Although women's contributions to the crusades have historically been under-appreciated, recent scholarship has highlighted their indispensable contributions to the war efforts. Women from all social strata participated in the crusades, with or without taking the cross formally (as crucesignatae).
A significant portion of women involved with the crusades traveled with their husbands or families. Often times, such accompaniment was a means to avoid destitution. In other cases, women followed their employers. Piety and spiritual reward also motivated many crusaders, men and women. Helen J. Nicholson stresses the non-straightforward character of crusader's motivations in her work Women and the Crusades.
Women participating in the crusades faced many of the same expeditionary risks as their male counterparts: disease, abuse, captivity, enslavement, and death. Although cultural norms generally precluded women from active military combat (barring emergencies), they nonetheless served important logistical and support roles: herding livestock, loading crossbows, preparing munitions, and boiling water, as well as washing clothes and removing lice from soldiers. Noblewomen, possessing social and financial leverage unavailable to commonfolk, served as important campaigners, providing diplomatic support and mustering armies to the front.
During the First Crusade, "washerwoman" was the only role for crusading women permitted by the Catholic Church, as long as they were unattractive, for fear that the troops would engage with them in sexual relations. However, this stipulation was typically not obeyed, and all types and classes of women took part in the Crusades. Every time an army marched, several women would join them as sutlers or servants, as well as prostitutes. Unmentioned in victory, they took the blame for defeat and were purged from campaigns several times throughout the Crusades, for relations with them were considered sinful among soldiers who had left their homelands to fight a holy cause and were supposed to be pure in thought and deed. Numerous nuns also accompanied the religious men, namely priests and bishops, that traveled as part of the quests, while other women took up arms against their Muslim foes.
The inclusion of women in the chronicles was less common whose focus was more male-dominated. Mentions of female Crusaders are more commonly found in Muslim accounts of the Crusades, as the aggressiveness of Christian women was often seen as a way for Muslims to demonstrate how ruthless and depraved their foes could be. During the later Crusades, many women whose stories remain were from the Middle East region, including one of a Muslim woman who fought the Crusaders.
Contemporaneous historians
The story of women in the Crusades begins with Anna Komnene, the daughter of Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. She wrote a history of the First Crusade in the Alexiad,Anna Comnena: Byzantine Princess. Britannica providing a view of the campaign from the Byzantine perspective. She was exiled to a monastery before the work could be finished.
The challenges faced by women of the Crusades can be summarized by writings by Fulcher of Chartres, chaplain of Baldwin I of Jerusalem, who states:
Fulcher notes that mass hysteria had surrounded the holy quest of the Crusades, demonstrated by the belief that even a lowly waterfowl led by a nun [see below], had been blessed by the Holy Spirit and would lead them to Jerusalem.
Nuns
A large number of nuns are believed to have traveled to the Holy Land during the Crusades, but only three are known from the First Crusade, and only one is named. (Note that Riley-Smith uses the term "anonyma" to refer to a woman of unknown name.) Anonyma of Cambrai, the religious leader of a sect traveling with Count Emicho of Flonheim, who believed her goose to be filled with the Holy Spirit, even going so far as to allow the spirit-filled animal to direct the sect's course. The sect was not heard of again after the goose died. This story is reported by Fulcher and Albert of Aix. Gulbert of Nogent suggests that the goose may then have been served as a holiday meal. Anonyma, nun of the monastery of Santa Maria and Correa, Trier, who as part of the People's Crusade was taken by the Muslims during the Battle of Civetot that devastated the force of Peter the Hermit, who had returned to Constantinople for supplies. When she was liberated in 1097, she apparently eloped with her Turkish captor. Americas, a nun of Altejas, who, following the direction Pope Urban II, went to her bishop for his blessing to found a hospice for the poor in the Holy Land.
