Uppity Women of Medieval Times

Uppity Women

by Vicki León

The author of Uppity Women of Ancient Times makes history sizzle once again with insightful and witty portraits and accounts of women, notorious, courageous, and unusual who both defined and defied their times. Exceptionally researched and irresistibly entertaining, Uppity Women of Medieval Times gives readers a feminist--and humorous--perspective on little-known great women of history. NPR underwriting in San Francisco & New York.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Feminism, Medieval, Womens, Historical

264 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

A prolific author of non-fiction, author of numerous books for young and old, Vicki León delights in unearthing unusual facts, fresh anecdotes, and uncommon statistics to create her books on the natural world and the flip side of history. Her book have won rave reviews from a long list of media that includes People magazine. Publishers Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, Voice of America, and numerous NPR stations.

Her bestselling titles for 10 and up include A Raft of Sea Otters, The Secrets of Tidepools, and three titles in the Outrageous Women series.

Her popular titles for older readers include Uppity Women of Ancient Times, Uppity Women of the Renaissance, and the other Uppity titles and the travel title Scenic Highway One.

Reviews

[Poindextra · Rating 2 out of 5]

An enjoyable book, but in my opinion, the author tries way too hard to be cheeky and irreverent, and this detracts from the content. I wish that she had included dates in all of the profiles, but did not, so I had no idea when some of the people lived. I would have organized the book chronologically as well, or by geographical area to give a more historical perspective on the people profiled.

[Engineous · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'll keep this short:

This is the most misogynistic "feminist" book I have ever read.

If you're interested in medieval women, it's a good resource to find names which you can research somewhere else. Unfortunately, Vicki Leon's incompetent misunderstanding of other cultures and times makes it beyond worthless in every other regard. It's downright harmful.

This is honestly the first time I have ever been so swamped with so many inaccuracies, errors, lies, omissions and bigoted insults that I have been unable to list them.

[Orsolya · Rating 3 out of 5]

The medieval times were rife with notable events that make even the most drama-filled lives of celebrities today seem like amateurs. Although there some famous women who stand out from this historic period; there are also many whose stories haven’t been told. Vicki Leon introduces noteworthy women from the medieval period in, “Uppity Women of Medieval Times”.

“Uppity Women of Medieval Times” is a small compilation-type book; the likes of which one might see as a supplement to a museum exhibit. Eschewing a standard history text style; Leon instead showcases 200 different medieval women with 1-3 page blurbs on what makes them noteworthy. The women featured are of international merit (Leon doesn’t solely focus on one geographic area) and are generally lesser-known, truly introducing the reader to new figures.

Many readers might be discomforted by the short descriptions of the women: Leon only sticks to introductions/summaries and without any academic citations or notes. Those expecting a scholarly route will be disappointed. However, Leon does well with highlighting unknown women and therefore encouraging readers to conduct their own research therein.

Continuing on this sort of popular history route; Leon’s prose and style is familiar, conversational, and oftentimes quirky and humorous. In fact, the text reads almost like a comedian teaching a history lesson. The issue is that Leon forces this and tries too hard to infuse wit which becomes exhaustive and tedious. This, again, will derail readers seeking hard-hitting history.

Some of the women portrayed within “Uppity Women of Medieval Times” are somewhat lackluster and appear to be “filler”. Leon definitely seems to be stretching and reaching at times for content.

The pages of “Uppity Women of Medieval Times” noticeably are absent of a proper editor as there are some errors with dates and evident spelling errors. This weakens the already questionable credibility of Leon’s work.

In the second half of “Uppity Women of Medieval Times”, Leon attempts even harder to be humorous and amusing; often falling short and even being borderline insulting to women which is ironic as the piece attempts to be feminist in nature.

Even though “Uppity Women of Medieval Times” is far from scholarly, a brief (I stress, “brief”) bibliography is offered.

“Uppity Women of Medieval Times” is a quick, beach-read version of historical figures that is definitely not suggested for hard-core history lovers. Although, Leon can be funny and charming; she is tedious in her over-attempts. “Uppity Women of Medieval Times” is good as a filler book to introduce readers to lesser-known women but is not a dire must-read.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Uppityhood was in Flower: 470-1650, or so.

Poring over the PMS-like accounts of the time, historians often marvel at the hair-trigger medieval temper, the violent behaviour, and the physical abuse of those days. And the men were evn worse!

