likely to marry more than once, than noblemen
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Depended on contemp political sitch
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Could exercise authority & influence behind the scenes
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King died→successor still child→possible queen regnant (rare)
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'In the arts of painting and needlework, she was... another Minerva.'
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'She herself excelled in the writing of prose and verse.'
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Multilingual: 'General language of Gaul', 'Danish and Irish', 'and English, her native language'
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'Her generosity was incomparable.'
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1129: Married Fulk V of Anjou
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To rule as joint monarchs → Fulk tried to push Mel in background
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After serious dispute between them, revealed: she had nobles' support
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Then they co-ruled successfully
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Their son Baldwin III fought a war against her→she defended her rights as co-ruler
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