Women’s Role Models: Generals

So, it’s time to look at “General”s a bit more and consider what kind of woman ends up as one. As with the previous posts in this series, this will look at some actual examples, then some more recent examples or suggestions, finishing off with what this means from a fantasy fiction point of view.

For those new to this series of posts or those who want a reminder, I’m focussing on the period between 800-1600 A.D. (or C.E.). I’ve specifically picked this period because this tends to be the inspiration for “medieval” fantasy although this actually covers a number of historic time periods. However you split the time frame up, a lot of things changed so any generalisations will be crude and possibly insulting. So, to repeat my now standard disclaimers:

1. I am doing this from a (white) British point of view.
2. I am not a historian.
3. I may remember things wrong, particularly as I have a tendency to see the possibility of a story rather than the details.

Cleaning up My Definitions

For the purposes of this set of posts, a General is someone who is not biologically male and is not presenting themselves as such (or “a woman”), yet is holding a position we would otherwise consider male. This position will involve being in charge of others but will have been achieved following a degree of training and education. Basically, I’m aiming at guild, Church and military leaders. Typically, such a person would have started out with a relatively high social status but it doesn’t preclude someone from the mid-level social rank achieving it with hard work and a lot of luck (and, in which case, it’s the middle-aged destination of an over-achieving young Soldier).

An advance warning: this post is going to borrow very heavily from the Soldiers post. There will be many backwards references as describing the General type only really works well as a comparison.

Craftswomen and Guilds

So, those two links I used before were Robert G Ferrell’s Women in Medieval Guilds [External Link] and Judith M Bennett & Maryanne Kowaleski’s Crafts, Gilds, and Women in the Middle Ages: Fifty Years After Marian K. Dale [External Link]. With respect to leaders of guilds, we’ve already made a few points:

1. A number of “women only” crafts did not have guilds. This would not stop them having leaders (i.e. Terry Pratchett’s Granny Weatherwax) but there will be no records that acknowledge these women’s status.
2. Where there were female guilds, women would have been guild leaders. There are records of these women.

Reading through again while looking for leaders gives us these points:

3. Women of mixed gender guilds could become full members and could be recognised leaders. There are records that indicate this happened.
4. Women very rarely became full members of male dominated guilds, although widows who kept the family business going generally were treated as such. There is nothing that indicates they became a leader in the sense of the highest ranking individual in the guild but they are recognised as having a voice at the councils in the same way as their male counterparts. There are records that support this.

However, in situations were women were acknowledged leaders, they were generally appointed by city representatives instead of just voted in as the men were. In the guild itself, a lot of the quality control aspects would have been managed by male merchants. There would not, then, have been much encouragement for a woman who decided she wanted that role. It would have taken a lot of skills further to those required of the typical Soldier: strategy, management, and even so far as “manipulation”. (Great choice, by the way, being regarded as “unwomanly” or as showing “the worst of feminine traits”.)

There is also an argument for getting rid of a husband, in the sleeping with the fishes sense, if he’s not helping the family business as much as he should, but I don’t think I was supposed to take that away from the paper(s) I’m reading.

Women in Religious Orders

Religious communities had leaders. Typically, the genders were kept separate – even if they were in the same physical community – so that women had their group, and leaders, and men had their group. The women’s group would be subordinate to the men’s group, so the overall leader of a shared community would be the highest ranking man. So the nuns would have the security of being able to say they were answerable to their leader, an abbess or similar, but they were technically lower ranking than the monks. Although there are exceptions where women were in charge of men: some Celtic monasteries (Wikipedia: Celtic Christianity [External Link]) and the Fontevraud Abbey (Wikipedia: Fontevraud Abbey [External Link]).

So, the structure was in place for a woman to become a leader of her community. Just as a male counterpart, they would be voted in by their community and then her appointment was acknowledged – through several steps – by the Church hierarchy. The only issue for a woman hoping to succeed in a religious career is that women were not allowed to progress to being a bishop or higher. (Much of this is still the same in the Roman Catholic Church.)