Little sketches of some seriously interesting historical personagellas. This fun book had me going off to research nearly every one more fully, so in itself it's great but by extension, a great learning curve and side-splitter.

[UniquelyMoi ~ BlithelyBookish · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved these books, full of short but fun and interesting biographies of the women who did NOT take the back burner and allow history to be made around them. They all, in some "uppity" way, were part of the making of that history.


Edited to add: I had to come back and edit this very brief review to add that now that I've been reading so many historical romance novels, I appreciate the Uppity Women books so much more. It wouldn't surprise me if many of the authors I love to read; Julie Garwood, Lisa Kleypas, Julia Quinn, Olivia Parker and more, have read them. They are very short, very interesting and often times funny stories about individual women and what made them stand out as being "uppity"

[Holly · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was under the impression that this book was published in the late 1970s or early 1980s until I checked the publication date and saw that it was instead published in 1997! The attitude of the author is very narrow-minded toward women, seeming to imply that all women enjoy shopping, clothing and cosmetics.

The author's chatty and overly friendly style of writing makes the book appealing as a "bathroom reader", an impression which is heightened by each of the passages on the featured women being no longer than a page or two. (Frequently featuring inset pictures that have nonsensical captions and no relation to the woman presented.) The editing job on the book is terrible, and dates and historical facts are wrong in many places.

[Ann Keller · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an incredible book this is! I’ve never heard of most of these women and my conception of history was vastly altered by reading its pages. Whether it was Alison la Jourdain, Esther Quira, the revolutionary entertainment proposed by Izumono Okuni, Raziya, Maria Cunitz, Phillipa of Hainault or Marguerite de la Roque, these women stepped up and took charge at a time when women were supposed to be meek and biddable. Quite a few of them juggled power and politically-motivated, money hungry husbands, nobles, kings and popes, as well. I look forward to reading more of the series of these wild women!

[Sarai · Rating 5 out of 5]

Product description:
Our age doesn't have a lock on outspoken women, as Vicki Leon proves in this impudent, flippant history of the Middle Ages. In the 1600s, Lady Castlehaven charged her husband with rape and had his connubial rights--and head--removed. Prioress Eglentyne, who appears in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, fell afoul of clerical colleagues by ignoring rules about "dress, dogs, dances" and worse yet, "wandering in the world." And let's not forget Isabel, Queen of Castile, patron of Columbus, and wife to Ferdinand. Her marriage motto was "They rule with equal rights and both excel, Isabel as much as Ferdinand, Ferdinand as much as Isabel."

This is fast, light reading that introduces the reader to more than 200 medieval women who did not do things in the acceptable manner - for women, that is. All sorts of women are highlighted, from the famous to the not-so well-known. Fun reading.

[Stephanie Scelza · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is so fascinating. everyone should peruse this while on the crapper. so much time spent there, it doesn't have to be wasted! the most interesting tidbits so far: in medieval times, this one chick was raped by her husband and the butler and the stableboy so she sued her hubby and won!! even more interesting...the brand of martial arts made popular by bruce lee was invented by a woman, a nun! and her mentor was a nun as well!

[Becks · Rating 5 out of 5]

You want a book that talks about women kicking ass and taking names? Then this is the book for you. From author Vicki Leon, this book recounts the tales of women of the medieval ages from Europe to Korea to Africa and beyond. Ms. Leon takes a humorous approach to recount the lives of these women who had a vision and did something about it and keeps your interested in the history.

Some may not like her by-the-cuff way of talking about the women, but I think it helps in getting to know the women she it letting us know about it without it sounding like a dry textbook. Regale yourself with the tales of Urraca of Aragon, Onorata Rodiana or Hroswitha. These women were merchants, sailors, queens, thieves, mothers, nuns and lovers. They tried their hand at everything from sewing to being a visionary to murdering their husbands.

