After our special on female #emdiplomacy scholars for #WomensHistoryMonth and a little break we continue our introduction of the #handbook authors and their articles with the third section that focusses on the development of #earlymodern#diplomacy in different European countries.
Mary of Egypt reportedly converted to Christianity during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. One of the earliest pilgrim accounts of Jerusalem is that left behind by a Roman woman named Egeria: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egeria_(pilgrim)
As #Christianity became progressively more mainstream, it also became more patriarchal, so women had less influence in Christianity in 1000-1500 than in 1-500.
In the early 1100s, a brilliant young woman named Heloise learned Latin, Greek, and maybe Hebrew in Paris before having a child with her teacher and secretly marrying him. After her husband (Peter Abelard) was castrated by her uncle, she joined a convent, and eventually became the leader of several convents. She was famous for her erudition, and her letters present a different view of her marriage than Abelard's whinging (while critical of #marriage as an institution.) #WomensHistoryMonth
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An exact contemporary of Heloise, but in Germany, Hildegard of Bingen (d. 1179) dealt with chronic illness her entire life. She joined a nunnery as a child, eventually becoming an abbess, saw visions which were declared to be divine revelation by the pope. She wrote a theology of #mysticism, music, and scientific texts. She preached publicly, & exchanged letters with popes and rulers. In 2012 she was named a Doctor of the (Roman Catholic) Church. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildegard_of_Bingen #WomensHistoryMonth
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I have to go back: I forgot to include the most famous #Christian woman in the history of #Iran: Shirin (d. 628), the wife of Shah Khusraw II. She favored "miaphysite" Christians over the dyophysite Christians who were more numerous in Persia, and in later (Muslim) #Persian literature she became a symbol of love and romance, most famously in Ganjavi's poem "Khusraw and Shirin." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirin #WomensHistoryMonth
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In the late 900s in Egypt, a concubine of the #Fatimid caliph al-Aziz (and known to us only as "al-Aziz's lady," al-Sayyida al-Aziziyya) was a #Melkite Christian who persuaded the caliph to appoint an Christian as vizier (highest ranking civilian office) in Egypt. One of her brothers became Patriarch of Jerusalem, another (Melkite) Patriarch of Alexandria. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitt_al-Mulk#Family_and_early_life
In the mid-1200s in #Greece, Theodora of Arta was recognized as a #saint for putting up with a real jerk of a husband, who was the ruler of the #Byzantine successor state of Epiros at the time. He even drove her out of his house (for her to live by begging with their young son) for five years while he lived with his mistress instead. Eventually they made up, and she founded a convent (and retired to it).
The Seljuk #Turks intermarried with the #Byzantine imperial family, and because of their polygamy, the sultans' harems often became centers of #Christianity, which provided patronage and influence for church leaders. "Harem Christianity," as one scholar termed it, remains an important yet poorly understood component of women's history.
Meanwhile, very far to the east, a woman of the #Christian Kerait tribe named Sorqaqtani Beki married the youngest of the four main sons of #Genghis Khan. She became an informal political leader, securing the election of her son Mongke as Khagan in 1251. She gave patronage to Christians and Muslims. Her death prevented her from mediating the Mongol Civil War (between two of her sons), leading to the breakup of the empire in 1260.
The #Byzantine Empire wanted to make peace with the #Mongols, so emperor Michael VIII (r. 1258-82) sent an illegitimate daughter named Maria (Palaiologina) for a marriage alliance. After her husband Abaqa died in 1280, she returned to Constantinople, and eventually became head of an important monastery. The church was called "St. Mary of the Mongols," and is today the only Byzantine church in Istanbul never to have been converted into a mosque. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Palaiologina
A later #Byzantine princess was married to Ozbek Khan of the Golden Horde (in what is today Russia). The Moroccan Muslim traveler Ibn Battuta reports her name as Bayalun, but what her Greek name was is lost. Her husband being Muslim, she appeared as a lackluster Muslim in the Mongol imperial camp, but reverted to #Christianity when she returned to Constantinople to give birth to their child in the 1330s.
The #Russian princess Anna of Kashin (d.1368) is an unusual saint for taking time off from sainthood. Her biography is unremarkable for a princess of Tver, but her recognition as a saint in the 1600s was jeopardized by the Old Believer schism, because Old Believers favored her. She was canonized in 1649 following a miraculous deliverance of Kashin from siege in 1611, but she was decanonized in 1678, and then recanonized in only in 1908! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_of_Kashin
Julian of Norwich (d. after 1416) was an #English "anchoress" (a hermit permanently enclosed in a cell in an urban setting) and #mystic known for recording visions which came to her when she was very sick. Her writings are apparently the earliest English-language texts known to be authored by a woman. Her writings were less important during her lifetime than her advice, and she was sought out by leaders, as well as by Margery Kempe (see next). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_of_Norwich #WomensHistoryMonth
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Margery Kempe (d. after 1438) was another English #mystic credited with writing the first #autobiography in #English. But first, she was a businesswoman and mother, who later wrote frankly of her failed business ventures, stylish clothes, her loathing of sex with her husband, and her desire for an extra-marital affair. She went on long-distance pilgrimages to #Jerusalem, #Santiago, etc. She was repeatedly tried for heresy but never convicted. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margery_Kempe #WomensHistoryMonth
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A very complex figure is Joan of Arc (d.1431), who claimed to be inspired by the archangel Michael & conversations with St. Margaret & St. Catherine to drive the English occupation out of France. At age 17, she inspired the French army to victory over the English at Orleans, where she was called "la Pucelle" ("the Maiden") by the French, and "la Putain" ("the whore") by the English. She was later captured by the Burgundians & sold to the English. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc #WomensHistoryMonth
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The English put 19-year-old Joan of Arc on trial, & she was convicted of the #heresy of [checks notes] cross-dressing. She abjured that heresy & promised to wear only women's clothes, but then her captors took away her clothes and provided her with men's clothes. When she put them on, then she was convicted of relapsed heresy and burnt at the stake. She was canonized a #saint almost 500 years later, in 1920, and ironically is now commemorated in the Church of England. #WomensHistoryMonth
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