Medieval Women Couldn't Hold Power? Meet the Two Female Sheriffs Who Ran Entire Counties
Renaissance English History Podcast: A Show About the TudorsShow Notes
Everything we think we know about women and power in the medieval world is missing a few key details. Like the fact that there were exactly two female sheriffs in medieval England, and that their lives were directly tangled together in the most dramatic way possible.
Nicholaa de la Haye held Lincoln Castle through multiple sieges, was appointed Sheriff of Lincolnshire by King John in one of his final acts, and helped turn the tide of a French invasion in 1217, all while in her sixties. A French chronicler called her "a very cunning, bad-hearted and vigorous old woman." She won anyway.
Ela of Salisbury inherited one of the greatest titles in England at age nine, used a clause from Magna Carta to refuse remarriage, paid the king to serve as Sheriff of Wiltshire, showed up at the exchequer in person to do the job, and eventually founded Lacock Abbey before becoming its Abbess.
Oh, and their husbands knew each other. Ela's husband is literally the man who tried to steal Nicholaa's castle.
The history of women doing so-called men's work is not a modern story. It's just a story we haven't been told loudly enough.
Katherine Fenkyll episode I linked to at the end:
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