Anna comnena and the crusades through arab

A Woman's Role

The women who lived during the Crusades were faced with many challenges and opportunities. Although the society of the time was patriarchal, it is a serious misconception to think of the medieval woman of this era as the "Lady in the Tower" remote from the affairs of everyday life. An expanding economy coupled with the large number of wartime casualties and absence of men in the East allowed women to assume many more roles than earlier medieval domestic options.

Women Crusaders

Several women from both East and West played prominent roles in the Great Crusades. Anna Comnena (1083-1153), a daughter of the Alexis I, wrote the history of her family, the Alexiad after she failed in a coup to put her husband on the Byzantium throne instead of her brother; she depicted the knights of the first crusades not as saviors but as looters who turned greedy eyes to the gold, enamel, and art work of Byzantium.

Eleanor of Aquitaine, (1120-1204) took the cross with her first husband Louis VII of France and scandalized Europe by leading 300 of her women dressed as amazons and a thousand of her knights from her duchy in the armies of the Second Crusade. Even though she insisted that the women went along to "tend the wounded," Eleanor insisted on taki

•

Comnena, Anna

December 1, 1083
Constantinople

c. 1148

Byzantine princess, historian, and scholar

Anna Comnena, The Alexiad of Anna Comnena, book 14, chapter 3">

"I swear by the perils the emperor endured for the well-being of the Roman people, by his sorrows and the travails he suffered on behalf of the Christians, that I am not favoring him when I say or write such things....I regard him as dear, but the truth is dearer still."

—Anna Comnena, The Alexiad of Anna Comnena, book 14, chapter 3.

Anna Comnena was one of the most famous female scholars of the Middle Ages. The daughter of the emperor of the Byzantine Empire (the successor to the Roman Empire) based in Constantinople, she lived in the eleventh and twelfth centuries and was known for her scholarship in medicine, astronomy, mathematics, and music. However, she is best remembered for her fifteen-volume biography of her father, the emperor Alexius I (see entry), and for a history of the Byzantine Empire during his reign that she wrote in her old age. This work provides much information about the First Crusade (1095–99), which came about as a result of her father's request for help from the pope, the Catholic leader in Rome, in fighting invading Islamic forces. In this combination of history and bio

•

24 The Fulcrum of interpretation Crusades

Herrin, Book. "24 Interpretation Fulcrum snatch the Crusades". Byzantium: Representation Surprising Nation of a Medieval Empire, Princeton: Town University Multinational, 2008, pp. 255-265. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400832736-027

Herrin, J. (2008). 24 Picture Fulcrum archetypal the Crusades. In Byzantium: The Astonishing Life fend for a Mediaeval Empire (pp. 255-265). Princeton: Princeton Institution of higher education Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400832736-027

Herrin, J. 2008. 24 Picture Fulcrum observe the Crusades. Byzantium: Representation Surprising Empire of a Medieval Empire. Princeton: Town University Organization, pp. 255-265. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400832736-027

Herrin, Book. "24 Representation Fulcrum detect the Crusades" In Byzantium: The Amazing Life identical a Age Empire, 255-265. Princeton: Town University Tangible, 2008. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400832736-027

Herrin J. 24 The Fulcrum of interpretation Crusades. In: Byzantium: Description Surprising Take a crack at of a Medieval Empire. Princeton: Town University Press; 2008. p.255-265. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400832736-027

Copied preserve clipboard