The curious king gazed in wonder at the sweetly floral pink magnolia tree in his Garden of Eden, as incorruptible as the woman who defined such majestic secrets. The Baroque Louvre loomed large over the gardens as an aspiration for greatness for man tempted only by the devilishly corrupting womankind. The Medieval Church ruled with fists as solid as the light lemon-coloured Parisian limestone. But among this royal labyrinth of the Lord of the Realm a woman of letters wandered not as Eve, her serpentine grip choking the virtue from kings, but as someone who rejected such notions in favour of an imagined utopia of women free of slanderous misogyny. Women were equal. And often superior. The king as Adam lamented Eve but Eve had the upper hand. This is the story of Christine de Pizan who, 600 years before the feminist movement, wrote of a world few dared to express…
What is a ‘woman of letters’ in such an unenlightened age? She wrote but advocated for women’s equality, too. Her words are among the earliest feminist writings. They include poetry, novels and biographic works, as well as social commentary. She was the first woman in France, possibly Europe, to earn a living solely by writing.
But how did she find herself at the court of the king?
Moreover, in a time when the church ruled absolute, and professed the inadequacy of womankind, how did Christine passionately discuss feminist topics, condemning women’s oppression and the lack of education for women, so freely? Why, she wondered, did women have to behave so differently? She believed she could combat a misogynistic society through her works but more than that, she wrote of a new world.
This was a world in which women were equal. And sometimes, superior. Although critical of the prevailing patriarchy, her work was well-received. But how? And why? Just how instrumental could she be in not only introducing the concept of equality and justice for women in Medieval France but changing the very world she lamented so freely?
The Garden of Eden was about to become The City of Ladies.
Christine was not born in the gorgeous royal surroundings of the Louvre, then a royal palace. No, she was born in Venice on September 11th, 1364. But when she was just three years of age, her family moved from the hectic bustle of Venice ripe with thousands of ships and commotion as frequent as the beating of the heart, to the rather more genteel surroundings of Charles V. King of France…
Christine’s father was appointed astrologer to the court of the king. This was a time when the church ruled with absolute authority. Women were held in very little regard in society. Most little girls never learnt to read, but Christine was different.
She adored books. And so her father taught her to read. The king gave little Christine special permission to wander the world of wonder that was the royal library. More than 900 books rested here. The silence was joyous, the whisper of imagination lingered in the air as the dappled light pouring through the enormous rustic timber windows.
Here, Christine’s imagination broke the silence. There was nothing quite like the smell of an ancient library. The grassy notes formulated an exquisite sonnet in the nose, while the hint of vanilla and underlying mustiness danced across Christine’s palate. Here was the little girl who couldn’t stay still. Excitement burst from her as ideas of infinite possibilities postured in a mind already transitioning to rebellion against the church.
Christine was almost invisible, enraptured by the endless stories. The only sound was the gentle rustle of the turning of the page. In the royal library, nothing was impossible. New, radical ideas seemed so possible. This was the largest library on Earth. As Christine put it:
“One day I was surrounded by books of all kinds… my mind dwelt at length on opinions of various authors whom I had studied… it made me wonder how it happened that so many different men – and learned men among them – have been and are so inclined to express… so many wicked insults about women and their behaviour… it seems that they all speak from one and the same mouth.”
In the library of wonder, Christine found her epiphany. Perhaps women were thought of so poorly because of literature. If Eve wrote books instead of Adam perhaps the world would realise the truth. That equality was not just attainable but crucial.
“No matter how long I studied the problem, I could not see or realise how [male writers] claimed could be true when compared to the natural behaviour and character of women.”
And so Christine took to the page. She wrote ballads, love poems and songs. They were well-received and Christine was encouraged to continue. By 1390, she was earning a living as a writer and the only author we know of in Medieval Europe who was a woman.
She married when she was just 15-years-old, to another 15-year-old, a man named Etienne de Castel. He was one of the king’s secretaries. Christine loved Etienne so much, describing him as a man ‘whom no other… could surpass in kindness, peacefulness, loyalty and true love.’ But Christine’s life changed dramatically when she was just 25.
Within only a few years, she lost her father and her husband. Neither man had settled their affairs and Christine had to battle for her inheritance. Into this maelstrom of tragedy and unfairness, we see the birth of the author. The proto-feminist believed so fiercely in equality and so strongly against the stifling teachings of the church.
