This book compares two successful, elite women, Empress Adelheid (931-999) and Countess Matilda (1046-1115), for their relative ability to retain their wealth and power in the midst of the profound social changes of the eleventh century. The careers of the Ottonian queen and empress Adelheid and Countess Matilda of Tuscany reveal a growth of opportunities for women to access wealth and power. These two women are analyzed under three categories: their relationships with family and friends, how they managed their property (particularly land), and how they ruled. This analysis encourages a better understanding of gender relations in both the past and the present.

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 60. Chapters: Empress Matilda, Hildegard of Bingen, Theophanu, Adelaide of Italy, Matilda of Ringelheim, Agnes of Poitou, Agnes I, Abbess of Quedlinburg, Eadgyth, Mary of Burgundy, Agnes Bernauer, Elizabeth of Luxembourg, Anna von Schweidnitz, Barbara of Cilli, Argula von Grumbach, Saint Mechtilde, Hrotsvitha, Margaret II, Countess of Hainault, Bertha of Sulzbach, Eleanor of Portugal, Holy Roman Empress, Matilda of England, Duchess of Saxony, Elizabeth of Schonau, Elisabeth of Gorizia-Tyrol, Gertrude of Hohenburg, Gertrude the Great, Beatrice I, Abbess of Quedlinburg, Kunigunde of Hohenstaufen, Matilda of Germany, Countess Palatine of Lotharingia, Margaret of Brabant, Emma of Lesum, Matilda of Sulzbach, Anne of Austria, Margravine of Brandenburg, Matilda, Abbess of Quedlinburg, Blanche of Valois, Elizabeth of Pomerania, Elisabeth of Nuremberg, Sophia I, Abbess of Gandersheim, Joanna of Bavaria, Marie of Brabant, Holy Roman Empress, Adelheid I, Abbess of Quedlinburg, Bertha of Savoy, Hemma of Gurk, Gunhilda of Denmark, Cunigunde of Luxembourg, Beatrice of Silesia, Gisela of Swabia, Adelheid of Wolfratshausen, Anne, Duchess of Luxembourg, Adelheid II, Abbess of Quedlinburg, Joanna Sophia of Bavaria, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Eupraxia of Kiev, Richenza of Northeim, Isabella of Aragon, Queen of Germany, Elisabeth of Bavaria, Queen of Sicily, Adelaide, Abbess of Vilich, Richardis, Katherine of Bavaria, Diemoth, Agnes of Germany, Agnes II, Abbess of Quedlinburg, Agnes of Habsburg, Adelheid of Vohburg, Gerberga of Saxony, Maud, Countess of Leicester, Ota, Irmgard of Chiemsee, Imagina of Isenburg-Limburg, Liutgard of Saxony, Christina von Stommeln, Katharina Kepler, Margareta Ebner, Jutta, Gertrude of Comburg, Margaret of Thuringia, Gertrude of Hackeborn, Clara Hatzlerin, Cunigunde of Swabia, Thiota, Judith of Bavaria, Hedwig of Saxony, ..

A life of Matilda—empress, skilled military leader, and one of the greatest figures of the English Middle Ages Matilda was a daughter, wife, and mother. But she was also empress, heir to the English crown—the first woman ever to hold the position—and an able military general. This new biography explores Matilda’s achievements as military and political leader, and sets her life and career in full context. Catherine Hanley provides fresh insight into Matilda's campaign to claim the title of queen, her approach to allied kingdoms and rival rulers, and her role in the succession crisis. Hanley highlights how Matilda fought for the throne, and argues that although she never sat on it herself her reward was to see her son become king. Extraordinarily, her line has continued through every single monarch of England or Britain from that time to the present day.

This book provides a groundbreaking reinterpretation of the life and career of the preeminent polemicist of the Bishop Bonizo of Sutri. Through a meticulous analysis of Bonizo’s literary works and contemporary reports about his activities, the author uncovers the populist roots of both the bishop’s reform ideology and his vision of holy war against a heretical emperor, Henry IV of Germany. In establishing the predominance of Bonizo’s personal experience as a member of the populist Lombard reform community, the Pataria, in the formation of his thought, this study shatters the picture of a uniform Gregorian party and greatly strengthens the impression of the papal reform movement as a fragile coalition of multiple regional partners, like the Pataria, which enjoyed a fundamental unity of purpose but whose individual constituencies often diverged in their particular strategic objectives. This investigation, moreover, sets Bonizo’s story within the context of the urban life of his native Lombardy and examines the relationship between popular religious reform and the gradual development of communal government in northern Italy.

In this volume, the authors bring fresh approaches to the subject of royal and noble households in medieval and early modern Europe. The essays focus on the people of the highest social rank: the nuclear and extended royal family, their household attendants, noblemen and noblewomen as courtiers, and physicians. Themes include financial and administrative management, itinerant households, the household of an imprisoned noblewoman, blended households, and cultural influence. The essays are grounded in sources such as records of court ceremonial, economic records, letters, legal records, wills, and inventories. The authors employ a variety of methods, including prosopography, economic history, visual analysis, network analysis, and gift exchange, and the collection is engaged with current political, sociological, anthropological, gender, and feminist theories.

This volume explores the work of Anselm of Canterbury, theologian and archbishop, in light of the communities in which he participated.

This is the first comprehensive study of the role of women in the Polish Piast dynasty from 965 until c.1144, comparing them with female members of other contemporary medieval dynasties.