historicwomendaily

[historicwomendaily]

Certain couples offer an image of perfect harmony, at least under the pen of chroniclers who underline the pain felt at the death of a spouse. For example, Pierre Le Baud speaks of the ardent love the count Hoël felt for Hawise. After her death in 1072, he undertook a pilgrimage to Rome. Widows feel the same emotions and maintain the memory of their deceased spouse by their gifts and wish to be buried at his side. In this way, Alan III’s sudden death at the age of 43, perhaps poisoned by the Normans, dismayed his wife, Bertha of Blois, who was “struck in the heart,” according to Arthur de La Borderie. She donates riches to churches, among others to the Benedictine nuns of Saint-Georges de Rennes, in a charter whose beginning resembles a sob: “The end of the word is approaching,” said the duchess, “the warning signs announced by God mount up: nations rise against nations, kingdoms against kingdoms, and the earth is restless with great tremors. I, Bertha, countess of Brittany, and my son, Conan, frightened by these omens, distressed above all by the the death of my very sweet lord, the very illustrious Count Alan, father of my son Conan, here present, the news of whose death came yesterday and pierces our hearts, conforming to the evangelical instruction, ‘make friends with the mammon of iniquity,’ we give to Saint-Georges and to its daughters the parish of Plougasnou.”

-Laurence Moal, Duchesses: Histoire d’un pouvoir au féminin en Bretagne

[historicwomendaily]

3 Nov. 1923 - Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf and Lady Louise Mountbatten married in the Chapel Royal at St. James's Palace in the presence of George V and members of both royal families.

Before the wedding, the Swedish media lively debated whether Lady Louise was of the same status as the Crown Prince or if she was a commoner. On Oct. 27, Sweden and Britain signed the "Treaty between Great Britain and Sweden for the Marriage of Lady Louise Mountbatten with His Royal Highness Prince Gustaf Adolf, Crown Prince of Sweden." The treaty stated, in part, that the marriage would be celebrated in London and duly authenticated, that the couple's financial settlements would be expressed in a separate marriage contract, which was declared to be "an integral part of the present Treaty", and that the two nations' ratifications of the treaty would be exchanged in Stockholm, which formally occurred Nov. 12.

The marriage between Louise and Gustaf Adolf was by all accounts a love match and described as very happy. Naturally, Louise became stepmother to Margareta and Gustaf Adolf's children, though she didn't become a new mother to them; instead, she was referred to as "Aunt Louise". Her mother-in-law also liked her because of her friendly nature, although they seldom saw each other, as Queen Victoria spent most of her time in Italy.

The fact that the Queen spent most of her time abroad meant that Louise took on many royal duties from the beginning, which was initially hard for her as she was described as quite shy. After the Queen died in 1930, Louise was officially the first lady of the nation, expected to perform all the duties of a Queen twenty years before she officially became Queen.

Photo 1: Official photo of the wedding between Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf and Lady Louise Mountbatten (photo via the Royal Armoury). Photo 2: Postcard of a wedding photo of the new Crown Prince couple (photo via Wikimedia Commons). Photo 3: Photograph of the new Crown Prince couple arriving in Gothenburg harbour via S/S Patricia on Dec. 10, 1923. Photo by Anders Wilhelm Karnell via Göteborg stadsmuseum.

[historicwomendaily]

"[The isle of Voorne] constituted an important part of Margaret of York’s dower lands because of its financial revenues, its economic possibilities and its endless stock of salted herring. For the administration of the isle, the duchess used a number of experienced officers from her own and that of Maximilian’s household, as well as from regional and local institutions. Margaret maintained a close relationship with her administrators of Voorne; offices, emoluments and gifts were given in exchange for loyalty and service. In this way she managed to establish durable links between her court, her dower land, and the administrative apparatus in The Hague.

Margaret’s relationship with the town of Brielle was expressed through an exchange of financial and material gifts and favours. The town administration offered her and her retinue prestigious consumable goods and money. Not all gifts were donated spontaneously, but were more often than not the result of a process of negotiation: new privileges in exchange for money. At the same time the dowager could appeal to the town for financial loans which were financed by selling annuities. Brielle benefited from Margaret’s protection because it was not obliged to provide new subsidies. And yet, Margaret was not able to stop the decline of the port of Brielle that was losing ships and trade to Rotterdam and Schiedam.

