This past June, for the eighth time, I arrived in Atlanta Georgia to partake of the diversity of life which is Dragoncon. As one of the founding partners of Troll Lord Games it behooved me to attend some of the gaming industry panels. One in particular has stuck in my mind, "Women and Gaming." Being an old school DM who has only recently had a few women join my game the panel proved to be an enlightening discussion. However, one comment made by one of the audience members struck me as odd and not entirely accurate. I can't remember the exact remark but it involved the role of women in medieval Europe.

There are many misconceptions about the role women held throughout Western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. They are frequently portrayed as subservient seamstresses, cloistered nuns or just ignorant simple folk dutifully following the dictates of their husband, father or brother. This view is far from accurate. The whole of southern France, Spain, Lombardy, the German Duchies and the Italian peninsula, to say nothing of the Byzantine Empire and the Crusader states, offered women a role in both politics and commerce.

Under the Emperor's of Rome, women gained an ever increasing number of rights one of which included the right to inherit property. As the Germanic Kingdoms replaced the Empire in the west they absorbed many Roman traditions and most of Roman law.

The further one goes from the power of Rome the less these legal traditions were adopted. In the Frankish north much of the ancient Germanic law replaced the Roman. In the south however, the opposite was true. The provinces of Languedoc and Aquitaine, the Kingdoms of Navarre and Aragon all adopted Roman inheritance laws. Here women were both politically and commercially powerful. As the middle ages developed these traditions were further strengthened.

Medieval Europe

Medieval Europe was a culture dominated by men. The feudal system as it developed out of the collapsing Roman Empire was one based on the abilities of local rulers to protect their domain and the people therein. In its purist form it catered to the warrior tradition, a tradition which women had not participated in either Germanic or Latin society. Medieval Europe, however, did not represent feudalism in its purist form. It never did.

Medieval Europe possessed feudal institutions. However, these were not the only institutions dictating the social landscape.

Depending on which region you examine they were not even the most important ones. Society did not wholly depend upon the ability of a vassal to meet his or her obligations, but rather on a complex interwoven scheme of power politics wherein a region's wealth and position relative to its lord's was more important in determining the social norms of the said region than the social norms existing at higher political levels. The Count of Toulouse was nominally a vassal of the King of France, but the culture of southern France bore little resemblance to that of the northern France and in this case the vassal rarely responded to the overtures of his rightful lord.

The powers that were in Medieval Europe did not fin practical to completely exclude women from inheriting a fief, therefore could not exclude them from playing a role in politics of any given region. Indeed even the famous Salic la the German tribes, which forbid women to inherit, was alt, by the Merovingian King, Chilperic, in order to help maintain his domains.

As long as the obligations of the fief were met and empowered woman could maintain the existing social bonds defend any alterations, then many lords found it useless to drive them from power.

One of the most notable women is Richard's own mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine. She inherited Aquitaine, the most powerful fief west of the Rhine and arguably in all of western Europe, from her father Duke William IX. With this she greatly influenced reigns of the French King, Louis VII and the three Angevin Kings, Henry II, Richard I Lion Hearted and John Lackland. She built her own Court in Poitiers which gave birth to troubadour movement, and the knightly idea of chivalry, revitalized learning and culture in southern France, waged wars on her husband and without a doubt altered the course of English and French history.

Eleanor was not an exception. Women frequently inherited property in the more commercially oriented south. In the 12th century the viscountess Ermengarde reigned in Narbonne for years administering the county and waging war.

Morzia, a member of the Roman patrician class ruled Rome and gained enough power to overthrow a Pope, John X. Occasionally women fought on the battlefield. Ethelfled of Mercia drove Danes from Derby, Leicester and York. Matilda of Tuscany fought on the field of battle and owned the castle of Canossa where Henry IV did penance to Gregory VII. Sichelgaita, wife of the Norman Robert Guiscard, accompanied her husband on the many wars to conquer Byzantium.

Culture

Women were not only active on the political stage but on the cultural stage as well. Hroswitha of Gandersheim represents a trend in 10"th century Germany where women aspired to the, She wrote a number of histories of Saints, and some poetry but is best remembered for six Latin prose comedies. Dorotea Bocchi of Italy taught at the University of Bologna for 40 years. In early middle ages Nuns were encouraged to study a host of subjects including astronomy and medicine.

Women were active participants in the social fabric of Europe until well into the 15th century. Only with the advent of absolute monarchies did the role of women begin to fade into background. In monarchies did the role of women begin to fade into background. In Medieval Europe women played an important and very active part in the development of history and culture.