The woman you see in this 15th-c illumination is mounted on a warhorse, and leading a surprise attack upon her enemies — this is Joanna of Flanders (c. 1295-1374), and so famed were her military ventures that philosopher David Hume called her “the most extraordinary woman of the age”.
Joanna, born into the nobility of Medieval Flanders, found herself embroiled in the political conflicts of the Hundred Years War, when her husband John of Montfort claimed the disputed territory of Brittany. The major powers of England and France took sides in the matter, and Joanna’s family aligned with the English against the French.
When Joanna’s husband was imprisoned by the king of France, Joanna took to arms herself. She assembled an army and took a city called Redon, and then hastened to the town of Hennebont, which she knew would be besieged, where she aimed to get English military assistance.
Well, the English were late in coming. Hennebont had faced the French forces for three days with Joanna leading the opposition, when she decided to take aggressive action to break the French forces. As her contemporary chronicler Jean le Bel relates:.
“And now you shall hear of the boldest and the most remarkable feat ever performed by a woman. Know this: that the valiant countess . . . saw that all the besiegers had left their quarters and gone forward to watch the assault. She conceived a fine plan. She remounted her charger, fully aed as she was, and called upon some 300 men-at-arms who were guarding a gate that wasn’t under attack to mount with her; then she rode out with this company and charged boldly into enemy camp, which was devoid of anyone but a few boys and servants. They killed them all and set fire to everything: soon the whole encampment was ablaze”.
After this, she earned the moniker”Jeanne le Flamme, or “fiery Joanna”. She continued to make a daring escape and rejoined her forces. Later she fought against the French in a naval battle.
Joanna of Flanders, famed in her own time, might have been an influence on Joan of Arc, another martial Medieval woman, yet who fought for the French side in the Hundred Years War.
Sources: “‘The boldest and most remarkable feat ever performed by a woman,’: firey Joanna and the Siege of Hennebont, medievalists.net. Wikipedia