However, we should be cautious when explaining the relationship between Margaret and Voorne merely in economic terms. Margaret showed sincere compassion for the poor and the needy in her town of Brielle. Although the financial implications resulting from this concern were small in comparison with gifts for her trustees or her expenditure for stained glass windows on the island, her financial controllers were very strict with her spontaneous acts of charity. There was a continuous tension between the application of financial rules and her princely urge for largesse.

The representation of Margaret in the glass windows was partly inspired by local efforts to remind the duchess of her duties. On the other hand, the iconography of the two windows in Brielle and Dirksland show that Margaret was genuinely interested in being commemorated and in being represented with her late husband. Thus Margaret contributed in a material way to the celebration of the liturgy and the maintenance of the building. At the same time she publicly showed her devotion and appealed to the citizens of Voorne to be loyal towards her."

-Mario Damen, "Charity against the odds. Margaret of York and the isle of Voorne (1477-1503)" Women at the Burgundian Court: Presence and Influence (Turnhout 2010) 

[historicwomendaily]

"Angelberga was [...] the wife of a successful ruler, whose legacy was at the core of the political struggle for the imperial succession [in Italy]. She took advantage of that situation: she seemed to suggest to rulers that, if they wanted to present themselves as the legitimate heirs of Louis II, they had to respect his choices with regard to his widow’s patrimonial status [Thus, even though she had no male heir who could support her, she remained active and powerful after her husband's death]".

-Roberta Cimino, Italian Queens in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries (PHD Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2014)

"Angelberga’s widowhood was difficult, but mostly successful. She managed to make the most of the changes in royal authority and often exploited the struggles among the Carolingian and non-Carolingians to her own advantage. She remained active throughout her widowhood: negotiating exchanges, carrying out transactions and forming – and performing - alliances. Her experience illustrates extremely well the fluidity of Italian factions in the late 870s and 880s. Angelberga’s main concern was to preserve her material resources. The new rulers of Italy had to deal with her and with the potential threat she represented: they tried conciliatory politics, but some of them opted for a more aggressive approach. The success can be seen in the future of San Sisto, where she probably spent the very last years of her life. After her death, in 891, the monastery continued to represent a crucial instrument of territorial control with which all new rulers had to deal.

[...] Angelberga’s experience shows that monasteries were vital centres for royal women to create and strengthen alliances. Although royal monasteries must not be considered as "repositories" of queenship, they offered valid practical solutions to a woman in danger, as she could use them as strongholds. The potential threat Angelberga represented for Charles the Fat lay in these monasteries from where, it seems, she was able to coordinate her properties and supporters. It is not a coincidence that the plundering of Angelberga’s properties and treasure was usually focused on monastic institutions: even the kidnapping of a nun can be seen as a highly symbolized outrage to the dignity of the old empress, which was embodied by her monasteries."

[historicwomendaily]

"One of the main sources regarding the events following [Emperor Louis II of Italy's] death, Andrew of Bergamo’s Historia, has fuelled the idea that the political factionalism in Italy corresponded to political chaos and weak royal authority. This approach has recently been challenged, as it has been shown that Italian factions were extremely fluid and moved by very practical interests: the existence of factionalism in Italy did not mean the weakening of royal authority. Angelberga’s widowhood and her attempts to preserve her wealth fit effectively within this picture and emerge from Andrew’s narrative as well. Andrew reports that Charles the Bald and Louis the German were both called to Italy to claim the imperial rights. This decision was made by an assembly of the local nobles held in Pavia, and presided over by Empress Angelberga [��] The Libellus de imperatoria potestate, a political pamphlet produced in Rome at the end of the ninth century, also states that the empress and “sui primates” sent a missive to Karlman. As we have seen, evidence shows that Angelberga had, at this stage, a favourite: Louis the German and his sons. However, this does not imply that she had to maintain this attitude. Louis the German was soon to die, and according to Andrew his sons did not deserve much political consideration. Andrew’s portrayal might be related to his impression that political consistency was not Angelberga’s priority and thus inspired by the fluctuating attitude of the empress. By the time he was writing, probably at the beginning of the 880s, Andrew had witnessed the change in the empress’ political attitude.

