Women in Armor

Images from the Middle Ages and Renaissance showing women wearing armor.

While this is not necessarily evidence of women warriors, it does show how illustrators and artists imagined that a woman might have worn armor – in many cases, how an illustrator imagined that a queen from centuries before might have looked, though wearing armor contemporary to the illustrator’s own era. Fortitude is often personified as an armored woman, too.

See also Women in the Military: Scholastic Arguments and Medieval Images of Female Warriors.

• Fortitude, from the frescoes at the Capella Scrovegni by Giotto, 1306
• Legend of the knight attending the mass instead of taking part in a tournament, Les miracles de Notre Dame (KB 71 A 24, fol. 123r), 1320-1340
• Penthesilea cast into the water, Roman de Troie (BNF Fr. 60, fol. 126), c. 1330
• Combat of Penthesilea and Neoptolemus, Ancient History up until Caesar (BNF Fr. 168, fol. 127v), 14th century
• The tomb of Azzone Visconti, d. 1339; tomb sculpture (c. 1342-1344 by Giovanni di Balduccio) includes personifications of cities
• Penthesilea and the Amazons on pages 294, 297, and 303, Roman de Troyes (ONB Cod. 2571), c. 1340-1360
• Penthesilea and the Amazons on fols. 67v and 68v, Historia destructionis Troiae (Cod. Bodmer 78), c. 1370
Hence, to make herself look like a man, Hypsicratea first scissored off those golden locks in which most women would have gloried. Then she not only suffered a helmet to cover her starry countenance (which was particularly beautiful) and her hair, but allowed that face to be disfigured with sweat, dust, and the rust of armor. She discarded her golden bracelets, jewels, and dresses of purple flowing down to her feet, or she cut them at the knee, and she covered her ivory breast with a cuirass and fastened greaves to her legs. She cast aside her rings and other precious ornaments on her hands, and in their place she carried a shield and ashwood lances; instead of her necklaces she hung Parthian bows and quivers about her neck. So well did Hypsicratea accomplish all this that you might well believe she had been transformed from a haughty queen into a seasoned soldier.

