Women of Courage: Stories of Great Women in the History of Christendom Whose Devotion Change... Book

Book 3, lets hope it’s narrative follows the same format as the opening book in the series..... at least its a short book.... fingers crossed.....going in!

After a short introduction to the general layout of the book & the world the book has inherited C1000AD we’re swiftly away, no long intro’s here! The structure of the book seems sound enough with the narrative going via century (we start in the 11th) through to the mid 14th Circa the Black Death Plague.

Hopefully we’ll learn more about the peoples this time as we did in the first book?

We have maps of regions of Europe to start each chapter giving major towns/cities/peoples & at the back is a history/Index of all the Kings of Europe of the different peoples for the period covered. Also at the back is a chapter with “Further reading” which names around 4-5 books for each chapter/section of the book, so if you wanted to read more about the Magyars History, a pointer or two is given which is where I’ll be heading at some point.

The 11th Century chapter sees us introduced to the major powers in turn via the regions of Europe, namely the Mediterranean, Northern Europe & British Isles, Francia/France & finally Central Europe. The narrative is quite brief in truth but it’s easier to follow than the previous book & most importantly we get to learn about the peoples of the time be they Spanish, Venetian or Anglo-Saxon which is why I signed up for this series in the first place. The author does reach back before the year AD1000 (official start of the book) & shows us the origins of some of the races highlighted albeit very briefly. It doesn’t get bogged down with endless names/dates, merely highlights major events in the named region by the named peoples & how their social/economic, political & religious society was made up along with their rivalries/alliances with (in the case of Italy) other states/countries/cities. You get to learn about Sicily for example & appreciate it’s pivotal position in the 11th century as the Arabs, The pope, Byzantines & eventually it’s conquerors the Normans vie to control it along with it’s Muslim, catholic, orthodox & Jewish population.

There are many examples to give (i’ve given jus a flavour) but trust me when I say by reading this you will much better understand how the jigsaw of Europe came together from around the year AD1000 onwards. If you already know about such things then I doubt you’ll find anything new in this book as it covers the basics only. For me, I knew what I was told about the Scandinavians of the 11th Century but for sure I knew little of the early formation of the Italian states & the central Mediterranean so it was a good read overall as I learnt more than I already knew & more importantly it started to put it all into order / timelines which I was a little loose about in some regions.

The one thing that stands out in the opening chapters is that many of the races/peoples mentioned in this book evolved long before the year AD1000 but were NOT covered in the prior book which irks me even more now about the second book in the series. It has though given me an appetite to learn more about individual peoples/nations that started to emerge from around C750 AD through to the later medieval period.

The 12th Century begins with religion, the Pope, the Holy Roman Empire & explains the emergence/expansion of the church via various holy orders/monasteries which leads onto the 1st Crusade & illustrates how religion became a greater part of medieval man’s life/culture as opposed to the prior centuries. It’s quite a development & not the gradual erosion into/control over people’s lives I thought the church had been post the fall of the Roman Empire. Christendom vs Pagans ive covered through various peoples but not in this context where Christendom becomes more powerful & all encompassing in daily lives, fervour would be a good description. This is the part of Christendom (or any religion) that I despise.... its control (power) over people.

The year 1096 seems particularly barbaric where the early “crusades” many not even reaching Constantinople let alone the “holy land” set about the European Jews & massacred them en masse en route to the East, many of these “bands” were even set upon & massacred themselves by the Hungarians & Bohemians as they provoked violence on the Jews within those countries borders, the worst atrocities were carried out in the Rhineland where whole Jewish communities were butchered. It’s a part of history i’d never heard about before or at least not in this aspect/detail.

Education through religious institutions dominates this century as centres of learning pop-up & spread across Europe which go on to become universities. Books start to be readily copied through mostly monasteries.... again the religious impact (read bias).

This era is more about the spread of learning & social economics & we forego certain regions, namely Scandinavia, Eastern Europe & the Byzantium Empire all of which are not covered as the author concentrates mainly on Western Europe & the crusades. Which I think is remiss as the evolvement of certain nations/races/regions in Europe, are not covered. I say Europe, as in the modern era version as we know it.

The 13th Century starts with more social history as urbanisation is fully in effect in the West. We learn of the Pope, Innocent III who initiated the rise/consolidation of the power/influence of the Papacy over its near neighbours namely Sicily & the Holy Roman Empire first, before its sphere spread to the rest of Western Europe. The 4th crusade aims to retake Jerusalem but it’s high jacked by the Venetians who take Constantinople much to the Pope’s dismay but he puts it down simply to “God’s will”.

Its a bit of a whirlwind tour through the history of the period but as ive said before (on occasion!) its joining the dots for me & i’m happy with the succinct delivery. The major powers in Western Europe (France & England) feature in this chapter having whole sections to themselves as always........ finally though the central (Poland, Hungary & Bohemia) & Northern (Scandinavia & Baltic states) regions appear on our horizon but it feels like they have been jettisoned into our historical narrative & all that has gone on before is presumed for the reader...... at least though we finally get a picture of what’s happening/developing in Eastern Europe (which doesn’t form part of the Byzantium Empire) although sadly we get very little, bar a mention, of what the Mongols are doing in the Eastern regions of Europe. Its (Sections on Central & Northern Europe) all very brief for me & in no-way as thorough, as the chapters concerning the church or the western powers that have dominated the book to date.

The 14th century sees us start with more Christendom swiftly followed by Famine & the Plague as the Black Death reaches Europe & lays waste to the population. It really is a game changing series of events on the populous of Europe & those that survive through the events certainly have a different life to those that went before, it’s reasoned that the middle ages end with these events, which seems a reasonable assertion, in fact western Europe doesn’t reach pre-plague population levels until the 1600’s. The other detail that popped out at me was the victimisation of witches/Jews in this period ie non-Christians who started to be persecuted openly as opposed to being tolerated before.

At journeys end I think I could have handled more history & felt for certain regions/eras it was a little sparse compared to others, the impact of Christendom being one I could have done less with but I guess to the victor goes the writing of history..... I also have the feeling that the book jus petered out come the end, although perhaps on reflection that period itself (of The Black Death) brought about a big impact on life In Europe in the time.

Overall I’d have to give it a three, middle of the road for sure

Next up would have been renaissance Europe C 1350-1550 BUT it hasn’t been written yet!!