Initially, Angelberga’s hostility towards Charles the Bald seemed evident. Her appeal to Louis the German to confirm her properties was contemporary with the coronation of Charles in February 876. It is clear, therefore, that at the time Charles’ victory was not good news for Angelberga. At the same time, however, Pope John VIII, one of Angelberga’s closest friends, supported the West Frankish candidate. The same can be said for the archbishop of Milan Anspert, a relevant figure in relation to Angelberga’s troubled widowhood. In September 875 Anspert had organized what has been defined as “one of the most daring and political acts of his government”: the procession that took Louis II’s body from Brescia, where it had been originally buried, to the church of St Ambrose in Milan. According to Paolo Delogu, Anspert took the body with the aim of claiming “the role of keeper of the royal tradition in Italy, burying him beside King Pippin and Bernard in the church of St Ambrose in Milan”. The representatives of the archbishop sent to transfer the body were the bishops Benedict of Cremona and Garibald of Bergamo, with an entourage of clerics: among them was Andrew of Bergamo, as he reports in the Historia.

This event has been read as a sign that relations between Angelberga and the church of Milan were tense: she wished to keep the body of Louis in Brescia, whereas Anspert had decided to move the royal body to the mausoleum of the kings of Italy. However, this may not have been the case. In March 880 Charles the Fat issued a diploma that confirmed some properties to the monastery of St Ambrose. Among them was the monastery of Santa Cristina in Corte Olona, which, according to the diploma, had been granted to St Ambrose by Angelberga “for the sake of Louis’ soul”. If Angelberga had granted the monastery of Corte Olona to St Ambrose in Louis’ memory, this must have been done after the body had already been moved to Milan. Moreover, the grant must have taken place before March 877, when the empress issued a testament that listed all her properties, because it does not mention Santa Cristina. This exchange between the empress and the diocese of Milan might indicate that the removal of Louis’ body from Brescia happened with the empress’s consent, and that Angelberga’s grant was the result of an agreement between the empress and the Milan clergy led by Anspert.

This shows that the empress was happy to come to agreement with people who, according to the alleged French/German partition, would have belonged to the opposite party. Furthermore, it shows that Angelberga used her royal properties to negotiate alliances and support. After Louis the German died, in August 876, she had no guarantee that Louis’ sons would have been on her side. On 27th March 877 Pope John VIII wrote an enraged letter to Charles the Fat, because, according to Andrew, the latter had been plundering the monastery of San Salvatore in Brescia, in which the empress was living at the time. On the same day the pope wrote to the empress to comfort her for her sufferings. In the letter the pope said that he was doing his best to persuade Charles the Bald, whom he calls “our spiritual son Charles”, to help her, and that the emperor was showing exceptional piety and devotion. This indicates that Angelberga had asked the pope to intercede on her behalf with Charles the Bald, and therefore that between 876 and 877 she was attempting a policy of conciliation towards the winner.

This conciliatory policy is confirmed by the fact that in March 877 she issued her testament in San Salvatore in Brescia. The testament asserted the foundation of the nunnery of San Sisto – formally dedicated to the Resurrection, the holy Apostles San Sisto, Bartolomeo and Fabiano in Piacenza - to which Angelberga assigned all her properties."

Roberta Cimino, Italian Queens in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries (PHD Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2014)

[historicwomendaily]

Day 27: Marie de France, poet and (maybe) abbess. Aside from her name and place of origin, her identity is unknown, though she was potentially a relative of King Henry II of England and/or an abbess. She adapted Breton narrative poems into French verse and translated Aesop’s Fables from Old English.

