Abstract
In medieval Europe, the art of war was considered to be specifically male. Nevertheless, in some chronicles or archive documents, one can find female warriors who fought to defend their fiefdoms or who enrolled in the ranks of the crusaders. Did civil and religious law allow this female practice of war or was it totally prohibited? While civil laws clearly prohibited it, the Church’s response often appears more ambiguous. This was the case during the eleventh and twelfth centuries when, within the framework of the Investiture Controversy, the warlike activity of the countess Matilda of Tuscany gave rise to a debate pitting the supporters of the Papacy and the Gregorian reform against those of the Emperor Henry iv. The debate focused precisely on this question: do women have the right to wage war?
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