The Home Front

Abstract

Abstract Women who did not join crusade expeditions with their families had many difficulties to surmount. Women who remained at home to administer their family estates often had to combat the rival claims of relatives or other claimants to their property; although as members of crusaders’ families they were under papal protection, this protection was not always enforced by secular and ecclesiastical authorities. If their crusading relatives were captured, they would have to raise the ransom for their relief; if their crusading relative died on campaign, they would have to implement their will. It was difficult to establish whether alleged deathbed bequests were genuine, as such claims could be an attempt by a dead crusader’s companions to defraud his widow and children of their property. Women, like men, helped to finance crusades by taking a crusade vow and then redeeming it for a money payment rather than joining a crusade in person; they also financed institutions which supported crusaders, such as the military religious orders, the Templars and Hospitallers, and religious orders which gave charitable support to captives and negotiated ransoms for them. Women also gave spiritual support for crusades: taking part in religious rituals to support the crusade, making donations to religious houses, and venerating saints; while holy women supported the crusade through prayer and their writings.