[historicwomendaily]

Day 26: Lilian Ngoyi

Lilian Masedeba Matabane Ngoyi was born to an impoverished family in Pretoria, South Africa, in 1911. Her mother carried royal Mphanlele blood, but worked as a washerwoman; her father labored in a mine. Lilian, after a few years of nursing school, married John Ngoyi, but was widowed soon after - and found herself the breadwinner for a household of three: herself, her daughter, and her now-elderly mother.

In 1948, when Apartheid was codified, Lilian was working as a seamstress, and already no stranger to organization and activism as a member of the Garment Worker’s Union. Soon, she was working with the African National Congress, eventually becoming the first woman on its executive committee.

In 1954, Lilian founded the Federation of South African Women, which brought together women across racial boundaries to protest Apartheid. She led marches, gave fiery, eloquent speeches, and, in 1955, defying a travel ban, smuggled herself out of South Africa to rally opponents of Apartheid abroad in bringing political pressure to bear. She knew that she was now a marked woman, but Lilian, head high, returned to her homeland, where, in 1956, she was put on trial for treason.

156 people, including Nelson Mandela, faced charges alongside Lilian. The process was years-long; in Lilian’s case, she remained in prison until 1960, when the charges were dropped. She spent the next few years under constant government pressure, sometimes jailed, sometimes released, and finally placed under a strict form of house arrest designed to separate her from the larger movement and silence her completely. She endured this, off and on, until her death in 1980 - but Apartheid, too, would die, in 1991, and Lilian Ngoyi’s voice rings on.

[historicwomendaily]

Day 27: Salome Alexandra!

Shelamzion Alexandra was born into an aristocratic Judaean family in the second century BC. She is believed to have been the sister of Simeon ben Shetach, a legendary rabbi and Pharisee religious leader, but her Greek second name was highly unusual for a woman in her position.

Salome made a highly advantageous marriage, to Alexander Jannaeus, who had just ascended to the throne of a kingdom in turmoil. Judaea was surrounded by encroaching powers, and beset with religious tension between the rival - and highly politicized - Pharisee and Sadducee movements. Alexander began persecuting the Pharisees, including Simeon, who was driven into hiding; Salome attempted, with limited success, to stay his hand.

Alexander died while on one of his many military campaigns, though not before naming Salome, rather than one of their sons, as his heir. It was a wise choice. Salome was a seasoned politician and an innate peacemaker - she brought the Pharisees back into power without persecuting the Sadducees, fortified the frontiers, and maintained a careful diplomatic dance with the expansionist powers surrounding her.

Salome died in 67 BC; her reign was long remembered as a golden age.

[historicwomendaily]

"Madonna Lucrezia [Borgia] is the most intelligent and lovely, also exceedingly gracious lady. [...] She is very beautiful, but her charm of manner is still more striking. In short, her character is such that it is impossible to suspect anything “sinister” of her." — Ferrarese envoy Gian Luca Pozzi

[historicwomendaily]

It’s October 1st, and y’all know what time it is! I’ll be bringing you thirty one fascinating ladies from history, from the legendary to the obscure, and we’ll be starting off, as always with a pen and ink drawing of a woman whose story has fascinating me since childhood - this year, Sacajawea!

Sacajawea (note: there are multiple anglicizations of her name; I went with the one preferred by the Lemhi Shoshone) was born in modern-day Idaho. Her people, the Lemhi Shoshone, or Akaitikka, lived and fished along the Lemhi and Salmon rivers. As a child, however, Sacajawea was kidnapped and enslaved by raiding Hidatsa, who soon sold her to a French-Canadian trader and trapper, Toussaint Charbonneau.

Forced into marriage and taken further and further from home, Sacajawea was soon pregnant. When Charbonneau was hired as a guide for a small expedition of Americans, she had no choice but to follow.

Sacajawea, however, would turn out to be far more vital to the success of the Lewis and Clark expedition than her vainglorious husband. She interpreted for them, served as a diplomat, and rescued critical papers and supplies when a boat overturned and most of the passengers panicked. And, to her great joy, she temporarily returned to her people, reuniting with her elder brother, now the Lemhi chief.

