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Women In The Middle Ages: A Depiction Of Craft And Ambition

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Women In The Middle Ages: A Depiction Of Craft And Ambition
Women in the Middle Ages:
A Depiction of Craft and Ambition

Throughout the works depicting the Arthurian Middle Ages, women are scarcely even mentioned. However, a few women managed to make it into the pages of history as written by Gildas, Nennius and Geoffrey of Monmouth and transcribed by Richard Loomis. These two women, specifically Renwein, the daughter of Hengist, and Culhwch’s stepmother the queen, are prime examples of how women in middle age stories were used to warn rulers of deception. Both women used their positions near power to influence historical events, and thus attempt to gain political power themselves. Renwein, as mentioned in Geoffrey’s History of the Kings of Britain, was the daughter of the Saxon leader Hengist. She was brought over in the second wave of Saxon ships from Germany. Upon meeting the then King Vortigern at a feast, her beauty seduced him and they married, thus making her queen, but in exchange for the land of Kent. Renwein, simply by marriage has already gained her family power by gaining rule over the province of …show more content…
To do this, she places a destiny, or a curse, on Culhwch so that he can only marry a giant’s daughter, which was assumed to be a death sentence. This action has several implications. First off, a cruse implies that the queen is some type of witch or woman who garners some type of power. This in itself is a sign of craft by which the woman has unwarranted power. Furthermore, it is an act of ambition. By placing this fortune on Culhwch, assumed to be condemning him to death, she is removing the possibility of him assuming the throne. Without Culhwch, there is no other heir, thereby allowing either a son of the queen, or the husband of her daughter to assume the kingship. This thusly enables the blood lineage of the queen to enter into the royal line, gaining herself and her family
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