Isabel of Conches

Christina Kohl is not the only female warrior of the Middle Ages. Isabel of Conches is an actual woman who took up sword and shield to fight alongside her knights.

Isabel was born in Montfort sur Risle, Eure, Normandy, in 1057, the daughter of Simon I de Montfort. She married Raoul II de Tosny, who fought at Hastings alongside William, Duke of Normandy.

In his Ecclesiastical history, Orderic Vitalis portrays Isabel as "joyous, generous, daring, and well loved by all." All, that is, save her sister-in-law, Helewise of Evreux, with whom she carried on an extended feud. This erupted into open warfare when Helewise's husband, William, Count of Evreux mounted an attack on Conches.

During the ensuing conflict, Orderic claims, "In war she [Isabel] rode armed as a knight among the knights; and she showed no less courage among the knights in hauberks and sergeants-at-arms than did the maid Camilla, the pride of Italy, among the troops of Turnus. She deserved comparison with Lampeto and Marpesia, Hippolyta and Penthesilea and the other warlike Amazon queens."

To say the chronicler was impressed is an understatement! This is especially striking in that Orderic, like other 12th century chroniclers, typically portray women as emotionally weak and unsuited for the battlefield and "unwarlike by nature." A belief with which I am certain both Christina and Isabel would disagree.