Women of the Last Millennium

About the Book

    The aim of this book is to call attention to the most famous women who lived---and died---during the last millennium. There are actually thousands and thousands of women during this long period who have a serious claim to being famous, and as a result there may

seem to be a certain arbitrariness in the choices of the 234 women whose biographies appear here.  It is to be hoped, however, that there will be a general agreement that least upwards of 80 percent of those chosen in this study deserve to be regarded as the most famous.  

    This book makes no claim to “discover” women whose achievements hav not hitherto been properly recognized, for the women’s movement has already done much to assure that they have; rather it is just the opposite: to call attention to the contributions of the most famous women who have already established a wide reputation through their achievement, in virtually all of the major fields of endeavor.  The book is therefore not intended to be either politically correct or politically incorrect.  Rather it presents short biographies of truly famous women of Western civilization in chronological order beginning with the 11th century.

    A biographical study of this sort tells a great deal about the progress that women have made---and not made---over the past millennium in most of the major areas of achievement.  It shows particularly the impact that the gradually expanding education of women has had on the history of Western culture.

    Even based upon the biographies of so few famous women as appear in this study, it is possible to make some valid observations about the history of their achievements.  One may note, for example, that in the early centuries of the millennium most of the famous women were either religious or political figures, or occasionally both, though the same may likewise be said of famous men, because cultural contributions were necessarily limited by the very nature of the times, for both men and women.  Many women became saints, just as many men did, though only a few of the influential women saints are represented here.  Some influential women religious figures who did not become saints were sometimes charged with being frauds or even witches, as this study shows.

    One may observe too that among women political figures some wielded enormous power, even during the Middle Ages, at a time when there were no democracies but a plethora of monarchies.  Famous women who came to achieve great political power sometimes inherited it, but they were also often queen-consorts of kings who were themselves weak or absent, or occasionally even insane. Women sometimes made their political power felt also through their sons, who often became kings or other men of power but remained under their mothers’ influence.  Women during these early centuries sometimes achieved power through multiple marriages, which were usually politically arranged. Some had the power of acquiring or giving away large sections of land, of hiring and firing ministers, of declaring war, of achieving peace, of reforming governments, and some, beginning in the 15th and 16th centuries, made many cultural contributions by building buildings and encouraging the arts.

    Some of them, however, in the end, as this study will show, bec ame so caught up in political intrigue that they suffered as a result of their power by being banished or sent to a nunnery or becoming impoverished, and some were even executed.  Some of the women who held power in the early centuries of the millennium ruled over large sections of Italy and France.  When they were not the power behind the throne, they were sometimes on the throne.  Almost half of 16th century England, for example, was ruled by two women, Mary I and Elizabeth I.  Four empresses were rulers in 18th century Rusia, one of them bei

About the Author

Arther Trace is a retired professor of English and Russian literature. He has published several books on literature, education, and literary criticism as well as dozens of articles. His book What Ivan Knows That Johnny Doesn’t was a Book-of-the-Month-Club Alternate.