Women War Leaders

Reading through the Lothene website section on women warriors [External Link], as well as the Wikipedia lists I’ve used before (Women in warfare and the military in the medieval era [External Link] and Women in warfare and the military in the early modern era [External Link]), it’s fairly clear that noble women could become Generals – both in the military sense and the sense I’m using the word. It’s less usual for a lower status woman (i.e. knightly class / landed gentry or lower) to be accepted as an important leader on the battlefield but, then, it would also be difficult for a man of the same status. Nobles and higher waged war, lower classes than that just fought in them.

Back to Maiden, Mother, Crone

Again, I’m using the following age bandings:

• Child, the next generation.
• Maiden, the candidate for change, unsettled and ready to move.
• Mother, the establishment, settled and not ready to move.
• Crone, ousted by the establishment and encouraging the candidate for change, yet settled and not ready to move.

As for a Soldier, if we assume that most children will be taking on a skill and / or craft typical of their family, through their father’s (or parents’) work. Anything that might be taken as a sign of a Soldier might also be taken as a sign of a General. In order for their skill to be recognised and coached before they became “just” a wife and mother, they’re unlikely to be a late developer. There is an argument that higher ranking women actually have more leeway for this despite the early marriages because they are more likely to be in a position to, say, take control of a castle or a business for the first time in their middle age. But if someone is an unknown quantity with respect to their abilities, it’s going to be harder to get the recognition. In order to make the leap from Soldier to General, to succeed in the jostling for a (relatively) powerful position, you can probably also expect them to have been good with other people from an early age. Outright brilliance might not be necessary, any more than it is to mark out a modern genius, but it would definitely help. That said, the best leader isn’t necessarily going to be the best craftswoman.

Also like a Soldier, the sharpening of the skills learnt in childhood play and indulgence do better with an apprenticeship or a knightly education to bring on. For those noble women who come under this description, this is not something that is likely to have been open to them without an understanding family. They will, though, have been in a position to familiarise themselves with the strategic side of things if nothing else.

As a Mother (and wife), a woman becomes her husband’s business partner – provided she is allowed to get involved. This is pretty much where the Generals and the Soldiers separate. A Soldier will be improving their craft and generally working on the day to day. A General will be taking it one step further, working out how the system works and trying to put the group (Guild, convent, battalion) to good use. A woman who has leadership thrust upon her will still have sought out the knowledge of how to do this but she may not have been learning with “intent”, i.e. wanting to become the recognised leader, she will just have been in the right place with the right skills at the right time (if she succeeds). The opportunity to show that these skills have been acquired comes when there is a separation of wife from husband and the wife steps forward to fill the man-shaped hole – at least in the instances we have records for, as her husband would otherwise get credit.

As with Soldiers, old age always brought a certain amount of reliance on her children or the charity of the parish. Someone who truly sought leadership might take it as an opportunity to start a second career in the Church. However, while there was generally always room for a lay sister, someone who became a General through becoming a church leader (or a General looking for a second career) would have to be willing to take the vows before being allowed to take up a position of responsibility. Being voted into a leadership position is probably more likely if there is a longer, shared history between the woman and her group.

A Basic List

Here we go again with copied and pasted bullet points (links given above in the “Women War Leaders” section). In this instance, I’ve only copied the references for women who fought several times, clearly led the troops personally and played some part in the actual battles – although this is not always clear from the bullet point.