De mulieribus claris

• Marpesia and Lampedo (fol. 19r), combat of Hercules and the Amazons (fol. 30v), Penthesilea and her company (fol. 46r), Tomyris kills Cyrus the Great (fol. 56r), Artemis II and her army (fol. 86v), and Hypsicratea with her army (fol. 116r), De mulieribus claris (BNF Fr. 598), beginning of the 15th century
• Tomyris watches Cyrus the Great die, De casibus (BNF Fr. 226, fol. 58), first quarter of the 15th century
• Pontheslea (fol. 49), Mithridates VI and his wife Hypsicratea (fol. 119), De mulieribus claris (British Library Royal 20 C V), first quarter of the 15th century
• Amazons, Mandeville’s Voyages (BNF Fr. 2810, fol. 181), c. 1410-1412
• Minerva presenting armor to her followers (fol. 102v), Minerva and Pallas Athena (fol. 103r), Queen Penthesilea and the Amazons (fol. 103v), the head of King Cyrus brought before Thamyris (fol. 121v), miniature from 'Le chemin de long estude' (fol. 218v), various works by Christine de Pizan (British Library Harley 4431), c. 1410-1414
• The women of the Nine Worthies fresco at Castello della Manta, c. 1420, who seem to be wearing armor on ther hands and arms: Tamiris, Clemenzia Provana, Semiramis, Sinope, Deipyle, Hippolyta, Lampeto, Antiope
• Amazons in battle, Weltchronik des Jansen Enikel (BSB Cod. germ. 250, fol. 51v), c. 1420-1430
• Amazons, Secrets of Natural History (BNF Fr. 1377, fol. 2v), 1428
• Fols. 13 and 357, works by Christine de Pisan (BNF Fr. 603), beginning of the 15th century
• Fortitude by Paolo Uccello, c. 1435
• Tomyris sees the head of Cyrus the Great, De casibus (BNF Fr. 229, fol. 78), c. 1435-1440
• A messenger presents a letter to a lady (fol. 3v), Marpesia and Lampeto (fol. 14), Hypispyle helping Thoas to escape (fol. 19), Orithyia and Antiope (fol. 22v), Penthesilia (fol. 35v), Thamyris (fol. 59), Artemisia (fol. 69), Berenice (fol. 86v), Mithridates VI and Hypiscratea (fol. 91v), De mulieribus claris (British Library Royal 16 G V), c. 1440
• Detail from a tapestry of the arrival of Joan of Arc at Chinon, 15th century
• Alexander and the Amazons, History of Alexander (BNF Fr. 9342, fol. 139v), mid-15th century
• Combat of Theseus, Hercules, and the Amazons (fol. 39v), battle of Greeks and Amazons (fol. 43r), and Tomyris and the death of Cyrus the Great (fol. 61r), Mare historiarum (BNF Latin 4915), 1447-1455
• Fortitude by Matteo de’ Pasti, 1449-1455
• Queen Tomyris by Andrea del Castagno, c. 1450
• The Queen of Swords from the Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards, c. 1450
• Minerva (Rawl. B. 214, fol. 199r), mid-15th century
• Penthesilea and her Amazons ride through a forest to aid the Trojans, L’épître d’Othéa (KB 74 G 27, fol. 18r), c. 1450-1475
• Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, kills Penthesilea, Histoires Troyennes (KB 78 D 48, fol. 211v), c. 1450-1475
• Pyrrhus kills Penthesilea, Histoire ancienne jusqu' à César (Douce 353, fol. 162r), third quarter of the 15th century
• Tomyris watches the execution of Cyrus, Épître d'Othéa (Bodl. 421, fol. 42v), third quarter of the 15th century
• Epitre d’Othea (Cod. Bodmer 49, fol. 30r), c. 1460
• Amazons, Mandeville’s Travels (WLB Cod. theol. 195, fol. 153v), c. 1460-1470
• Penthesilea, Petit armorial equestre de la Toison d'or (BNF Clairambault 1312, fol. 248), c. 1460-1470
• Marpesia and Lampedo are separated, Fleur des histoires (BNF Fr. 55), second half of the 15th century
• The battle of Theseus, Hercules, and the Amazons (fol. 170v) and a battle between the Greeks and the Amazons (fol. 300v), Histoires de Troyes (BNF Fr. 59), second half of the 15th century
• The War of Troy tapestry (and its conservation), woven in Tournai between 1460 and 1490
• Amazons in battle, Speculum historiale (BNF Fr. 50, fol. 40v), 1463
• Amazons in battle, Historia Troiana (BSB Cod. lat. 61, fol. 159v), before 1470
• Fortitude by Sandro Botticelli, c. 1470
• Isabella of France and Roger Mortimer, Chroniques d'Angleterre (British Library Royal 15 E IV, fol. 316v), c. 1470-1480
• The arrival of Penthesilea and the combat of the Amazons and the death of Penthesilea, c. 1472
• Women of Argos departing from Thebes, Destruction de la noble cite de Thebes (PML G.23 fol. 42r), 1474
• Amazons, Secrets of Natural History (BNF Fr. 22971, fol. 2), c. 1480-1485
• Joan of Arc fights the prostitutes (fol. 60v), the surrender of Troyes (fol. 62r), the siege of Paris (fol. 66v), the arrest of Joan of Arc (fol. 70r), Vigils of Charles VII (BNF Fr. 5054), 1484
• Joan of Arc, c. 1485
• Minerva, Échecs amoureux (BNF Fr. 9197, fol. ), c. 1490-1495
• The armies of Venus (fol. 132v), Franchise fights Danger (fol. 134v), Peur fights while Honte looks on (fol. 136v), Peur and Honte fight other allegorical figures (fol. 137r), Roman de la Rose (British Library Harley 4425), c. 1490-1500
• Amazons, The Nuremburg Chronicle (fol. 28v), 1493
• Minerva, Échecs amoureux (BNF Fr. 143), c. 1496-1498
• Fortitude and Temperance with Six Antique Heroes by Pietro Perugino, 1497
• The battle between Courage and Fear before the God of Love, Roman de la Rose (MS. Douce 195, fol. 46r), end of the 15th century
• Minerva (fol. 9), Marpesia and Lampedo (fol. 12), Orithya and Antiope (fol. 18v), Penthesilea (fol. 27v), Tomyris (fol. 43v), Hypsicratea (fol. 67), and Triaria (fol. 82v), De mulieribus claris (BNF Fr. 599), 15th-16th century
• Tapestry of Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons from the Château d'Angers, beginning of the 16th century
• Arrival of Penthesilea at Troy (fol. 154r) and death of Penthesilea (fol. 157v), Histoire ancienne jusqu'à César (BNF Fr. 22554), beginning of the 16th century
• Joan of Arc, La Vie des Femmes Célebres (Cl Ch Hémon, Musée Dobrée), 1504
• The Cardinal Virtues by Raphael, 1511
• Several figures in the Triumph of Fortitude tapestry, 1525, including Cinope, Penthesilea, Tomyris, and Fortitude
• An Amazon (?), The Farnese Hours (PML M.69, fol. 51r), 1546
• Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons by Léonard Limosin, c. 1550-1600
• Detail from Dulle Griet by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, c. 1562
• Minerva Shows Taddeo the Prospect of Rome by Federico Zuccaro, c. 1595
• Joan of Arc by Léonard Gaultier, illustration from Heroinae nobilissimae Ioannae Darc Lotharingae vulgo Aurelianensis Puellae Historia, 1612
• Joan of Arc by Peter Paul Rubens, 1620