Ruthless, methodical, direct, unrelenting, driven. Just some of the words that might be used to describe some of the most powerful and influential women of the long, dark medieval era. Of course different terms may have been used about them at the time. Manipulative, conniving, duplicitous, power-hungry and so on. In fact such terms were probably still being passed around until fairly recently when we began to reassess centuries of gender-driven bias against these women.
Does that alone make them people to be admired? No, not necessarily. No more than we might admire the men of this era who were similarly motivated or compelled towards power. Their stories are, however, hugely compelling and are hard to view without some admiration given the societal hurdles they were forced to overcome in…
