Description
Book SynopsisThe Women of Antioch is both a biography of four womenâConstance, Alice, Constance II, and Maria, all connected through marriage or birth to the crusader principality of Antiochâand an analysis of the political cultures within which they maneuvered, including eleventh-century France, Norman Italy, Antioch and Byzantium.
The bookâs comparative perspective facilitates the discernment of differences and commonalities in these womenâs experiences, identifying elements conducive to their exercise of authority as well as limitations they encountered. Its insight into the intersection of gender and political culture demonstrates how, at certain times and places, female rule was so frequent and widely accepted that it was not viewed as an aberration in the system of governance, but rather as a safeguard ensuring its ability to function. This is especially evident in the volatile regions of Norman Italy and the Latin East, which witnessed unusually high rates of male mortality a