This is a must recommend anyone who digs females in history. Vicki Leon also has a few more books in the series, Uppity Women of Ancient Times, Uppity Women of the New World, and Uppity Women of the Renaissance.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like books of historical anecdotes in general. I did not like the writing style of this one. The tone was often snarky and attempted humor, not always successful.
Also, the definition of "medieval" was pretty loose, even if you take into account that the women being discussed lived in a variety of cultures and locations. In this collection, though, several of the women clearly lived in Europe's Renaissance period.
The information was in brief snippets, and the bibliography was good enough to lead the reader to other sources that might provide more in-depth information, but some of them came from places and times where the survival of any information about the women in question was pretty difficult.
So overall, this is a book worth reading if you either like the style of the humor or can ignore it, but you may find it distracting.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is like a bag of potato chips. The history bites are quick and delicious, but the nutrition value is a bit questionable--I'm not sure if all the info is accurate, and nothing is put into context (or given a time period).

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

One star off because some accurate dates would've been nice.

Things I learned from this book:

1. Leeches can help you fake virginity

2. Quinine knowlegde came in part from a woman

3. Women have always succed in business

4. Don't get Irish women mad

[Seeing · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a whole series and the publisher should just put it all into one book and you should keep it in the bathroom. Its perfect bathroom reading!

[SheLove2Read · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stories of Medieval women who kicked ass, took names and didn't let a little thing like public opinion sway them from living life to the fullest.

[Siobhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny and irreverent while still packed with information - just how I like my history!

[Lexi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pros: Profiles on many little-known women

Cons: OH BOY. SO MANY CONS. The entries aren't in chronological order and some of them don't have any dates beyond "16th century" or whatever.

Also it's supposed to be "medieval times" but the book spans from like 900 to 1900, which definitely goes way beyond "medieval."

Some of the entries are more about other people than the woman in question. For instance, Caterina da Vinci's entry is mostly about her son Leonardo - which, sure, there's basically zero information on the woman, but then why even include her at all? The entry for the model of the Mona Lisa is also mostly about Leonardo. It's not really an "uppity woman" thing for the entry to mostly be about how smart some dude was.
And then Kat Ashley's entry is mostly about her most famous charge, the future Elizabeth I, being really smart, and I was struck by three particular pieces of nonsense in the entry - it says Kat Ashley was Elizabeth's governess since she was 4, and then later says she was Elizabeth's governess as her mother, Anne Boleyn was executed. A minor point, but Elizabeth was 3 when that happened, so which is it? Second, the entry refers to Henry VIII as mad with syphilis, which... no. I know some people think he had it, but there's so much evidence against it - how on earth could a man in the 1500s have syphilis for 30 years without any physical issues??
The third nonsense point was that Elizabeth was fluent in Welch?? Seriously, none of the editors caught that?

All in all I think it's a fun bathroom book since the entries are short, and it's a fun way to get introduced to some women you probably have never heard of. I appreciated that the book didn't end up just being about the big names that everyone knows, but it would be nice if it was actually historically accurate for everyone and wasn't so much about the men that were connected to the women. If you were going to make the book cover 1000 years anyway, why not pick more names that there was enough info about to write entries that were actually about those women??

[Russell Kapryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is reasonably informative overall although its style will not be necessarily appealing to all readers. For example, the author takes a heavy tone towards the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when discussing ninjas in feudal Japan.

It would have been nice if the author had listed the era or time period of when the main historical figures had lived as they were introduced. As it turns out, the author lists these time periods for each figure at the end of the book. That is well and good but it is unfortunate I did not find this out until I had reached the end of the book as I believe no mention of this was made in the book's introduction.

Oh, and just a note about the author's perspective on what constitutes "medieval". She claims the medieval era went until circa 1650; well most scholars agree that the "medieval" period ended in circa 1485 or around there. While there is no set year or precise point of time in which it ended, to say it went until the end of the Renaissance is an incredible stretch. It is readily apparent the author embellished on her interpretation of the medieval period to have more uppity women to discuss in her book.

A workaround or reasonable compromise to having a cut off time would have been to include historical figures who were born, say, until the end of the 15th Century. From there you'd be able to soundly include these figures with the medieval moniker even though they essentially lived after the medieval period in the 16th Century. Instead, in my view, the author opted to reduce some of her scholarly credibility by stretching out the medieval time period by some 150 years after most scholars agree that it ended.

Aside from these observations, this book is generally worth checking out and it does list a lot of publications at the end of the book that include historical references to women so this right here alone can make it a great resource in and of itself.

[Claudia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Over 202 women from across the world are given short one to two page descriptions. Some are doubled up - there are really only 150 sections - as they may be allies, enemies, sisters, mothers and daughters. There are a few collections like the Joan-of-Arc wannabees, female troubadours and the washerwomen who were essential to the louse-infested Crusaders.

