The Fourth Estate by Shulamith Shahar

Author:Shulamith Shahar
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-12-30T05:00:00+00:00

From all that we know of medieval women it seems to us that this statement implies a certain idealization of woman. Even in her appeal to the queen of France, Isabel of Bavaria, to put an end to the disputes between the princes of France, she appealed to her generosity, mercy and maternal compassion147 – traits certainly not predominant in Queen Isabel. But her remarks are of great interest. The very depiction of the image of a tender and merciful woman is an exception in medieval culture. As we have seen, these qualities of tenderness, mercy and grace were attributed only to the Holy Virgin. When writers wanted to praise a certain woman, they attributed male characteristics to her, while emphatically denying her feminine traits. They did not always specify in this context what these were (and one never finds great consistency in the enumeration of feminine traits), but they were usually referring to frailty, lack of resolve and inconsistency, rather than tenderness and compassion. In hagiography too, churchmen sometimes wrote that the female saint acted in a masculine rather than feminine fashion (non mulieriter sed viriliter).148 Christine de Pisan defined certain qualities as feminine: tenderness, mercy and compassion, and these qualities are regarded as positive. This emphasis on the desirability of such feminine traits was not only a protest against feudal society and the ethos of the warrior but also opened up the way for liberating men from obsessive masculinity, false heroics and all they implied. Needless to say, these views remained in the sphere of theory, and there too hers was an isolated and unique voice.

Unlike many members of fringe groups who, in their desire to identify with the centre, deny their fellow members of the group, medieval women did not deny the few female creators. The English-Norman poet Denys Pyramus wrote of the great popularity of the poems of Marie de France among the nobility in general and noblewomen in particular. Some women extended their patronage to Christine de Pisan. The manuscripts of her works were purchased by women, among them Valentina, wife of Duke Louis of Orleans, Marie de Berry and Isabel of Bavaria, queen of France. Christine herself, in her defence of women, not only depicted mythological and historical female figures but related to the fleshand-blood women she knew. She lauded them in her works, as in the tale of the generosity and resourcefulness of Marguerite, wife of Bureau de la Rivière, and listed her female contemporaries in France who, because of their noble qualities, were worthy of entering the Cité des Dames.149

It is often claimed that it is in the nature of societies based on military organization to drastically curtail the rights of women in comparison to those of men.150 The feudal society of the High Middle Ages was based on military organization. The upper stratum of this society held fiefs which were originally granted in return for military service, and constituted the warrior class. Can one therefore say that the rights of the

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