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political terms: for her, it meant a change in lifestyle after nearly two decades in prison; it was a chance to settle the domestic arrangements of her most beloved son and of a daughter-in-law to whom she seems to have had a great attachment; and it meant an international opportunity to effect political and economic changes. There is no strong indication of any particular religious motivation in her involvement in the later Crusades, although perhaps this is something which is implicit in her involvement.
Similarly, the Countess Eschiva, lady of Raymond of Toulouse, probably had a mixture of religious and dynastic motivations behind her involvement in the first journey. She and her husband set off for the East with the firm intention of founding a dynasty there, which they did. She worked as her husband's partner in an enterprise which is rarely touched obviously by a sense of mystical wonder at the import of it all. Again, however, the religious dimension of her views of the journey should not be denied. It is simply that they are not in evidence.
Women of various stations were therefore prepared to risk their worldly wealth and their persons in the interests of the Crusade, and this continued over a space of several hundred years.
As late as the fourteenth century, women in Italy had proposed to finance an expedition in which they themselves would participate.
On the other hand, Hildegard of Bingen, who never went on Crusade, seems to have conceived of its import largely, if not exclusively, within a religious dimension. Her concern throughout her life was with expressing her received visions of existence, and these revolved essentially around eschatological interpretations of time and history. These were, she said again and again, the latter days. In vivid not to say physically repulsive terms she described the birth and coming of the antichrist, and of the clash that this would bring about with the virtuous. The Church, she warned, and the State had to cleanse themselves and prepare for a moment that she considered imminent. The Crusades would be part of this scarifying of the World and the restoration of order. Her concept of the goal of the Crusades was thus of a mystical, otherworldly place, sometimes confused with an erotic concept of love of Mother Church.
One woman does speak to us very forcibly about the effect of the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. However, her voice is transmitted to us in a fragmented and equivocal way, so it is difficult to reach a clear understanding of her experience.
This woman was Margery Kempe, the English mystic and pilgrim, who made the journey to Jerusalem and who left us a record of her experience.
Unfortunately, Margery was illiterate, although she was a businesswoman and very active in Church life. Her account comes to us through the pen of her Boswell, a male cleric. As well, she underwent some kind of mental breakdown during her journeys, sometimes called hysteria, but seen by her as a sign of God's visitation. Her companions reacted very unfavourably to this behaviour, which consisted of constant declamations interspersed with loud weeping. It is apparent that they regarded her as either possessed or - more likely - fraudulent, as she was eventually imprisoned.
My own theory is that she exhibits all the hallmarks of someone who was sexually abused as a child, most probably by her father, who is the dominant figure in her life and a source of terror to her in her memoires.
As well, Margery was not a militant Crusader, but rather a true pilgrim, who made the journey under the truce agreement which held during her time, the fourteenth century.
But her voice is loud, in every sense.
She came to Jerusalem riding an ass. When she caught sight of the city, immediately she broke into prayer, thanking God for his mercy that as he had brought her to see His earthly city of Jerusalem, He would grant her grace to see the Heavenly city of Jerusalem. Her prayer was answered.
Then, out of joy and the pleasure she felt "in dalliance with our Lord" she almost fell from her steed. She eventually could not bear the sweetness and grace that God had wrought in her soul.
Two Dutch pilgrims went to her aid. One, a priest, put spices in her mouth, thinking her sick. And so they helped her into the city, where she begged their indulgence for her weeping.
Then they all went to the Temple at evensong, and stayed there till the next day at the same time.
Then the friars lifted up a cross and led the pilgrims about from one place to another, everyone bearing a wax candle. As they went about, the friars described the sufferings of Christ in that place.
Margery wept and sobbed copiously as thought she had actually seen Christ in the flesh. She felt as if she was actually seeing Him.
When the party reached Calvary, she fell down, unable to stand or kneel, and rolled about, wrestling with her body, spreading her arms wide and crying in a loud voice as though her heart would burst. For in "the city of her soul" she saw Christ crucified. She also "saw" the mourning Virgin, John and Mary Magdalene, as well as many others.
Her crying and roaring continued so that it seemed she would die of it. According to her account, this was the first time she had ever cried in such a fashion, but this fit lasted for many years afterwards, despite any treatment. As a result, she suffered a great deal of hostility.
One might indeed imagine that even the most devout pilgrim could have found her constant bellowing and weeping to be rather trying during the course of such a long journey. Margery comments that all who heard her were astounded, some attributing it to a wicked spirit, some to the effects of alcohol: some avoided her, and some wished her on the sea in a bottomless boat!
Nonetheless, her fits continued long after her return home, as many as fourteen in a day, always accompanied by a feeling of great sweetness and grace.1
Margery's experiences and attitudes to her pilgrimage are unique. The background of her account - the other pilgrims - suggests equal measures of devoutness and the wish for a peaceful life on their part, combined with a healthy scepticism about ostentatious mysticism. Margery's voice, however, is transparently honest. She was convinced by her own experience, even if it was due to psychological causes at which we can only guess. For people such as her, the pilgrimage was an overwhelmingly passionate and disturbing immersion in religious wonder.
If there were women who were so devoted to the Holy Sites, on the other hand, there were those women who considered the Crusades a shocking waste of spiritual and physical wealth and life.
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