Countess Ermengarde of Brittany (c. 1070-1147): A Woman of her Time
A MEDIEVAL WEEK 2022 EVENT
You can register for this talk on our Eventbrite site: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/287960586867.
Speaker: Professor Amy Livingstone (Lincoln)
Countess Ermengarde of Brittany is virtually unknown to medieval scholars and public audiences. Generations of historians have depicted her only as an unremarkable appendage to the powerful men that she knew. Her contemporaries, however, recognized her power, intelligence, influence, and piety. This paper will bring this fascinating woman to life by providing a biographical overview and demonstrating the impact that she had on the world around her. To provide a few highlights: Ermengarde helped to rule the county of Brittany with both her husband and son; she twice left to become a nun, in 1103 and 1130 respectively, and twice returned to the world to resume her role as countess; she was friends with some of the most prominent clergy in Western Europe; she travelled to the Holy Land where she built a church; upon her return to France around 1134, she continued to work to reform the church and rule Brittany; she died in 1147 at nearly eight years of age.
Bio:
Amy Livingstone is a medieval historian who specializes in the social history of eleventh and twelfth-century France. As of January, she is the new Head of the Lincoln School of History and Heritage. Before coming to the University of Lincoln, she was the Associate Dean of the Honors College and Professor of History at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Dr Livingstone is author of Out of Love for My Kin: Aristocratic Family Life in the Lands of the Loire, c. 1000-1200 and Medieval Lives: The World of the Beaugency Family, c.1000-1292, as well as many articles and essays. In 2017, she received Excellence in Teaching Award from the Medieval Academy of America. Dr Livingstone is also the co-editor of the journal, Medieval People, and a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University.
Story submitted by Renee Ward
rward@lincoln.ac.uk