Women in war and diplomacy in thirteenth-century Europe: The evidence of royal letters

The War & Diplomacy Podcast: From the Centre for War and Diplomacy at Lancaster University

In this episode, Dr Anaïs Waag (University of Lincoln) talks to the CWD's Dr Sophie Ambler about some of the thirteenth century's most notable women, and how their letters illuminate their role in diplomacy, warfare, and the commemoration of battle. From civil wars to crusades, royal women like Berenguela and Blanche of Castile and Eleanor and Marguerite of Provence played a vital part in securing peace treaties – but also in raising and leading armies and celebrating the military feats of their families. Drawing from the evidence of their letters, Dr Waag asks whether these women worked within a gendered language of power, and explains how a comparative study of their careers invites us to revise our understanding of how royal rule operated in medieval Europe.

Dr Waag is Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the School of History and Heritage at the University of Lincoln. She specialises in gender studies and women's history in medieval Europe, taking a comparative perspective to examine how female power was formally and publicly expressed in England, France and the Iberian Peninsula. Her publications include 'Gender and the language of politics in thirteenth-century queens' letters', published in Historical Research, 'Rethinking battle commemoration: female letters and the myth of the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa', in the Journal of Medieval History, and most recently 'The Letters of Eleanor and Marguerite of Provence in Thirteenth-Century Anglo-French Relations', in the series Thirteenth Century England.

Music credit: Kai Engel, 'Flames of Rome', Calls and Echoes (Southern's City Lab, 2014).