You can help your students explore women’s participation in the Crusades using the quotes, images, and recommended texts on this site. Here are some lesson topic ideas:

Lesson: Latin women and the Crusades

• Introduction: briefly reintroduce the Crusades as a topic (5 minutes)
• Ice breaker: ask students what sort of person was a ‘crusader’ – a man? A woman? A knight? (5 minutes)
• Ask students to read Margaret of Beverley’s description of her actions and circumstances during and after the Third Crusade (on the Latin Women and the Crusades page), and to make notes (10 minutes)
• Initiate a class discussion of the text – are Margaret’s descriptions of her actions surprising? What about her brother’s choice to write about them? (5 minutes)
• Introduce Baldric of Bourgueil and Albert of Aachen’s descriptions of women’s participation in the Crusades (on the Latin Women and the Crusades page). Ask students to read and make notes (10 minutes)
• Initiate a class debate: based on these texts, what did women do during the crusades? (10 minutes)
• Cool off activity: ask students to design a historical drama about a woman alive during the Crusades (10 minutes)

Lesson: Muslim Women and the Crusades