Some may be familiar but most will not be. Healers, religious women, merchants and explorers, intellectuals and those holding jobs considered even to this day to be male-dominated.

The author tried to keep her writing style informal and friendly but it came across as sarcastic and snide with a bit disrespectful mixed in.

Additional problems -
There are some spelling inconsistencies like the chapter on Aethelfled or is it Aethelfed?
The inhabitants of the Kingdom of Ndongo (entry on Nzinga Mbande) are called Ngolans? Cause it is now the country of Angola?
Urraca was born in 1801 - well, not medieval so likely a typo for 1080? - which I hope since her husband died in 1108-9 leaving her a widow with two sons. Cause if it was 1101, she was only 7 when widowed.

The only reason I kept the three star rating because of the amount of research conducted to find all these ladies.

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[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This will sound strange, but this is best treated like a bathroom reader. Such brief stories, it's hard to get into it. I really did enjoy the humor, but if you were hoping to really learn something, it isn't helpful. It muddles the message a bit really. I kept asking, Is this a joke? and What does that joke mean? In the stories, I would have liked it less eurocentric. She did include some stories from other places. I would just like it more even. And for not all the women to have slept around quite so much, though I guess the author can't help that. I wonder if we harm our sex by acting as if non before us were capable. By acting like feminists today are so unique and fighting like our ancestresses didn't, doesn't seem fair. Not when you read about what they were really like.

[Preston Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun but shallow. It’s a light read where when you have a little time, you can pick it up, maybe get a couple chuckles and find some names you might want to go learn more about.
To be fair I might not be the right target audience for this.
I read some of the other reviews. The treatment of humor by/for women has changed a lot since this was published and there were some times where I would say it hasn’t aged well. So if you are the type of person that will get bothered by that, I would not recommend.

[Kendall Snee · Rating 5 out of 5]

GIFT 🎁
Uppity Women of Medieval Times was just what I needed. I don’t usually love non-fiction reads but Vicki Leon did such a stellar job with the ad libs that I was hooked. Imagine owning just this fabulous encyclopedia of bad ass ladies who each existed, and perhaps through controversial means, made their existence known, wow what a great gift. This was heart-warming and made me think of that tik tok trend of women doing literally anything and their ancestors smiling down on them because back in the day they did some variation of it too. Thanks @kschreibss 💖🫶🏼📚 I loved this

[Mia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the overviews that this book gave on some important and inspiring women in Medieval times. I felt like you needed a bit of background history to understand what was going sometimes, but not a crazy in-depth understanding. Readers should see the entries as big highlights of each woman's life and then go read up more on who they were the most intrigued by. Tone and diction was modern readers friendly.

[Cathy Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Terribly disappointing. At least for me, the oftentimes snarky tone was off-putting. Organized badly with all different time periods scrambled and many were not Medieval period. Would have been better with more full development instead to what seemed to be an effort to put in as many as possible. Really not worth reading.

[Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick, easy read with lots of interesting historical figures and great anecdotes but I wasn't a fan of the snarky, breezy tone in which the profiles were written (not to my taste) and each profile was a bit too vague/short. Would have liked a more serious/academic version of this book with longer/more in-depth profiles.

[Susan Lea Rudd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wish this had been around when I was young, just discovering all the Uppity Women at age 58. So cleverly written and I never guessed their were so many of us!! And despite what others have said I saw a date and a country mentioned for all of the women. Looking forward to the rest of the Uppity Women!!

[Jodi · Rating 4 out of 5]

What is not to enjoy---a book by a woman about women? It is always a plus to have the names of more obscure women showcased in a title. Obviously, there are not many sources from the time period, but Leon unearths as much as possible.

[Alanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I enjoyed the book. It was a lityle messy at times though. I wish the people had time frames with their names. I think it is a good book to find initial information on women of the times so you can search for more about them later on.

[Book Shark · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Second in the series and just as brilliant as the first. I always enjoy learning more about the women who often go nameless and or are remembered only as wife/sister/mother/daughter of some famous man. Each entry is short and is a great book to read when you have even just a few minutes!

[J.Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

A witty modern spin on women of medieval times -- dozens we've mostly never heard of, from countries and cultures all over the world. Very well written! I passed it on to my sister, who I knew would adore this.