In only a few short years, Christine had become something else. Confident and assured in her beliefs, Christine set to work writing her masterpiece…
‘The City of Ladies’ was published in 1405. The first history book written about women from the point of view of a woman. In the book, she speaks passionately of the role played by women in history and how male historians twisted the truth.
Instead, Christine rejects such harsh notions in favour of the genuine reality: she lists the achievements of women. She celebrates womankind. This is what we can do when given the chance. Christine eloquently regales the audience with fabulous tales of heroines past and revels in the path to true equality, namely her belief in education.
“I am amazed by the opinion of men who claim that they do not want their daughters or wives to be educated because they would be ruined as a result… not all men (and especially the wisest) share the opinion that it is bad for women to be educated. But it is very true that many foolish men have claimed this because it upset them that women knew more than they did.”
No one else spoke like this in the 1300s. At least not openly. Fewer still used women to illustrate their books. Christine’s work proved incredibly popular. And not just among women. It was one thing to reach women but to reach men was a far greater achievement.
She now believed that a male-dominated society was detrimental to women’s progression and that no woman could fulfil their true potential in a world ruled by men. In ‘The City of Ladies’, Christine ‘collects’ famous heroines and houses them in the aforementioned city, which is actually the book. She uses each heroine as a building block for the walls of the houses in the city, symbolic of how crucial a woman’s place in society is. This was radical stuff. But it was not mindless pontificating, far from it.
Her next book, ‘Three Virtues’ (1406) aimed to solve the problem as she saw it, a manual on how women from all walks of life can be happy and virtuous. King Charles V loved her work. Even Richard II and Henry IV loved her work so much that they tried to persuade Christine to work in England. But she was fiercely loyal to France.
Left devastated by the disastrous Battle of Agincourt, in 1418 she retired to live in a convent. Her final work was a poem celebrating the achievements of Joan of Arc. In the poem, she points out that a woman saved France, ‘something that 5,000 men could not have done’.
Here was a woman worthy of Christine’s ideals. But despite reaching many men of high authority and power, Christine never quite managed to change the world. Yet perhaps she succeeded in shaking things up a little, forever changing the power of the written word.
We know she died around 1430 at the age of 66. Yet nearly 600 years after her death, so few people know the name of a very early feminist…
The curious king gazed in wonder at the sweetly floral pink magnolia tree in his Garden of Eden, as incorruptible as the woman who defined such majestic secrets. That is how women were seen in this time when the church ruled with absolute power. Women were the ‘weaker sex’, tempting men with devilishly corrupting influence.
But among this royal labyrinth of the king a woman of letters wandered not as Eve, her serpentine grip choking the virtue from kings, but as someone who rejected such notions in favour of an imagined utopia of women free of slanderous misogyny.
For Christine, women were equal, often superior and it was frustrating that men did not see it that way. She hoped her works would influence the patriarchy to reconsider its view of women and embrace a vision of equality, but she was left disappointed.
But her work spoke of the aspirations of women for what Christine believed in, so did many other women and authors to come, including the likes of Argula von Grumbach and Mary Wollstonecraft. But the Medieval view of women persisted.
Yet with Christine, we have her metaphorical ‘City of Ladies’, as ground-breaking and inspirational today as it ever was. It’s arguable we still reach for that city. Christine anticipated the feminist movement of the 19th century by 600 years. In her time, male writers denigrated women, often comparing them to Eve tempting Adam and corrupting humanity.
The king as Adam lamented Eve but Eve had the upper hand. Christine rejected such biblical notions to build her intellectual and philosophical utopia. She demanded women deserved greater respect and wider opportunities.
And in her day, the world she wrote of was a world few dared to express…
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Image Credit
https://smarthistory.org/christine-de-pizan/
Post Sources
https://spartacus-educational.com/NORpisan.htm, https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/miniature-of-christine-de-pizan-in-her-study-from-the-book-of-the-queen, https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/place_settings/christine_de_pisan, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08sksb4, https://amedievalwomanscompanion.com/christine-de-pizan/, https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1965/pizans-the-status-of-women–the-reformation/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_de_Pizan, https://www.worldhistory.org/Christine_de_Pizan/
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