Harlots, Harpies and Harridans

((X-Posted. I will delete if you think it is inappropriate.))



Known as the “nine-day queen”, Lady Jane Grey has become an iconic Tudor victim: virginal, sweet and beheaded at 16, largely because of the machinations of her evil mother. But is any of this true? Leanda de Lisle discovers otherwise ...

Lady Jane Grey is mythologised, even festishised, as an innocent girl sacrificed on the altar of her mother's ambition. But behind the popular biographies of the Tudor Queen lies a different story of misogyny and masochism. It seems the much-maligned mother is in fact the victim.

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Thursday night was the last Harlots, Harpies & Harridans class so we designed a scoring system (like Top Trumps) for the 14 infamous women we've looked at over the course. I'll put the handouts online once I've converted them to pdf but in the meantime, you might be interested/amused by the final scoring system we decided on. I took photos of the board & they're on Flickr here.

NB: The scoring system was designed with the standards of the time in mind- no one is suggesting that lesbianism is actually deviant behaviour or that someone who has honourable intentions should be censured for it! Before anyone goes off on one...

Useful listing of women involved in warfare on Wikipedia.

Hello there.

I've been researching historical records of women in armies and other combat situations for several years:
http://www.lothene.org/others/wome… is the starting page.

If anyone's heard of any that I've missed out, do please let me know.


Many of them ended up being infamous in their time: Bouddicca, Grace O'Malley, the de Bruce sisters, The Empress Matilda, Queen Aethelburgh, Countess of Ross, Black Agnes Randolph, Maire o Ciaragain, Joan of Arc, Moll Cutpurse, Wicked Lady Ferrers, Mary Reed, Anne Bonny, Rose Lacombe...