Book Review: Uppity Women of Medieval Times

Medieval History

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Medieval History

Book Review

Uppity Women of Medieval Times

Anyone who has studied the medieval period knows that to be born female in the middle ages was to start life at a tremendous disadvantage. Although a woman's situation could vary greatly depending on her wealth, social standing, and family, one thing was certain: she was bound to have fewer rights, privileges, and liberties than her male counterparts.

In spite of the secular laws, religious edicts and social traditions that served to confine females to particular pastimes and codes of behavior, there have always been women who refused to conform. Who were the women that achieved financial sucess at a time when few females could own property? What ladies took the lead in love affairs when men were supposed to "wear the pants"? What kind of women ruled the most unruly of nations when their accepted role was to serve their menfolk?

Uppitywomen, of course!

In this breezy, highly amusing survey, Vicki León offers character profiles of more than 200 medieval women who did it their way. Among them are quick-witted queens, successful slaves, battling brides, prominent poets, moneylending madams, virginal visionaries, and crafty concubines. From the famous (Queen Elizabeth I) to the infamous (Countess Elizabeth Bathory), the author sets forth with no apologies the extraordinary achievements of the selfless and the selfish, be those exploits elegant, edifying, or evil.

Make no mistake about it: this is a book with attitude. No dry descriptions of defiant damsels here; Ms. León is lively and laudable and likely to make you laugh out loud.

However, although her enthusiasm for her subject is infectious (as is her alliterative style), Ms. León's fervor for feminism can be a trifle grating. If you are not a feminist, you may find her male-bashing somewhat heavy-handed (I certainly did). While her scholarship is basically sound, she blithely passes on some common generalizations about the middle ages: castles were drafty, no one ever bathed, the primary occupation of all Viking society was raiding and pillaging, and so on. Furthermore, since this is a work designed for the layman (or lay-woman, as the case may be), Ms. León doesn't bother to support her facts with references, although she does provide a valuable bibliography.

Yet it's important to remember that this is not a scholarly treatise but a popular introduction to those women who stood up to be noticed in times and places when getting noticed could get you killed. At this, Ms. León succeeds very well indeed. With each concise profile (no description runs more than two pages) she entices the reader with just enough intriguing information to engender a thirst for more. That is perhaps the best aspect of this book.

Here are some prototypical excerpts from Uppity Women of Medieval Times:

Simonetta [Vespucci] made quite an impression in her twenty-one years--but that's what we'd expect from a female with a name like an expensive Italian sports car. (p. 71)
Husbands; they're nothing but headaches, thought thirty-something Inés de Suárez, when hers failed to come home from conquistadoring in South America. She needed a little outing anyway--time to go look for him. (p. 184)

Besides having a name that was a mouthful, even for an Anglo-Saxon, Hroswitha gained a secure place among the "top forty nuns we'd like to immortalize" list of tenth-century Europe. (p. 178)

In the bustle and hype of sixth-century Constantinople, you had to be really outrageous to get noticed. Freakishness was a breeze for Theodora, a gutter-snipe-trained actress whose beauty and talent for display gave her the idea for an act that combined porn, dried corn, carefully trained geese, and her next-to-naked body in a hide-and-go-seek performance Byzantines gasped over. (p. 158)

The women gathered together in this work came from all backgrounds and many different places, faced different challenges, fought different battles, and stood up for different reasons. But the one thing they all had in common, the "uppityness" that earns them a place between the covers, is courage. While she approaches their stories with humor, Ms. León very clearly appreciates this quality in all her subjects, and she gives the reader a chance to applaud the uppity women of medieval times.

For more about medieval women, be sure to check out our pages of net links on Women in the Middle Ages.

Looking to Buy?

The links below will take you to mySimon, where you can compare prices at booksellers across the web. More in-depth info about the book may be found by clicking on to the book's page at one of the online merchants.

Uppity Women of Medieval Times is attractively-produced and makes a great gift for the budding feminist and medieval history buff.

Uppity Women of the Renaissance is Ms. León's latest look at fascinating female figures of the past.

This book review is copyright © 1998-2003 Melissa Snell. Permission is granted to reproduce this review for personal or classroom use only, provided that the URL below is included. For reprint permission, please contact Melissa Snell.

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