Hi all,
In my book, Scorpion, I have Klara, the Baroness of Gurloch and Eliff, lead her forces in battle dressed in armor. Some may not know that this was not uncommon in medieval Europe.
One example is Joan of Flanders, who was married to Jean Comte de Montfort. When her husband’s half-brother, the Duke of Brittany, died after naming Jean Montfort as his heir, a succession dispute erupted with Charles de Blois and his wife, Joan of Penthièvre, seeking the dukedom. Joan of Penthièvre had previously been considered the heir before the duke changed his mind. Jean Montfort planned to travel to Paris to avoid a military conflict, but Charles de Blois captured him and sent him to the king, Philip IV, who supported Joan of Penthièvre.
Joan of Flanders declared her infant son the legitimate heir and organized resistance to King Philip IV and Joan of Penthièvre.
Author Barbara Tuchman described the ensuing struggle:
“When Charles [de Blois] captured Jean De Montfort and sent him to Paris to be held prisoner by Philip the IV, Monfort’s cause was taken up ‘with the courage of a man and the heart of a lion’ by his remarkable wife [Joan]. Running from town to town, she rallied the allegiance of dispirited partisans to her three-year-old son, saying,
‘Ha, seigneurs, never mourn for my Lord whom you have lost. He is but one man,’ and promising that she had riches enough to maintain the cause. She provisioned and fortified garrisons, organized resistance, ‘paid largely and gave freely,’ presided over councils, conducted diplomacy, and expressed herself in eloquent and graceful letters.
When Charles de Blois besieged Hennebont, she led a heroic defense in full armor astride a war-horse in the streets, exhorting the soldiers under a hail of arrows and ordering women to cut short their skirts and carry stones and pots of boiling pitch to the walls to cast down upon the enemy. During a lull, she led a party of [300] knights out of a secret gate and galloped by a roundabout way to take the enemy camp in the rear, destroying half their forces and defeating the siege. She devised feints and stratagems, wielded her sword in sea fights, and when her husband escaped from the Louvre in disguise only to die after reaching Brittany, she implacably continued the fight for her son.” (A Distant Mirror, 74-75)
As this excerpt shows, women of means could and did lead forces, strategize campaigns, and fight in combat alongside knights. Joan of Flanders fought periodically between 1341 and 1347 before she traveled with her son to England, where King Edward III had her imprisoned to enhance his own power in Brittany. She remained in confinement until she died thirty years later.
If you would like to see Klara in action, you can find Scorpion here. Order of the White Arrow: Scorpion
You can also enjoy Chapter 1 HERE.
Cheers
James
What is Scorpion about?
Beware the sandstorm that conceals the scorpion…
A year has passed since Mara helped destroy the Order of the Rook. And yet, rumors persist of those who would reestablish the Order. Mara, once an assassin, has now become an assassin hunter. When news of a mysterious and zealous sect arising in the Dashneri lands south of Morcia reaches Mara, she sets out to uncover the truth. She confronts a ruthless, skilled assassin whose ambitions rise far higher than merely reestablishing the Order of the Rook. Mara must choose between her quest to uncover her own obscure past or to fulfill the oath sworn to her dead mentor. To succeed at one, she must sacrifice the other.
An Archer of the Heathland novel.