• Thyra, Queen of Denmark, ruled in her husband’s absence. She led her army against the Germans who invaded Sleswick and Jutland. Around 890 AD she built the Danneverke, a great wall which was Denmark’s major defence for centuries.
• 912-922: Reign of Æthelflæd, ruler of Mercia. She commanded armies, fortified towns, and defeated the Danes. She also defeated the Welsh and forced them to pay tribute to her.
• Olga, widow of Igor of Russia, raised an army which attacked Drevelian strongholds and ended the revolt in which her husband died, in 945AD.
• Matilda, Countess of Tuscany (also known as Matilda of Canossa) was born in Northern Italy in 1046. She learned weapons skills as a child. She first went into battle at her mother’s side in 1061 defending the interests of Pope Alexander II. When her stepfather, Duke Godfrey, died in 1069 Matilda began to command armies. She is described as having led her troops personally and wielded her late father’s sword. She spent some thirty years at war in the service of Pope Gregory VIII and then Pope Urban against the German Emperor Henry IV. She married twice, but had no children. She retired to a Benedictine monastery, but in 1114 when there was an uprising in the nearby city of Mantua she threatened to lead an army against the townsfolk. She died in 1115.
• 1131-1160: Melisende of Jerusalem ruler of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem is one of the rulers involved in the Second Crusade.
• The Empress Maud, also known as Matilda, Empress of Germany, Countess of Anjou, Domina Anglorum, Lady of the English, Matilda Augusta and Matilda the Good, was the daughter of King Henry I of England and Normandy. Her father made her his heir, but the Barons refused to accept her and her cousin Stephen was crowned King in 1135. Maud then invaded England and a long civil war continued for many years until Stephen agreed to make Maud’s son Henry his heir. She died in Normandy in 1167.
• Alrude, Countess of Bertinoro in Italy led her army and broke a siege at Aucona in 1172, she also took part in several battles when she returned to her own castle.
• 1184-1212: Reign of queen Tamar of Georgia. Georgia achieved military superiority in the Middle East under her rule.
• Nicola de la Haye was in charge of Lincoln Castle when rebel barons and Louis, son of the French King Philip beseiged it in 1217. She was the daughter of Baron de la Haye, hereditary castellan of Lincoln. She successfully defended the town against several rebel raids and was made sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1216.
• 14th century: Jane, Countess of Montfort leads troops into battle. Countess Jeanne de Penthièvre was among her antagonists.
• Black Agnes: Lady Agnes Randolph (A.D. 1300?-1369?), wife of Patrick the fourth earl of Dunbar and the second earl of March. In her youth, she fought for the Bruce, but is better remembered for the later defense of her castle. In 1334, Black Agnes daughter of the great Randolf, earl of Moray, successfully held her castle at Dunbar against the besieging forces of England’s earl of Salisbury for over five months, despite the unusual number of engineers and elaborate equipment brought against her. After each assault on her fortress, her maids dusted the merlins and crenels, treating her foes and the dreadfuls seige as a tiresome jest. She is celebrated in a folk song attributed to Salisbury.
• Phillipa of Hainault: (A.D. 1314?-1369) Queen of Edward III. In 1346, she led twelve thousand soldiers against invading Scots, capturing their king, David Bruce. She was patroness of Chaucer and founded Queen’s College.
• 1326: Isabella of France invades England with Roger de Mortimer, and overthrows Edward II, replacing him with her son Edward III, with her and de Mortimer acting as regents.
• Queen Margaret [I] of Denmark (1353-1411) led her armies against Swedish and Norwegian forces.
• 1471: Queen Margaret of Anjou is defeated in battle at Tewksbury. She and her son escaped to Flanders. The Yorkists eventually captured her and ransomed her to Louis XI, after she had sworn an oath not to go to war anymore.
• 1520: During the Swedish war of Independence against Denmark, rebellion-leader Christina Gyllenstierna becomes the head military commander of Sweden and Stockholm and defends the city. Anna Eriksdotter (Bielke) commands the city of Kalmar at the same point.
• 1521: Maria Pacheco Padilla defends the city of Toledo, Spain for six months after her husband falls in battle.
• Graine Ni Maille (1550-1600) was an Irish princess and pirate (also known as Grace O’Malley). She commanded a large fleet of ships. She petitioned Queen Elizabeth I of England regarding her various territorial claims, and the two met in 1593. Despite her own officers’ reports that Grace was attacking English navy, shipping and coastal towns, the Queen accepted Grace’s claims.
• 1597: Ebba Stenbock serves as commander of Turku Castle in Finland after the death of her spouse.

All of the women given mentioned in the above bullet points were married – although some of the points do not mention it. The motivation for most of them to begin their leadership careers was a missing male member of their family, either a father or a husband. This is not to say that the men were dead but were not available for a particular task, whether it be defence or upholding a family commitment. Or, in the example of Isabella of France (Queen of Edward II), when she felt that her husband was not capable of upholding his responsibilities and she could do a better job (in their son’s name). There are some women who have clearly been trained from childhood to take on these roles – e.g. Matilda of Tuscany and Canossa, and Queen Maud / Matilda of England were both educated to war and ruling.

