18. 1000-1600 Women Explorers and Leaders

While the focus of the age of exploration tends to be on what the male explores were doing and how they were getting funded by kings, there were women doing the same thing at the same time. From Viking women making trailblazing journeys to European Queens running countries and funding expeditions, women played just as big of a role as men in this era. 

example of traditional Viking textiles, History Extra

A prevailing superstition among sailors was that a woman on board a ship was bad luck. In fact, few crews included women because they were believed to distract the crew. Some believed that a woman’s presence would anger the sea and endanger them all. Others believed female mermaids would pull them into rocky coastlines. And mythical or otherwise, it was best to avoid women while on board. Sailors were also notoriously drunkards, and social customs encouraged women to avoid such behavior, so it was improper. 

Women were felt aboard ships, however, which were addressed in the feminine “she” and “her.” In ancient history, ships were named after goddesses, but by the modern era, ships were increasingly named after mortal women. Despite their reservations about women aboard their ships, sailors believed that naked women calmed the sea, so most figureheads depicted beautiful and topless women as a gift to the sea gods.

When one thinks of the exploration of the New World, visions of ships filled with men claiming new lands come to mind. Yet, beyond being figureheads on ships, women were the financiers and at the helm of these explorations. Today, we highlight their stories as the Old and New Worlds are on the brink of connection. 

Chinese Voyagers:
The Chinese under the rebounding Ming Dynasty sent male dominated explorations into the Pacific and Indian Oceans in the early 1400s. These voyages under the leadership of Zheng He put those of the Europeans to shame. By comparison, these fleets were so big that the entirety of Columbus's voyage would've fit on just one level of one of the ships the Chinese were using. But these explorations stopped just as quickly as they had begun, and China retreated into an isolated state. Their retreat led to the rise of European traders seeking to fill the void in the Indian trade. Silver obtained from mines in Spanish America enriched Western Europe and was brought to China in a one-way exchange for tea and spices. 

It would be mostly Europeans on the other end of the “known” world who became the movers and shakers of the now “global” economy. They began to explore into the Atlantic looking for a more efficient trading path to the rich spices and teas of Asia– and of course women were leaders there too. 

Gudrid the Viking:
The Christopher Columbus “discovery” story has plenty of holes. For starters, there were already millions of diverse peoples living in the Americas whose histories before Columbus are all too often ignored. Ancient Egyptians are believed to have possibly explored and settled in the Americas over three thousand years ago. Another wave of African exploration is said to have begun several hundred years before Columbus. Further, if we are looking at his venture as the start of European discovery, we ignore the numerous Viking explorations of North America, for example, Gudrid’s exploration of Canada, more than 1,000 years ago. 

Although women in the Viking Age (c. 790-1100 CE) lived in a male-dominated society, they were far from being powerless: they ran farms and households, were responsible for textile production, moved away from Scandinavia to help settle Viking territories abroad stretching from Greenland, Iceland, and the British Isles to Russia, and were perhaps even involved in trade in the sparse urban centers. Some were part of a rich upper class, such as the lady – perhaps a queen – who was buried in the ostentatious Oseberg ship burial in 834 CE. On the other end of the spectrum, slaves, among them many women, were taken from conquered territories during the Viking expansion and integrated into Viking Age society.

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stone slab mentioning Hassmyra, wikimedia commons

Almost all Viking Age women were involved in socioeconomic roles one way or another. In fact, the most common goods found in female graves from this period are spindle whorls, wool combs, and weaving battens, especially in the countryside. Other tasks that do not show up in the archaeological record in such a direct way but are traditionally associated with women are child-rearing and caring for the sick or the elderly, and we might also imagine women doing odd jobs around the farm or even some carpentry or leatherworking. How exactly children were brought up and whether girls were treated any differently from boys is unclear; although daughters could perhaps be given in marriage at an appropriate age.

Viking women may have had a good degree of control over running the household and were likely left in charge of matters while their husbands were away, or dead. Although subordinate to their husbands, like their contemporaries, women arguably had a good degree of responsibility and perhaps even control over the running of the household, as symbolized by the fact they were often buried with keys, and they were likely on occasion left in charge of matters while their husbands were away, or dead. Anne-Sophie Gräslund, an archaeologist, has even suggested farms were like firms, "run by husband and wife together, in which the work of both partners was of equal importance although different and complementary" (Sørensen, 260). It must be noted, though, that the people who owned such (larger) farms and their adjoining lands would have had considerable means and would likely have belonged to the upper classes within society; they are not automatically reflective of all of Viking Age society. Throughout Viking Age society, though, marriage was a pivotal institution used to create new ties of kinship, also among Scandinavians and locals in conquered or settled areas, and, in line with the influence women could wield through their husbands, it seems unmarried women had very limited prospects. Before the advent of Christianity throughout Scandinavia and Viking territories around 1000 CE, concubinage (often connected to slavery), and plural marriages occurred at least among the royals.

