During the middle ages, females were looked down upon and had their rights severely restricted by man. Society was ruled by man and seen as the superior figures. There weren’t many females who would speak out against the injustices that were being committed towards females. There weren’t many females who would speak out and stand up for females but one female who did speak out against female oppression and had the most impact during her generation was Christine de Pizan. Christine de Pizan released many works of literature, that were meant to expose anti-feminism and to use man’s own words to dispute their false claims and opinions of females during the middle ages and the two books that she released that in my opinion had the most impact on society in the middle ages and led to future development towards females rights was The Book of the City of Ladies and The Book of Deeds of Arms and of Chivalry.
To understand why Christine used literature and writings to empower feminize, we need to first dig into her past and how she got into writing and scripting. Christine de Pizan was born in Italy, in Venice in 1364. During her early years, her father was away as he pursued a job as a court astrologer to King Charles V. After many passing years, Christine and the rest of her family joined their father in France. While living with the royal families in France, Christine was allowed to learn high-level education. When she turned 15, her father Thomas began looking for a suitable suitor, who was just as educated as his daughter. She married Etienne de Castel and even though it was a forced union, they both loved each other instantly.
When the King died, Christine’s father lost his job and he did not have much saved away because he was always giving money away periodically to the less fortunate. Soon after losing his job, Thomas became very ill and died. Etienne then became the head of her household but that was short-lived since Etienne passed away five years later. Now all the financial burden was put on Christine’s hands, she was left responsible for not just her children but her mother and niece. She pursued a job as a scribe, who would copy manuscripts. This job led to her becoming the first professional female writer. Once she established herself in the field of writing, she used her platform to fight against female oppression. She wrote numerous pieces of work and literature during her lifetime, but “Christine is best known for her allegorical works, which often incorporate autobiographical and political sentiments into the allegory, such as The Path of Long Study (1402–1403) and The Book of Fortune’s Mutation (1403). Of special interest is The Book of the City of Ladies (1404–1405), for which she has become noteworthy as an early champion of women.”(Bleiberg. Page 202).
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Another writing that she used to show that women weren’t inferior to men by using war and military strategy was The Book of Deeds of Arms and of Chivalry. She used these and many other writings to fight against misogyny, which was being displayed on society and the misogyny that was being depicted in literature. Christine de Pizan uses Le Livre de la Cite des Dames or The Book of the City of Ladies, to talk about men’s warped views they had towards females. In the book, Christine picks up a book that speaks about how females have no morality and depict females in such a negative light. After reading this book, a bright light is presented in front of her and three females emerged, each having a significant meaning behind them. One female is Reason, the second is Rectitude and the third is Justice.
Together they inform her that she must construct a City of Ladies and fill it with the most knowledgeable and purest females from around the globe. The point of this city was to be a safe haven against the false opinions of men and to reflect the accurate depiction of females and not the warped view men had of them at the time. Once the city was populated, Christine reminded the population the significance of this city, which is to demonstrate the power solidarity of females and when united that men can’t tear them one part to Reason, one part to Rectitude and one part to Justice and used these three terms to defend the female identity and to dispute and reject the false views men had of females. “Christine’s art of refutation, here as elsewhere, must accomplish two seemingly conflicting goals: she must defeat a key point of misogynist doctrine by using the very language that underpins misogyny itself. In this instance, her challenge was to make the potentially exclusive noun hommes serve the feminist cause.” (Bomarito. Page 315). She knew she had to expose the lies being told by men by using their words against them, by using this story and many others to refute the untrue statements being emitted by man.
Also what was not helping her cause was that during the Middle Ages, The Church instilled in the people that females were beneath men and that they were here on earth to corrupt man and they used the story of Adam and Eve to defend this point. Through the story of Adam and Eve, The Church would preach that females were put on earth to corrupt man. In an attempt to counter these thoughts and views of females, Christine used this allegory to come to the defense of females. She used this story to unite females, to show how if they all came together they could battle against the false depiction society had of them. This story not only had an impact on female empowerment during the middle ages but assisted in female’s rights for future generations. “Recent feminist scholarship credits the beginning of international women’s human rights to fifteenth-century Le Livre de la Cite des Dames (The Book of the City of Ladies) by Christine de Pizan who argued for women to be educated, to be able to live and work independently, to participate in public life, and to be masters of their own fate.” (Kamrani. Page 252).
During her time, Christine lived through part of the Hundred Years’ War, which involved England and France feuding with each other and while this was going on there were numerous groups within France, trying to seize control of France. The Book of Deeds of Arms and of Chivalry discussed Christine’s political views towards wars and how females can understand and grasp the finer details of what is involved in a war and strategies. During the middle ages, men thought women had no place in war besides being nurses or healers and that they couldn’t understand how to successfully strategize to win a war but once she released The Book of Deeds of Arms and Of Chivalry, she showed society that women could understand concepts of war. This specific book demonstrated how she was a “leading vernacular writer of her time, whose works show an extraordinary range of learning and of genres, including political theory, military strategy and polemical defense of women.” (Evans. Page 178). It was unfathomable that a female during this generation could have such a keen insight into warfare, such as strategies, tactics and the equipment being used during the battles and when this was released it opened the eyes of many that females aren’t as insignificant as man once thought.
She was one of the first feminists and her writings and works of literature helped empower females during the Middle Ages and helped lead to future feminist movements such as the international feminist movement that gives credit to Christine and her book The Book of the City of Ladies. “Christine was both prolific and multifaceted, mastering a dazzling variety of genres in both verse and prose, as well as involving herself not only in the composing but also in the production and illustration of manuscripts of her works. She began her career at the court of Charles V of France, whose biography, The Book of the Deeds and Good Conduct of the Wise King Charles V (1404), she was later commissioned to write.
The extraordinary range of her literary output includes examples of genres unexpected from a woman: a military treatise, The Book of the Deeds of Arms and Chivalry (1410); a political treatise, The Book of the Body Politic (1404–1407), a guide for the behavior of princes, knights, and lesser subjects; and a mythographic work in epistolary form, The Letter of Othea (1400), in which the goddess of wisdom in the title teaches moral lessons to the Trojan prince Hector by using stories from mythology.” (Bleiberg. Page 202).
