27 April

Despite truce, Qalawun attacks and captures Tripoli.

1290

10 November

Death of Sultan Qalawun, succeeded by his son al-Ashraf Khalil.

1291

6 April

Mamluk siege of Acre begins;

18 May

Acre falls;

June

Sidon falls to Mamluks;

31 July

Beirut surrenders to the Mamluks;

3 and 14 August

Templars withdraw from their last holdings in the Levant, Tartus and Athlit (Castle Pilgrim).

1307

13 October

Philip II of France arrests Templars on false charges.

1314

Templars dissolved by papal order.

Part I

A History of the Women of Outremer

Chapter 1

Women in the Era of the Crusades

Women in Western Europe

Women in the crusades era enjoyed a status and level of empowerment almost unprecedented in Western Europe up to this time. This is best illustrated by a brief review of women’s status in earlier eras.

The Ancient World

In most of Ancient Greece, with the exception of Sparta, and throughout most of Roman history, women were seen as inherently inferior to men in both mind and body. Aristotle famously asserted that women were ‘infantile males’ constitutionally incapable of developing the ability to reason and, therefore, ‘permanent children’ in need of constant ‘protection’ and guidance. Although Aristotle’s views did not go unchallenged, they reflected predominant attitudes and the legal reality of women’s status, and much of ancient Greek society reflected these views. Inevitably, something viewed as inferior was less valued than their allegedly superior male companions. A casual remark purporting to state the obvious during an Athenian lawsuit illustrates this. Namely: ‘Everybody raises a son even if he is poor, but exposes [i.e., kills] a daughter even if he is rich’.2

Free Athenian women (i.e., the wives and daughters of citizens, as opposed to slaves or foreigners) were, from birth onwards, fed less and given inferior food than their brothers, denied exercise and fresh air, excluded from education and intellectual life, and incapable of inheriting anything more valuable than a bushel of wheat. At the first sign of puberty, their father gave them away in marriage to a man, usually twice or three times their age, often an utter stranger. They were often dead by the age of 40, exhausted by giving birth to infants, who (if female) were frequently murdered by their husbands immediately after birth because they were a burden to raise.3

Although Roman women enjoyed far greater freedom of movement and took a more active part in the social and commercial life of Rome and its colonies, women did not legally exist under Roman law. From birth, they were viewed not only as inferior but also as dispensable. A Roman father had the right to kill a daughter at birth but not a son. That this right was exercised rather than merely theoretical is suggested by records that chillingly demonstrate that few Roman men chose to raise more than one daughter. The others, like their Athenian sisters, were slaughtered at birth. All Roman women, therefore, lived only by the ‘grace’ of their father – and were expected to be eternally grateful for being allowed to exist at all.

Furthermore, Roman women, like slaves, could not contest anything before a court of law. Legally, they had no status and required a male guardian in every phase of their life. As children, they were controlled by their fathers (or his closest male relative if he were dead). As wives, they were subjects to their husbands, and as widows, they were controlled and represented by their sons or grandsons. Notably, since a woman’s sole value to society was defined by her ability to produce children, a post-menstrual woman was of no worth whatsoever. The fate of widows was desperate unless they had sons and grandsons who honoured them.

In Greece and Rome, marriage was a contract between families in which fathers gave their daughters to the man of their choice without any legal or moral obligation to consult, much less consider, the wishes of their daughter. While men often acted on their own initiative seeking to obtain the girl they wanted from her father, such an option was unthinkable for a young girl or woman. The best she could hope for was that the man she favoured would approach her male guardian. Likewise, men – but not women – could divorce an unwanted spouse without cause. They simply sent the woman back to her father and returned the dowry with her. In these circumstances, divorce disproportionately benefitted men and caused untold misery to women. Men (but not women) could discard partners who had grown old, fat, less attractive or failed to produce children. Indeed, they could discard wives simply because a new marriage would bring commercial or political benefits or a larger dowry. The fate of most repudiated wives, on the other hand, was (and still is in many societies) dismal. Many discarded wives were reviled by their parents and brothers because they were blamed for their ‘failed’ marriage and seen as an unwanted and extra burden. A rejected wife rarely found a new husband, so she was anathema in a society that viewed childbearing as a woman’s only purpose. Finally, while only one wife was recognised as the legal partner to produce citizens, men enjoyed multiple sexual partners without approbation; fidelity to one’s spouse was viewed as a virtue in women only.

The Impact of Christianity

The teachings of Christ upended Greco-Roman gender norms with a series of radical doctrines concerning a woman’s place in marriage, society and the universe. First, Christ categorically condemned divorce for both men and women. Christianity’s insistence on marriage as a life bond dramatically increased women’s status and financial security. If a man could not simply toss a woman out and get a new wife, he had no choice but to try to come to terms with the wife he had. His wife was elevated from an interchangeable sexual, commercial and political object to a lifetime partner. While wealthy and powerful men in Christian kingdoms throughout the Middle Ages still found ways to set aside unwanted wives, the Church’s stance made it more difficult, time-consuming and expensive. The system wasn’t perfect, but it was notably better than what had prevailed before.

