IMC 2021: Sessions

Session 304: Three Countesses Travel East: Politics and Religion in the 12th Century

Monday 5 July 2021, 16.30-18.00

Organiser:	Myra Bom, Department of History, Royal Holloway, University of London
Moderator/Chair:	Natasha Ruth Hodgson, School of Arts & Humanities, Nottingham Trent University
Paper 304-a	Constance of France, Princess of France and Antioch, and Political Culture (Language: English) Erin Jordan, Department of History, Old Dominion University, Virginia Index terms: Crusades, Politics and Diplomacy, Women's Studies
Paper 304-b	Countess Ermengarde in the Holy Land (Language: English) Amy Livingstone, Department of History, Wittenberg University, Ohio Index terms: Crusades, Lay Piety, Women's Studies
Paper 304-c	Constance of France (Countess of Saint-Gilles)'s Travel to the Latin East: Motivation and Strategy (Language: English) Myra Bom, Department of History, Royal Holloway, University of London Index terms: Crusades, Lay Piety, Women's Studies
Abstract	Princess Constance of Antioch (d. 1126), Countess Ermengarde of Brittany (d. 1148) and Countess Constance of Toulouse (d. after 1190) each travelled to the Latin East. Erin Jordan will discuss Princess Constance's attempt to reach Antioch, her settlement in Norman Italy, and her power as regent for Bohemond II. Amy Livingstone will reconstruct Countess Ermengarde's religious inspiration for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Myra Bom will detail Countess Constance's varied motivation to go to the Latin East and her strategy for remaining there. Together these papers show the universal and personal appeal of travel and settlement in the East during the 12th century.