After the expedition, Sacajawea continued to accompany her husband as he moved around the West, but it’s here that she begins to fade from recorded history. It’s known that her son, Jean-Baptiste, was adopted by William Clark, and that she had a daughter, Lizette, who likely died young, but there are two women, otherwise nameless, who historians and oral tradition has claimed as Sacajawea. The first was a wife of Charbonneau, who died of fever in 1812, the year before Clark adopted Jean-Baptiste. Modern historians generally agree that this was Sacajawea, not yet thirty, and there is a monument to her in South Dakota.

But Sacajawea has another marked grave - that of the “female chief,” or Porivo, a Shoshone woman who had lived among the Comanche, travelled with white men, and died of old age among the Lemhi Shoshone. While her story has been subsumed by Sacajawea, it seems that she was quite the Awesome Lady of History herself.

[historicwomendaily]

Day 26: Gwenllian ferch Gruffydd. She was the daughter of Gruffydd ap Cynan, king of Gwynedd, and married the prince of Deheubarth. While her husband was away consolidating alliances, she stepped up to defend her country against Norman raiders. She led an army into battle, but was captured and beheaded along with two of her sons.

[historicwomendaily]

Thea is the fictitious name given to a female Homo sapiens skeleton found in the cave of San Teodoro (hence the name) in the territory of Acquedolci, province of Messina, in 1937.

The cave (measuring 60 meters in lenght, 20 meters wide, 10 to meters high) had been inhabitated since prehistoric times and had served throughout the ages as hideout from pirate raids, sheepfold and during World War Two as a repair from aerial bombing. It was first explored in 1859 by paleontologist and palethnologist Francesco Anca, baron of Mangalaviti. He uncovered remains of prehistoric mammals (dwarf elephants and horses, hyenas, bears, donkeys, deers) as well as flints and stone weapons, which made him determine the cave had been also inhabitated by ancient hunters. In the upcoming years, the cave kept being explored with many other animal fossils being unearthed. In 1937 the first human remains were found (in total 4 males and two females) and among them Thea's.

Her remains date back to Upper Paleolithic, between 14 to 11 thousands years ago and the moment of the discovery she was buried on the left side and covered with ochre. Apart from some missing ribs and her left hand, her skeleton is basically whole. Her sex was determined by the hip width and she might have been around 30 years old at the time of her death. Thea was 1.65m tall, with a long face and protruding lower jaw. Perfect teeth and bone structure along with the quality of her funerary equipment (she was found still wearing a necklace decorated with twelve pierced red deer's teeth) suggest she occupied a high status in her community (a noblewoman/princess or a priestess). It was speculated the cause of death might have been childbirth.

Thea's skeleton is currently preserved in Museo Gaetano Giorgio Gemmellaro, in Palermo. In 2007 a plastic model of her face was created in an attempt to give once again life to this Sicilian great-grandma.

Sources

Ambrusiano Eleonora, Thea, la prima donna siciliana – Acquedolci (ME)

Di Patti Carolina, THEA MADRE IL VOLTO DELLA PRIMA DONNA DI SICILIA E LA GROTTA DI SAN TEODORO

Grotta di San Teodoro: Sito Preistorico e Paleontologico di Sicilia

Il sito paleontologico e preistorico della grotta di “San Teodoro”

Il volto di Thea, donna siciliana nel Paleolitico

Thea, la principessa preistorica siciliana

[historicwomendaily]

Princess Charlotte was the only child of George, prince of Wales, later George IV and Princess Caroline of Brunswick. After her parents separated, she joined the Prince of Wales’ household at Carlton House and then was taken to live at the Lower Lodge, Windsor Castle, from 1805 onwards. Her relationship with her father was distant, particularly when she broke off her engagement to William, the Hereditary Duke of Orange, in 1813. In May 1816, she married Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, later King of the Belgians, but died soon after the birth of a stillborn son in 1817. She had become a very popular figure and was deeply mourned both by her husband and the general public.

The miniature has been worked up from a pencil drawing by George Sanders made during sittings he had in 1813 for a portrait the princess wanted to give her father for a birthday present.