In general, although it is hard to comment on the exact status of Viking Age housewives, we must remember their domestic role was a very central one and would not generally have gone unappreciated. The inscription found on a stone as Hassmyra (Vs 24) – the only verse found on a Swedish inscribed stone that commemorates a woman – certainly seems to confirm this.

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Gudrid’s identity is a bit of a mystery. She is described as beautiful, smart, and political. She appears in a few Viking sagas, but in some she is a poor woman who never even made it to Greenland during her venture, while in others she is a wealthy explorer who not only made it to Greenland but then on to Canada with her husband and a small crew. She landed in what the Vikings called Vinland (“wine land”), modern Newfoundland, where she would live for three years and create a settlement. She would later return to Iceland, but her exploring days were not done.
 
The sagas indicate that Gudrid toured well into her forties and fifties, which was pretty old for back then. In her lifetime it is said that she made eight crossings of the North Atlantic Sea. It is even suggested that she traveled farther than any other Viking, from Scandinavia to Greenland to North America to Rome and back again in her later life. With all figures of history, evidence is needed to separate the fantasy from the reality, and archaeologists have found what they believe to be Gudrid’s home in Iceland based on the sagas, and it is built in the style of those found in Newfoundland settlements, including the one she and her husband were said to have founded. While Gudrid would be the most famous, we can’t forget that there were likely other Viking women along with her crew to help form this settlement. 
 
While Gudrid doesn’t get the same respect as others who made such voyages, historian Nancy Marie Brown points out the importance of the fact that Gudrid was never a tagalong. “She was not dragged along. This was her choice. She could have very easily stayed home in Greenland. She wanted to go.” Five hundred years before Columbus, and another several hundred years before even the heartiest of men were willing to make the leap to settle the New World, Gudrid had already come and gone.   

Isabella and Spain:
Moving back to Columbus, let’s also not forget that he wouldn’t have had the money, ships, or crew for his “discovery” without Queen Isabella of Spain. Queen Isabella and her husband King Ferdinand were trying to unify a Catholic Spain, at the cost of the Muslims and Jews among their population, when Columbus was campaigning for his exploration. Money was not only key to Columbus’ proposed journey, but to the Queen’s and King’s continued unification of Spain, as much of their money had been spent in this pursuit. Columbus’ intent to find a new route to the Asian spice markets would save the Spanish quite a lot of money by avoiding the middle man on the land routes or the pirates on the sea routes.

portrait of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, wikimedia commons

Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, wikimedia commons

Upon Columbus’ supposed discovery of a new route to Asia, he returned with a number of “Indians” that represented peoples whom Isabella then believed she would rule. She had ordered some of these captured slaves to be freed, and was even considering the prospect of rights under the Spanish crown, but she would die in 1504 before it was recognized that this was not Asia at all, but something entirely new.
 
Isabella would not be the only Spanish royal to fund expeditions to the New World, but she did help to unify the nation and establish a strong and profitable court to make future expeditions possible. As a result, Spain would hold a monopoly on the exploration and riches of the New World for hundreds of years.   

Spain’s influence would spread throughout South and Central America, and as is typical of European exploration, the indigenous people fell in the crosshairs. Often this was done purely by biology, as diseases spread rapidly throughout native population; other times this was done through pure malice as greater and greater resources were found. Natives were slaughtered, brutalized, and made homeless by the rampaging Spanish conquistadors. Women were not only victimized but also helped to support resistance efforts as well as protect their families through cooperation.

Queen Elizabeth and England:
​The New World became the obsession of all Europeans, and soon the Spanish would not be the only group to be exploring and conquering the Americas. The Portuguese, French, Dutch, and Swedish would all make their presence known, but much like Queen Isabella, it would be Queen Elizabeth I who would make exploration a cornerstone of her reign.
 