Second, the Church introduced the concept of mutual consent into marriage; a voluntary exchange of vows by bride and bridegroom stands at the centre of the Christian rite of marriage. Marriage itself became a sacrament, and the Church attempted (largely unsuccessfully) to argue that it should not be treated as a business contract between families. Despite the best efforts of the Church, however, mediaeval parents continued to dispose of their underage children (male and female) with little regard for their wishes. Yet while respect for the participants’ wishes might not have been the norm, women at least had the legal and ethical right to be treated as a consenting partner. We shall see how this right represented the thin edge of a wedge which some women effectively exploited in several spectacular cases.

Last but not least, Christ declared there was no difference between men and women in the eyes of God. Whether man or woman, they were souls created by God and redeemed by Christ. The physical body that enjoyed earthly attributes and pleasures was animal and mortal; the soul, consisting of mind and spirit, was immortal. Bodies are male and female; souls are not. While women’s bodies are weaker than men’s, making them the ‘weaker sex’ in the physical world, their souls suffer no comparative weakness in the spiritual realm.

The spirituality of women is signalled in the gospels by Christ’s willingness to keep company with women and allow them to hear his teachings (i.e., he treated them as rational beings). Most significantly, however, after his resurrection, he first revealed himself – and thereby the truth of his divinity and eternal life – to women rather than men.

The early Church reaffirmed women’s spirituality by canonising many female saints. Most of these saints from the early Christian period were martyrs, and many were women (e.g., St Agnes, St Barbara, St Dorothy, St Juliana, St Lucia, and St Margaret of Antioch) who preferred to die as virgins (and Christians) rather than accept a marriage imposed on them by their pagan fathers.

The large number of virgin saints underlines that women were no longer viewed solely as reproductive instruments whose value disappeared if they were unwilling or unable to bear children. In Christianity, women who devoted their lives to Christ, either as virgins or in later life as widows, were revered as admirable, not rejected as useless. By the era of the crusades, the burgeoning Cult of the Virgin had placed a woman (Mary) almost on a par with Christ himself, a fact reflected in doctrine, art and daily practice.

Furthermore, according to Christian doctrine, reason is not only the characteristic that distinguishes humans from animals but also the means to understand God and his intentions. Christian theology places a burden on people seeking salvation to understand the teachings of Christ in order to follow in his footsteps. Thus, the road to heaven entailed using intellect and reason, something expected of Christian women no less than men.

In their search for divine wisdom, some men and women tried to cut themselves off from the world’s temptations. This included rejecting luxury, wealth, comfort, vanity, pride, and all worldly pleasures, including sex. Indeed, the Church increasingly viewed chastity as an ideal for both men and women because it aided them in their quest to come closer to a sexless God. To fulfil these ideals, individuals formed self-sustaining communities removed from mainstream society and the distractions of the worldly sphere. In these new communal institutions, they worked, prayed and lived in poverty; they were called monasteries.

The earliest known monasteries emerged in Egypt in the fourth century. Significantly, they welcomed both men and women. Indeed, the first record of such an institution established in the Byzantine Empire in Cappadocia was founded jointly by a man and a woman, St Basil the Great (329–379) and his sister, Macrina the Younger (327–379). From its inception, it included communities for women as well as men. The monastic movement spread rapidly throughout the Byzantine Empire and reached Western Europe by the end of the fourth century. In the sixth century, St Benedict (480–547) composed a written ‘rule’ for the members of his community at Monte Cassino in Italy, which greatly influenced Western traditions. He established the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience for acceptance into the religious community. He too accepted women as well as men from the start. From there, the monastic movement continued to spread to France, the Iberian Peninsula, England and Ireland. By the ninth century, monasteries for both men and women were spreading across the formerly pagan heartland of Germany. The first monastery in Poland was founded in 1044. On the eve of the first crusade, there were thousands of these religious houses across Europe, including hundreds for women.

Nunneries, no less than monasteries, were renowned as places of learning. The inhabitants not only worked and prayed but also copied and illuminated books. Furthermore, they taught others basic literacy and numeracy. Because women were perceived as naturally suited to nurturing children, elementary education was often delegated to nunneries and higher education to monasteries. Some historians argue that literacy and numeracy were more widespread among women than men in the early Middle Ages. They hypothesise that secular men (as opposed to monks and priests) were too busy fighting, doing manual labour and traveling on business to learn to read and write. Instead, they left the business of running estates and keeping the books and correspondence to their wives.

By the crusading era, however, literacy had become widespread among men and women of the upper and middle classes. This was more than functional literacy. We have numerous examples of secular lords and knights who were poets, novelists, philosophers and scholars in the era of the crusades. William, Duke of Aquitaine (1071–1127) is credited with inventing the tradition of poetry in the vernacular and sparking the troubadour movement. Chretien de Troyes (1130–1190), a comparatively humble member of the knightly class, is credited with inventing the modern novel. Walther von der Vogelweide (1170–1230), another writer of romantic and politically critical lyric poetry, was a mere knight.