What did female knights wear in the middle ages?

Answer 1

There were female knights, actual female mounted warriors, in the middle ages. What an amazing idea. Eleanor of Aquitaine was one, who led 300 women on campaign. And there were others, too.

As to their circumstances, that is a more difficult question. If they were well educated and had the opportunity to prove themselves, they were sometimes pretty good at warfare. Queen Ethelfleda of Mercia was a woman who kicked around the Vikings who threatened her kingdom, driving them out of lands they had conquered. A person like Ethelfleda could be respected, and was.

But I think there probably were a number of people, even of that time, who had never heard of such a thing as a female knight. And so a woman had to expect ignorance and prejudice based on ignorance.

After the middle ages, when men were knighted for reasons that had nothing to do with their abilities as warriors, women were knighted for the same reasons. I am not sure when this came about, but I am pretty sure it was at uncommon or unknown during medieval times.

Answer 2

Yes, they could. There were very few women who were knights in the Middle Ages, but there were indeed some. In Catalonia in 1149 there existed a military order of knighthood for women called "The Order of the Hatchet" that honored the women who had defending their town. The rank was bestowed to women who fought in the defense of a town called Tortosa. That particular order probably died out with the original members. The women were given many privileges, including being exempt from taxes and taking precedence over men at public meetings.

In addition, Pope Urban IV gave his blessing to the founding of an order that included female knights, called the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in 1261. The charter for the order explicitly allowed women, and it explicitly called them knights.

Most women who were of knightly status on their own merit were given the title Dame. Those who were members of the medieval Order of the Garter, however, were given the title Lady. Women were appointed to the Order of the Garter almost from its beginnings, but the practice ended when the Renaissance began and was not started again for a long time. It is said that there were a number of other orders open to women, but it is difficult to find sources of information.

In England, 68 women were appointed to the Garter between 1358 and 1488. They wore the garter on their left arm. Many of those women were of royal blood or wives of Knights of the Garter. Some of those women, however, were neither.

In theory, there was no reason why a woman could not go into combat. We have other well known examples, including Eleanor of Aquitaine and Joan of Arc. Also, in theory, there was no reason why a king could not knight a woman for any reason he might choose. It would not be surprising if this had not happened from time to time. For more information, please see the page links further down this page.

So, despite false hearsay that there were no women knights, in truth several military orders had women knights including "The Order of the Hatchet" in 1149.

Answer 3

AnswerNo, but they often had to as a form of protection. AnswerI have never heard of a law that banned women from carrying weapons, but I know that some women did with approval of their governments and the Church.

Eleanor of Aquitaine took part in the Second Crusade as general of the army from her duchy, and recruited over 300 women who trained as soldiers and went with her.

The story of Joan of Arc is well known. The excuse for burning her was not that she was armed, but that she wore men's clothes.