Queen of England from 1558-1603, Elizabeth remains one of the most famous and successful European monarchs. She would not only defeat the mighty Spanish Armada and become a powerhouse of politics, economic growth, and art, but she would also set the stage for England to become a primary power in the New World. She was thoroughly educated, with one of her tutors, Roger Ascham, stating that “Her mind has no womanly weakness, […] her perseverance is equal to that of a man, and her memory long keeps what it quickly picks up.” For example, the number of people she saw executed by her father, Henry the VIII– including her mother–had taught her to keep her political and religious views close to her chest until she found herself in power.
 
She quickly restructured the whole power system. She was perpetually scrutinized by a society that viewed women as mere detours to the real figures of power: men. They largely believed women unfit and too temperamental for power. Instead, their job in this game of monarchy was to bring the right men into power by marrying or birthing them. Elizabeth refused to play this role. Both before her crowning and after, she refused to marry. She had English nobles courting her, international nobles courting her, but still she refused each, proclaiming that she had to make a careful decision for the protection of England. In reality, she likely didn’t want to give up her power and actually helped to protect this further by having these individual parties trying to claw their way in. While many feared a civil war if the queen did not bear a natural heir, she played her game well.

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She was leading a weak, impoverished nation without a standing army, and a corrupt political system. She used every weapon available to her, including her gender and society’s expectation that she should marry, to manipulate suitors into helping her country. Despite their fears of a woman remaining in power, she convinced many of the love she had for her country through these efforts. 
 
Throughout her reign she would face opposition, both internal and external, religious and secular, but she remained vigilant in her vision of England rising in power. She poked the European bears of France and Spain with sanctioned privateering and raids on their international ports, and despite its general weakness, her naval forces defeated the mighty Spanish Armada. Here, too, she played on society’s gender roles by parading in front of her men in armor, promising them great reward if victorious, and proclaiming, “I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too.” Their victory rocketed them into a position of naval strength, which would soon become naval superiority.
 
Her reign is not without controversy. Executions, bursts of rage, political manipulation, attempts to subjugate the Irish, famines, and more would pepper her reputation, but in her efforts to compete with her European counterparts, she too would look to the possibilities of the New World. Not unlike what the Spanish experienced in their conquest of South and Central America, the English found themselves facing populations of indigenous people occupying the lands the Europeans felt they so deserved.

Conclusion:
Women were at the forefront of European efforts to discover a better path to Asian markets.
 
[Setting up the Inquiry] When looking at this period through a wider lens that includes the roles of women, how does your perspective of exploration change? How are women’s efforts remembered, and how can they be better celebrated or analyzed?

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Bibliography

Durn, Sara. “Did a Viking Woman Named Gudrid Really Travel to North America in 1000 A.D.?.” Smithsonian. March 3, 2021. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/did-viking-woman-named-gudrid-really-travel-north-america-1000-years-ago-180977126/.

Groeneveld, Emma. "Women in the Viking Age." World History Encyclopedia. Last modified July 11, 2018. https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1251/women-in-the-viking-age/. 

Miles, Rosalind. The Women’s History of the World. London, UK: Harper Collins Publishers, 1988.

​​Strayer, R. and Nelson, E., Ways Of The World. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016.

Primary AUTHOR:

Jacqui Nelson

Primary Reviewer:

Dr. Katherine Koh

Consulting Team

Editors

Kelsie Brook Eckert, Project Director
Coordinator of Social Studies Education at Plymouth State University

Dr. Nancy Locklin-Sofer, Consultant
Professor of History at Maryville University. 

Chloe Gardner, Consultant
PhD Candidate in Religious Studies at Edinburgh University

Dr. Whitney Howarth, Consultant
Former Professor of History at Plymouth State University

Jacqui Nelson, Consultant
Teaching Lecturer of Military History at Plymouth State University

​Maria Concepcion Marquez Sandoval
PhD Candidate in History at Arizona University

Amy Flanders
Humanities Teacher, Moultonborough Academy
Ron Kaiser
Humanities Teacher, Moultonborough Academy
Chris Canfield
Humanities Teacher, Moultonborough Academy

Reviewers

Ancient:
Dr. Kristin Heineman
Professor of History at Colorado State University
Dr. Bonnie Rock-McCutcheon
Professor of History at Wilson College
Sarah Stone
PhD Candidate in Religious Studies at Edinburgh University
Medieval:
Dr. Katherine Koh
Professor of History at La Sierra University
Dr. Jonathan Couser
Professor of History at Plymouth State University
Dr. Shahla Haeri
Professor of History at Boston University 
Lauren Cole
PhD Candidate in History at Northwestern University
Modern:
Dr. Jack Gronau
Professor of History at Northeastern University