
Women and the Crusades
Did women support crusades? Did women go on crusades? If they did, did they fight? Did women on the ‘other side’ fight? Cultural norms in western European Christian and Muslim society in the middle ages did not expect women to take part in fighting. Yet some of the contemporary sources indicate that they did take an active part in crusade warfare. Is there any truth in these reports, or were they simply slander or propaganda? Before going any further with this question, I wou