Women in the Crusades

[RX-79G]

That said I think within the realms of a story it would be easy to construct the Crusade as a good thing from the perception of the characters.

The danger that I see is that you might be accused of white washing the actual events in the attempt to make things palatable from the female character's POV.

The Crusades are an origin period for some interesting knight orders. I just don't know if the Crusades themselves were essentially much better or different than other sacks, except that the people being sacked weren't even Christians.

 

[Overread]

The danger that I see is that you might be accused of white washing the actual events in the attempt to make things palatable from the female character's POV.

In a sense you will be; but that's ok.
Even if the story is trying to be faithful toward the historical events the perception of those events is not something that is universal. In the story the character who chooses to go to war has a reason that must be justifiable to themselves. They must have a reason; if that reason is because they are fed stories of glory and God and of reclaiming land from barbarians then that's the story and the justification.
The character doesn't even have to come to the conclusion that the war was a bad thing by the end of it either; sure many stories might well take that angle - that the revelation of war disgusts the character; but it doesn't have to be that way.

 

[RX-79G]

I agree, but was mainly pointing out that female characters serve as a kind of humanist lens, which makes it a little harder to pull off. I don't know if that is unfair to women, but they are classically the bridge-building voices of reason, not the berserking conquerors, and that contrast could be difficult to get past for readers.

Just a thought, no more.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

It's fairly easy not to whitewash the events - there were black people on both sides of the conflict.

 

[RX-79G]

It's fairly easy not to whitewash the events - there were black people on both sides of the conflict.

I'm not sure if you're kidding or not, but the term "white wash" has absolutely nothing do with race.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

I'm not sure if you're kidding or not, but the term "white wash" has absolutely nothing do with race.

Yes I know it's late for me after a long day and I didn't explain myself well. But if you give a character a slave/servant/prisoner who is native to the area you can have that character's beliefs and certainties challenged. The other side is put.

In the case of the crusades it is to do with race, religion etc if you want to put the other sides then those sides will have to be represented.

Ultimately your character will absolutely think they are right at least until they get there.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Just to clarify:

Whilst the discussion on race and religion etc is interesting, The Crusades are not in my wip. It is just the route by which one of the characters (who died before events in the wip take place) came to England.

(Coincidentally enough, race and religion, however, are themes in the overall story.)

pH

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Whilst the discussion on race and religion etc is interesting, The Crusades are not in my wip. It is just the route by which one of the characters (who died before events in the wip take place) came to England.

Are we still considering the original question - figured we moved on

 

[paranoid marvin]

Slightly off topic, but if you're watching videos on the Crusades then 'Terry Jones' Crusades' originally shown on bbc is really worth watching.

Back on topic, wives of Crusader knights would usually stay at home and run their husbands estates. If they did accompany their husbands it would only be in a supporting role not a combat role. Medieval fighting was incredibly brutal and unless you had military training you wouldn't last long, training gat it is unlikely was available to women at this time.

 

[Toby Frost]

Given that this is backstory, is the woman in question a POV character? If not, why not just fudge it and allude to having a tough time in the crusades? People could just draw whatever inference they wanted. As I said earlier, it's hard to imagine a woman in the crusades being a full-on Brienne of Tarth sort (which Joan of Arc wasn't) unless the book is specifically about that, but she could easily have been involved in the defence of some town that could have mixed fighting, fetching and carrying and generally manning the walls. IIRC, that did happen in the Thirty Years' War and the English Civil War (albeit that those were a lot later).

 

[Overread]

One can even say that the plucky "tomboy" girl trained by her father in combat arts (or trained by head guardsman or whoever) is common enough that it could be a fantasy staple. So its not beyond imagination that readers would quickly assume such might be the case for a background character (or you could lead them to it with a single sentence or two)

 

[Phyrebrat]

Hi all,

Thanks for the comments - I feel bad as, on reflection, I have settled on a man, not a woman, and people are still offering advice

Slightly off topic, but if you're watching videos on the Crusades then 'Terry Jones' Crusades' originally shown on bbc is really worth watching.

Hi PM, Yup, seen them. He has a load of great videos on the Middle Ages - funny, too.

Right now I have about 4 hours of a History Channel special called The Cross and the Crescent which goes through the entire Crusades timeline.

pH

 

[Toby Frost]

Whoops, I completely missed that! Well, from my point of view it was interesting and useful for what I'm writing at the moment, so thanks anyhow and good luck with the writing.

By the way, have you read Kings of Albion by Julian Rathbone? It's about a visitor from Asia coming to England during the Wars of the Roses. It's a while since I read it, but it might be worth a look.