Something that is also clear from this list is that most of them – or simply those that were most successful? – will have been Soldiers first, serving under other leaders in battles and honing their skills. Not all of them will have been involved in swordplay as children but they must have had some training and experience to be acceptable as commanders. So, Generals are basically not possible without Soldiers. (Though, fictionally, it would be possible for a Ringer who is found out and accepted as a General. We just don’t have any records of this happening.)

Role Model: Hildegard of Bingen

(Wikipedia: Hildegard of Bingen [External Link])

Hildegard was born about the turn of the Twelfth Century. As a member of the lower nobility raised as a nun, the expected path would and did include leadership. Hildegard’s initial monastery was a mixed gender place and, as leader, she was only a prioress in the shadow of an abbot. She managed to argue her group of nuns into a new, separate monastery and, eventually, added a second convent. This is not to say she automatically became the magistra (leader) because of her birth but it did make her an obvious candidate. She took the opportunity with enthusiasm, much as she grabbed the opportunities to learn a wide variety of subjects.

Again, she was not handed her education on a plate but she seems to have been aware that different people could teach her different things and pursued many subjects she had an interest in by courting their friendship. She wrote music, a huge body of texts on theology, and nature, and on medicine, and a large number of letters that probably did not fit with her order’s vows of seclusion. She went so far as to preach in public – not something generally expected of a woman. She was not known for keeping any disagreement she had with the Church and its rules to herself, and she had very definite ideas about how things should work. Not all of which fit with modern, feminist sensibilities.

She had visions for most of her life and there’s no doubting that her initial fame was due to these visions. Leaving aside debate about the truth of visions, they gave her an extra quality, some borrowed authority from God, when in debate against men. While she didn’t use this authority for every incident, it was no doubt heavily relied upon – to the point where her victory in gaining her own monastery is held to be as much the result of a miracle from God as her own abilities. By later life, with her reputation more secure, the borrowed authority would merely be one of several reasons for people to approach her for advice.

In contrast to military leaders listed above, Hildegard will not have spent every day reinforcing that she was the equal of a man by wearing men’s clothes and performing something that was more clearly men’s work. She pushed at the boundaries of the gender division but did so without directly taking on male authority. For this, some people hold her up as a proto-feminist. Having come through an organised system, it is likely that Hildegard was highly aware that her rise to power reflected on her convent and other women in the same order but I think calling her a proto-feminist stretches the point.

More Recent Examples and Modern Equivalence

If you work through the war-related links given above, you’ll see the number of obvious, high-up leaders drops significantly with no women listed in the Twentieth Century. Although, to counter this, it is worth pointing out that the Twentieth Century saw the formation of various women’s corps – so they will have had their own leaders and (ordinary, acceptable) individual high ranking officers will not get listed on a Wikipedia page. But part of this will have been simply working through a period of time where higher born women were not encouraged to take on work and women were effectively not allowed to progress to high level careers. It takes a while to change society, as we’ve already seen with how this same, preventative attitude gradually grew through the medieval period.

It would be naive to say that there is such a thing as true gender equality but things are closer to it than they have been in a long time and probably closer than it was in the period I’ve been looking at. Women, after all, now have legal status and the right to vote. That said, there are not huge numbers of high ranking, famous business-women, or Church officials (and that‘s denomination dependent whether there are any at all). I don’t know of any women military generals (which doesn’t mean they don’t exist, it just means they’re not obvious to me). If things continue as they have been, we can expect them to start arriving some time this century. Well, we’ve got another eighty-odd years to work on it. From a historical perspective, it’s a question of how well the records will show this, as the “norm” is very rarely reported fully.

Putting That In Writing

Following someone who is “established” doesn’t seem to hold much interest for readers and a General, if only by virtue of having a recognised career, can only be described as established. Biographies generally start with the before, the how someone became the great person or came to great recognition. Fantasy fiction often follows the same principle, so the first book(s) about a major character will probably be of them as a Soldier (or learning to be one) and their rise to greater things, becoming a General in the process. When they appear in later life, they will be one of several key players and not the only focus. A quick example of this is David Gemmell’s Hawk Queen series, with the first book covering Sigarni’s path to kick-ass-hood and the second using her as one of several characters fighting the good fight across several time periods. More specifically, she gives help to the lead character.

