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History Unplugged Podcast

The Most Powerful Women in the Middle Ages, Part 1: Queens, Empresses, and Viking Slayers

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.23.7K Ratings

🗓️ 21 August 2018

⏱️ 71 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The idea of a powerful woman in the Middle Ages seems like an oxymoron. Females in this time are imagined to be damsels in distress, trapped in a high tower, and waiting for knights to rescue them, all while wearing traffic-cones for a hat. After rescue, their lives improved little. Their career choices were to be either a docile queen, housewife, or be burned at the stake for witchcraft.

But what if this image of medieval women is a complete fiction?

It turns out that it is. Powerful female rulers fill the Middle Ages. Anglo-Saxon queen Aethelflaed personally led armies into direct combat with Vikings in the 900s and saved England from foreign invasion. Byzantine Empress Theodora kept the empire from falling apart during the Nika Revolts and stopped her husband Justinian from fleeing Constantinople. Catherine of Siena almost single-handedly restored the papacy to Rome in the 1300s and navigated the brutal and male-dominated world of Italian politics.

In this episode, part 1 of a 3-part series, I look at the lives of three extraordinarily powerful women in the Middle Ages. In particular I look at the lives of Empress Theodora of Byzantium, Aethelflaed of the Mercians (a proto-English kingdom), and Eleanor of Aquitaine, the most powerful landholder in Europe in the 12th century.

We will explore how they managed to ascend the throne, what made their accomplishments so notable, and the impact they had on their respective societies after their deaths.

Transcript

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0:00.0

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Rachel O'Sullivan and Sophie Downing.

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Nominate them today and they could win a money car buy experience with Skybet prize drop.

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0:32.0

Welcome to the History Unplugged Podcast.

0:35.0

The unscripted show that celebrates unsung heroes, myth busts historical lies,

0:41.0

and rediscoveres the forgotten stories that changed our world.

0:45.0

I'm your host, Scott Rank.

0:48.0

The Story of Women Taking Over the Duties of Their Husbands and Factories and Homes

0:59.0

During Times of War is a familiar one.

1:02.0

While they were deployed overseas to stop a foreign dictator from World Conquest,

1:06.0

they were placed in charge of their households.

1:09.0

Before the war, this hypothetical wife depended on her husband's paycheck for all their material needs.

1:15.0

Now, for the first time, she was solely in charge of the family's finances.

1:20.0

She was also responsible for new duties, such as simple home repairs and overseeing improvement projects.

1:27.0

Money was tightened these times, so before long, she rented out her home's empty rooms to lodgers and prepared the meals.

1:34.0

The modest revenue was used to upgrade its furnishings and maybe add an additional room.

1:39.0

Soon, the lodging business grew.

...

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