The miniature is set in a hinged case with a lock of Princess Charlotte’s hair. The front of the locket is black enamel with a coronet of rubies and diamonds and her monogram PC. The plain gold back is engraved: Elle fut heureuse / Ah! Ne la plaignez pas (She was happy. Ah! do not weep for her).

Source

[historicwomendaily]

Oh, in a dream my father came to me (In a dream I was a werewolf) And made me swear that I'd keep (My soul was filled with crystal light) What's sacred to me

(discord messages written by @duchessofferia)

[historicwomendaily]

[historicwomendaily]

"The second half of the 860s saw [...] a change in Angelberga’s status, as well as the introduction of several queenly titles, which were used more frequently for her than other queens before her.

During the period which Louis II spent in the south the empress received a considerable number of royal grants. The first one, which was mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, was issued in May 866, probably in Capua, and granted to Angelberga the “corticellam nostram Ibernam sitam non longe a corte Olonna”. For the first time, Angelberga was presented as consors imperii: “dilectam coniugem nostram atque consortem imperii nostri” […] In July 866 Louis II issued another charter for Angelberga. This time she was granted three properties in north-eastern Italy, Sesto in the comitatus of Cremona, Locarno in the comitatus of Stazzona (Como) and Aticianum in the area of Diano (Liguria). In this document Angelberga is not defined consors imperii, but rather “dilectae coniugi nostrae, clarissimae scilicet augustae Angilbergae” [...] Gauginus recognized another charter, on 28th April 868 in Venosa, granting San Salvatore to Angelberga, and in case of her death, to her daughter Ermengarda. Based on the 861 diploma, this charter was issued following the death of Gisla, who until then had directed the nunnery. This charter explicitly stresses Angelberga’s political role as “consors et adiutrix regni pariter dilectissime coniuge nostrae, clarissimae scilicet augustae Angilbergae”. Expressions such as adiutrix regni and augusta seem to suggest an increasing stress on the empress' political role, which cannot be found in the previous donation of 861 […] A diploma issued in Venosa on 25th May 869, granted to Angelberga five curtes situated in the northeast of Italy. The document presents Angelberga as “amantissimam coniugem nostram Angilbergam imperatricem augustam”; and requesting the grant of the curtes: “eiusdem dulcissimae coniugis nostrae petitioni serenitatis aurem libentissime accomodantes praescriptas res”.

What needs to be underlined is the introduction of several queenly titles, which were not particularly common before Angelberga. This must be related to the new situation of the chancery: to the freedom chancellors had to invent – or reinvent – the diplomatic lexicon. Secondly, these titles echoed imperial authority. Their use was related to the historical moment in which they were employed, a moment of complex negotiations with the Byzantine empire. The expedition in southern Italy intensified the relations between the two empires, as the Byzantines also had interests in that area. In 871 Louis II sent a letter, probably written by Anastasius Bibliothecarius, to Basil I, replying to a previous missive of the Byzantine emperor, which has not survived. Louis’ letter discusses various matters, namely the military campaign and the patriarchate. However, its core is represented by Louis II’s claim legitimately to call himself emperor, which the basileus was questioning. Louis argued that he had the right to be called emperor, as his father and grandfather were emperors, and most importantly, as he had been consecrated by the pope. The letter shows that Basil did not want to recognize the legitimacy of Louis’ imperial title and hence that the language of authority was a very significant issue in these years. The language we find in Louis II’s charters in this period – also with regard to his wife’s titles - can be related to these discussions. The use of consors imperii – a solemn title, both because of its Roman origin and its use in Carolingian diplomatics – and of other titles that echoed political significance can be seen as an attempt to use a more formalized political language. This language would have stressed imperial authority in a period in which the relations with the Byzantine empire were extremely significant for Louis II."

Roberta Cimino, Italian Queens in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries (PHD Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2014)

[historicwomendaily]

Hello. I love your art it’s so pretty

Can you draw Blanche of Lancaster or Katherine Swynford because she’s underrated and i love her

Hi Anonymous! Thank you for sweet worlds ❤

Now I want to give you Blanche of Lancaster! It took me a while to find a bit more of a visual source to draw on, but anyway, I really hope you enjoy it!