This basic issue is seen in both genders. It’s not very interesting to just follow someone who is well into their career and accepted, particularly as the sole focus character. Conflict and problems in their lives make it more interesting, of course, but doesn’t always make up for them being the establishment (in other words, firmly part of the Mother generation).

There is the possibility of a “quick win” for a writer who wants to signify gender equality, or something like it, in their fictional world by ensuring that there is at least one, powerful, skilled woman (i.e. a General) referred to as a background or secondary character without any sort of shock or surprise on her colleagues’ part. This could be a member of the city council, one of several guild masters, an actual military general or a religious leader. If they are apparently respected for their skills, training and experience, then it stands to reason that other women can be, even if the story does not deal with women as main characters – and the readers will generally make that assumption. It requires extra words to actually break that assumption and make the General a one-off, or a one in only a few generations.

Similarly, creating a retreat similar to Fontvraud Abbey would also suggest a measure of equality – or, at least, that there is some part of the society that recognises women’s abilities. This would be a useful piece of a character’s background or a source of proto-feminism in the fictional world.

• Protagonist – Typically, the main character (or, at least, the point of view character) will be young, perhaps too young to be an effective General. As we’ve covered, a General will be of the Mother generation, so there is an expectation of mothering and family responsibilities – which, on the plus side, will probably free her up from the love interest related expectations. Again, the end may be uncomfortable for the reader if the woman doesn’t go home to her children. It’s worth saying that a hero General isn’t necessarily going to be the ruler. They may be loyal to a ruler and fighting for the ruler’s rights. In some instances, a good General cannot be allowed to become the ruler, as crimes like regicide are frowned upon even if they’re necessary.
• Antagonist – Unlike a Soldier, an evil General is likely to want to take over the area. Given that they will feel the current ruler is doing it wrong and that they know better, should we be surprised? If they’re supporting an evil ruler, they aren’t the villain, they’re a henchman.
• Ally – This is a continuum from the hero General, depending on who is actually the main character and who is required to end up the highest ranking at the end of the story. So, if we work under the assumption that a General will have to be old enough to be established, she could easily take on the role of a stand-in older sister or mother to a hero. It’s unlikely that such a strong, competent middle-aged woman could be made the love interest without a fair amount of nip and tuck to expectations. (We’re shallow, Love belongs to the young, etc.)
• Advisor – And, of course, from the older sister / mothering role, it’s a hop and a skip to becoming an advisor. However, an advisory role brings the magical ability of disapproving with authority. A disapproving ally is usually wrong, a disapproving advisor is probably right – unless the hero is proving they have outgrown their advisor, in which case neither the ally nor the advisor would have been right, anyway.
• Unexpected Ally – As with a Soldier, there shouldn’t be anything different in how a female unexpected ally is won over from a male counterpart but it is fairly typical of what the audience expects to do so by appealing to her “feminine qualities”, i.e. the use of (potential) love as a daughter, wife or mother. It would be nicer if it were her strategic abilities that were appealed to.
• Henchman – The henchman General will be a more obvious counterpart to the heroic General mentioned earlier: loyal to a ruler and fighting for their rights – but the ruler they fight for is more likely to be fully competent and a character in their own right, unlike for the heroic General who will probably serve a child. As with a Soldier, the “evil” will be underscored by their choice of ruler and not caring about their family life – this may be implied be a lack of mention rather than actually stated. They may also have that too healthy interest in sex, possibly with the protagonist. Much of this is due to the gender expectations that appear to be built in to our current culture (through stereotyping) and make it easier for the reader to latch on to what’s happening.
• Traitor – Again, as the inverse of the Unexpected Ally the same thinking applies.

The Writer’s Cry For Help

Here’s the request for more audience participation. If you have some real life and fictional examples of Generals, please leave a comment or contact me so that I can add them into the lists.

The Women’s Role in Fantasy Fiction Blog Posts

I thought I’d make it easier to jump from post to post so the series is now linked at the bottom of each post. The six posts are:

1. Women’s Roles in Fantasy Fiction
2. Women’s Role Models: An Introduction
3. Women’s Role Models: Ringers
4. Women’s Role Models: Soldiers
5. Women’s Role Models: Generals (this one)
6. Women’s Role Models: Politicians