ABSTRACT
The presence of women in crusade expeditions constituted something of a fundamental contradiction between spiritual and pragmatic aspects of crusading. On the one hand, the practical demands of military campaigns intended to liberate or defend territories several thousand kilometres distant from western Europe dictated that the kind of participants needed were men with military ability and experience, who had to be fit and thus in the prime of life. Seen in these terms, women were surplus to requirements; their presence might well be considered at best a distraction, or at worst a danger, since they constituted a vulnerable group whose members were ill-qualified to defend themselves and who might thus divert military resources to protect them. On the other hand, the idea that the crusade was a penitential enterprise meant that the church was unwilling to completely prevent the participation of other categories of pilgrim such as women and noncombatant men, and the papacy remained keen that non-combatants should be allowed to share in the spiritual benefits that were promised to all crusaders, even if it did encourage the commutation of vows for money payments in the course of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Certainly, in practical terms it was almost impossible to prevent women and other non-combatants from joining expeditions that took the land route to the Holy Land, although the physical constraints involved in naval campaigns meant that organizers could be far more prescriptive and effective in excluding women.