Wives According to Riley-Smith, there were seven of the wives of the first Crusaders that accompanied their husbands to the Holy Land. An eighth participated in the 1107 battles of Bohemond of Antioch-Tatanto against the Byzantine Empire (sometimes referred to as a crusade). They were as follows. Anonyma of Lèves accompanied her husband Ralph the Red of Pont-Echanfray, in the Crusade of Bohemond of Antioch-Taranto, 1107–1108. She was the daughter of Odeline of Le Puiset and Joscelin of Lèves, and so was the cousin of Humberge of Le Puiset. Ralph was knight of Bohemond's father Robert Guiscard. Ralph died in the White Ship disaster of 1120.Edith, daughter of William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey, accompanied her husband Gerard of Gournay-en-Bray with both the armies of Hugh the Great and Robert Curthose. Their son Hugh II fought in the Second Crusade. Corba of Thorigne, wife of Geoffrey Burel, Lord of Amboise, participated in the Crusade of 1101. Corba was captured by the Turks, and her ultimate fate is unknown. Elvira of Leon-Castile, illegitimate daughter of King Alfonso VI of León and Castile, who traveled while pregnant with her husband Raymond IV of St. Gilles, Count of Toulouse. After Raymond was killed at the siege of Tripoli in 1106, she gave birth to their son Alfonso Jordan, later Count of Toulouse, and then returned home to Castile. There she married Fernando Fernández de Carrión and had three additional children. Emeline accompanied her husband Fulcher of Bouillon, a knight in the army of Godfrey of Bouillon, who was captured and beheaded during the siege of Antioch. She was captured, taken to Azaz and married to a Turkish mercenary. Emma of Hereford, Countess of Norfolk, traveled with her husband Ralph I of Gael, a Breton leader first under Robert Curthose and then with Bohemund I of Antioch during the siege of Nicaea. Emma's parents were William Fitz-Osbern and Adeliza (daughter of Roger I of Tosny), and so she was cousin to Baldwin's wife Godehilde. Both Emma and her husband died en route to Jerusalem. Florine of Burgundy was a warrior-princess who accompanied her husband Sweyn the Crusader, Prince of Denmark in the First Crusade. Florine was the daughter of Odo I, Duke of Burgundy, and his wife Sybilla. Florine and Sweyn commanded a force of 1,500 cavalries progressing across the plains of Cappadocia when they were ambushed by an overwhelming Turkish force. Both were killed along with most of their force. Godehilde, daughter of Raoul II of Tosny, Seigneur de Conches-en-Ouche, who accompanied her husband Baldwin I of Jerusalem, as well as a contingent of their household. While he was marching to Cilicia, she fell ill and died in Kahramanmaraş, depriving him of the funding from her lands. He later entered into bigamous marriages with the Armenian Arda, whom he abandoned, and Adelaide del Vasto. Hadvide, daughter of Arnold I, Count of Chiny, who accompanied her husband Dodo of Cons, a confidant of Godfrey of Bouillon. Both Hadvide and Dodo returned home following their crusade. Helie of Burgundy accompanied her husband Bertrand of Toulouse in his quest to claim the role of Count of Tripoli. Humberge of Le Puiset traveled with her husband Walo II of Chaumont-en-Vexin. Humberge was the sister of the Crusader Everard III of Le Puiset, Viscount of Chartres, and daughter of Hugues "Blavons" de Bretenil and Alix de Montlhéry (daughter of Guy I of Montlhéry). Walo was killed during the siege of Antioch in 1098, but it remains unclear as to the fate of Humberge. Their son Drogo was also prominent in the First Crusade. Mabel of Roucy accompanied her husband Hugh I of Jaffa to the Holy Land. Ismat ad-Din Khatun - Turkic Muslim regent of Damascus; Zengid and then Ayyubid queen; known in Western sources as "Asimat." The daughter of the regent of Damascus, she would be the wife of first Nur ad-Din Zengi, and then Saladin. She would exercise considerable power under both regimes, and rule briefly in her own right in 1174. In 1174, Nur ad-Din died without an heir. King Almaric of Jerusalem sought to take advantage of the situation, invading his emirate and laying siege to Banias. Ismat ad-Din acted as regent during this time, governing Damascus and negotiating a victorious peace with Almaric. For this, chronicler William of Tyre described her as exercising "courage beyond that of most women.".William of Tyre, A History of Deeds Done Beyond The Sea, trans E.A. Babcock and A.C. Krey (Columbia University Press, 1943), vol. 2, bk. 20, ch. 31, pg. 395. William also does not give her name. Also in 1174, Nur ad-Din's general Saladin was crowned Sultan of Egypt, and claimed Syria as Nur ad-Din's successor. He legitimised this claim by marrying Ismat ad-Din, Nur ad-Din's widow and Damascus's regent, later in 1174.
Warriors Numerous women took the cross and battled the Muslims, some with their husbands, some without; numerous royal women fought as Crusaders, and at least one against them. Cecilia of Le Bourcq, Lady of Tarsus, sister of Baldwin II of Jerusalem and wife of Roger of Salerno, prince-regent of Antioch. Cecilia helped organize the defenses of Antioch in the Muslim attacks of 1119 in which her husband was killed. Eleanor of Aquitaine, queen consort of the Franks. Eleanor accompanied her husband Louis VII on the Second Crusade as the leader of the soldiers from the Duchy of Aquitaine, which included some of her royal ladies-in-waiting. The crusade accomplished little, and the disagreements on strategy between the king and queen eventually led to the annulment of their marriage. Her subsequent marriage to Henry II of England produced a son, Richard the Lionheart. After becoming king, Richard led the English contingent in the Third Crusade, with Eleanor serving as regent in his absence. Ermengard of Anjou, divorced wife of William IX of Aquitaine and daughter of Fulk IV of Anjou, who went on an unspecified crusade after 1118. Florine of Burgundy, detailed above. Ida of Formbach-Ratelnbert (Ida of Cham), widow of Leopold II, Margrave of Austria. During the Crusade of 1101, she led an army marching towards Jerusalem. They were ambushed at Heraclea Cybistra by Kilij Arslan I and, depending on the source, she was either killed or carried off to his harem. Margaret of Beverley, English commoner who took part in the Siege of Jerusalem in 1187. p. 119 Margaret of Provence, queen consort of France. Margaret accompanied her husband Louis IX and sister Beatrice on the Seventh Crusade. After Louis' capture, she led the negotiations for his release and, in fact, was the only woman to ever lead a Crusade, if however briefly. Her bravery and decisiveness were chronicled by her contemporary, Jean de Joinville. Melisende, Queen of Jerusalem, daughter of Baldwin II of Jerusalem. As ruler of Jerusalem after her father's death, she sent an army to aid the County of Edessa which was under siege and eventually fell. Her pleas to Pope Eugene III for help led to the disastrous Second Crusade.