Der Texte über den Teppich von Bayeux war ebenfalls deplatziert, man erfährt nichts über die Frauen die den Teppich hergestellt haben (weil es dazu auch gar keine gesicherten Erkenntnisse gibt) - die Autorin gibt nur anekdotisch wieder, was auf dem Teppich zu sehen ist. Harris, Gill Murray, Arnie Halporn, George Levinger, Pat O'Brien, Cyn Bregman, Bill Barrett, Jan Gucker, Ginny Brown, Peter Strong, Ruth Simpson, Don Spence Hildy Herold, Roger BGart, Bobby Bernstein, Joanne Joslin, Ethan Davis, et al [dp50 1213]. Women with no big names or titles only got the last chapter in the book, but it was good to hear about them too. After all, the skeleton, known as “Bj 581”, was going into the next life surrounded by every kind of death-dealing instrument: spears, axes, arrows and swords, and a couple of strapping war horses.

Ramirez’s essay style of an introduction to each chapter’s subject by reference to a relatively contemporary event (for example the 1997 canonisation of the fourteenth century Jadwiga, “King” of the Poles in chapter 7), followed by an imaginative verbal recreation of an event in the individual’s life and then an exploration of their wider historical significance is a good approach.It is a neat illustration of the way the motivations and biases of those who record history can change it. If some historical female figures have been unwittingly overlooked, others were deliberately erased by those threatened by their power. I've read a few new takes on history this year - from The Dark Queens narrative history of Brunhild and Fredegund in the 6th-century Merovingian Empire, and Vagabonds attempt to reclaim the words of the 18th Century London working and criminal underclass. We want to know who walked where we walk, what they experienced and how they left their mark on history.

Before her death, Æthelflæd ensured that her crown would go to her daughter, Ælfwynn – the only time rule passed from one woman to another in early medieval England.See the medieval world with fresh eyes and discover why these remarkable women were removed from our collective memories. Before nunneries were closed during the Reformation, monastic life allowed noblewomen to “bypass marriages… and instead form their own centres of learning where they could be rich, respected and remembered”. Within that Ramirez does a very impressive job of both standing on the shoulders of giants from the last century, and also utilising all of the technology that archaeology and other forms of scientific analysis can give her. Six pages are given over to her story, before Ramirez concludes “it is unlikely to be Emma depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry”.

Femina concludes with the story of Eleanor, a fourteenth-century sex worker arrested for acts of sodomy and prostitution. The book is a series of essays about various medieval women, but I found it dissatisfying overall, since other than relating to medieval women, the essays are otherwise disconnected. So, I didn’t really like it but I believe it is most likely due to my expectations and thinking the book was going to be something it isn’t and due to reading other books about the Middle Ages this year that I’ve liked better. In Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It , Janina Ramirez reappraises the status of women in the Middle Ages by presenting the lives of several notable women who have been omitted from or underrepresented in histories of the period. I love all her books but this one is most powerful for me because of the way she positions her protagonist Constantia within a complex and believable Sussex village more than a century ago.The varied and impressive female characters in this book offer a less prominent but worthwhile perspective on the period, and make for a memorable book. Oxford and BBC historian Janina Ramirez has uncovered countless influential women’s names struck out of historical records, with the word FEMINA annotated beside them. This isn’t really a “new” history of the Middle Ages, it’s nine essays about specific exceptional women or moments in history. The Vikings of York were prepared to cede to her and, had she not died before they could, Æthelflæd would be venerated as the woman who unified England. In de kijker staan een aantal vrouwen, en 1 keer een ding, waar telkens een hoofdstuk aan gewijd is.