IMC 2012: Sessions
Session 1217: Articulating the 'Rules' of Female Aggression
Wednesday 11 July 2012, 14.15-15.45
| Organiser: | Tracey-Anne Cooper, Department of History, St John's University, Queens, New York |
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| Moderator/Chair: | Kimm Curran, History Lab+, Institute of Historical Research, University of London |
| Paper 1217-a | Rules of Aggression: Violent Female Role Models in Late Anglo-Saxon England (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Mentalities, Military History, Women's Studies |
| Paper 1217-b | The Good, the Bad, and the Masculine: 12th-Century Chroniclers' Assessment of Militancy and Queenship (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Historiography - Medieval, Women's Studies |
| Paper 1217-c | Playing by the Rules: Noblewomen's Employment of Just War Theory in 13th-Century France (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Military History, Women's Studies |
| Abstract | As modern depictions of medieval women in film and fiction have shifted recently from damsel in distress to warrior princess, it is a pertinent time for this panel to examine the evidence for medieval perceptions of, and rules for, female aggression and combat. These three papers reveal respectively that late Anglo-Saxon poetry and homilies stressed spiritual struggle over corporal prowess when women attacked, 12th-century chroniclers condoned queens who provided military leadership despite their typical disapproval of a queen who exhibited unfeminine qualities, and 13th-century French chroniclers and legal documents demonstrate that noblewomen played by the stipulated rules of a just war. |