Ruling Queens of the Twelfth Century: Power and Privilege

Posted by Paula Stiles Aug 24, 2006

For the next four weeks, we'll look at female rulers of the twelfth century: Eleanor of Aquitaine, Urraca of Castille, Matilda of England and Sibylla of Jerusalem. These women did not have the role of pawns that history claims for most queens. Nor did they inherit as widows or the mothers and regents of children in their minorities. Instead, they inherited their realms directly from male relatives. They were legitimate rulers of their realms.

These women do not represent the lot of ordinary women in the twelfth century. Nor should the power that they wielded indicate that women in general were more powerful in the twelfth century than in other centuries. If anything, the power that women held appears to have been on the decline, at least in northern Europe. Ecclesiastical women such as abbesses, in particular, saw their roles and power increasingly restricted.

On the other hand, these four queens were also more powerful than most men. Several characteristics contributed to their inheritance. First, there were no direct male heirs in their generation to supplant them. Second, they were confirmed as heirs by their male predecessors. Third, they all had considerable intelligence, charisma and skill at ruling-they were exceptional rulers. Fourth, they all produced heirs when possible rivals did not. And five, they all had strong factions of their nobility who supported them and their claim to rule.

This does not mean that they ruled unchallenged or with the same success. Even a queen was supposed to consider her husband as her lord. In medieval society, this meant that he ruled over her, though she did have rights. But in the case of these four women, that did not happen for various reasons due to luck and to each woman's strong personality. Others around them responded to the power and independence that they maintained from their husbands in a variety of both positive and negative ways. Yet a final feature of these four women is that they were all successful (however partially and incompletely) in retaining their claims and their holds on their realms. These are women who succeeded, not failed. And this is why they all kept their contemporaries in a lather of outrage and why they continue to fascinate and intrigue and puzzle us to this day. They break the mold.