Order of Medieval Women
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PictureChants royaux, Meeting of doctors at University of Paris, 1537 CE © Bibliothèque nationale de France, folio 27v.
​Jacqueline Felice de Almania, c 1322, reportedly from Florence.  Early 14th century Paris’ population was more than 200,000 and about 38 medical practitioners yet 1292 records indicate only eight female physicians were registered.

Healing was generally regarded as the natural responsibility of mothers and wives with techniques learned from family, friends or from observation of other healers.  Excluded from academic institutions female healers of the Middle Ages had little opportunity to contribute to the science of medicine, rather serving as herbalists, midwives, barber-surgeons, and nurses. 

The University of Paris and its medical faculty in the 13th century were less tolerant of female healers promoting royal, religious and academic decrees to restrict the practice of medicine to licensed physicians only. Since women were ineligible for university training and the minor clerical vows that were required of all candidates for licensure the inevitable result was to ensure that legal healing became a male monopoly.

In 1322, Jacqueline was put on trial for unlawful practice yet male physicians were rarely, if ever, brought to court for similar charges.  During the trial  the medical faculty reminded the court that for sixty years penalties of fines and excommunication had been in operation against the ignorant and illicit practicing in Paris and had been applied with the full force.  The faculty claimed that Jacqueline had persisted in acting as a physician by visiting the sick, examining their urine and pulse, touching and palpating their bodies, contracting with the patient for her payment if she cured them and prescribing and administering various drugs yet was totally ignorant of the art of medicine and was not lettered.  The testimony of eight witness, seven former patients plus the wife of one of them, is recorded in the trial record all affirm her medical procedures but deny that she ever demanded money from them in advance of the cure. During several testimonies there was discussion that she had successful cured her patients after other physicians had failed and given up hope of the patient's recovery.  The court reasoned that it was obvious that a man could understand the subject of medicine better than a woman because of his gender.  The prosecution’s entire case was based upon the absence of formal training credentials yet not a single effort was made to test her knowledge and understanding of disease and it’s management.  She was banned from practicing medicine and threatened with excommunication if she ever did so again. This decision is considered to have banned women from academic study in medicine in France and obtaining licenses until the 19th-century.

Map of Paris, France
References and Further Reading
  • Ballester, Luis Garcia, Roger French, Jon Arrizabalaga and Andrew Cunningham, editors.  Practical medicine from Salerno to the Back Death.  Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, Cambridge University.  1994.
  • Howard, Sethanne.  The Hidden Giants.  Washington Academy of Science, 2012.
  • Green, Monica H.  Getting to the Source: The Case of Jacoba Felicie and the Impact of the Portable Medieval Reader on the Canon of Medieval Women’s History. //ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1057&context=mff
  • “Women Healers of the Middle Ages: Selected Aspects of Their History.”   Minkowski, William L.  American Journal of Public Health. Feb 1992, Vol. 82. No. 2, p 293.  www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1694293/pdf/amjph00539-0138.pdf. ​
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  • Home
  • About
    • Mission
    • Membership >
      • Genealogical Sources
  • Women of Consequence
    • Early Middle Ages (500-1000) >
      • St. Adelaide of Burgundy
      • St. Bathilde
      • St. Bertha of Kent
      • St. Clothilde
      • St. Olga of Kiev
      • St. Theophana
    • High Middle Ages (1000-1300) >
      • Adelaide of Turin and Susa
      • St. Adela of Normandy & England
      • Anne of Kiev
      • Berengaria of Castile
      • Blanche of Castile
      • Ela, Countess of Salisbury
      • Eleanor of Aquitaine
      • Gwenllian ferch Gruffydd
      • Margaret de Quincy
      • Matilda, the Empress
      • Matilda (Eadgyth) of Scotland
      • Nicholaa de la Haye
      • Sikelgaita, heiress of Salerno
    • Late Middle Ages (1300-1500) >
      • Caterina Sforza
      • Dorothea of Brandenburg
      • Elizabeth de Clare, 11th Lady of Clare
      • Isabella d’Este
      • Isabella I of Castile
      • Isabella of France
      • Jeanne de Belleville
      • Joanna of Flanders
      • Lucrezia Tornabuoni
      • Margaret Beaufort
      • Philippa of Hainault
  • Roll of Honor
    • Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians
    • Anna Comnena, Princess of Byzantium
    • Beatriz Gallindo, La Latina
    • Christine de Pizan
    • Emma of Normandy
    • St. Hildegard von Bingen
    • Hrotsvit von Gandersheim
    • Jacqueline Felice de Almania
    • St. Joan of Arc
    • Matilda of Tuscany
    • St. Rodegunda (Radegund)
    • St. Theodora, Byzantine Empress
    • Trota of Salerno
  • Connections
  • Genealogical Charts
    • House of Sforza
    • Welsh Ancestry of English Royalty
    • Descendants of Gwenllian ferch Gruffydd
    • Houses of della Rovere and Gonzaga
    • House of Este
    • House of Trastamara
    • Lords of Clisson
    • Descendants of Jeanne la Flamme
    • House of Medici
    • Genealogy of Nicholaa de la Haye
    • Welsh Kings
  • Maps
    • Early Middle Ages >
      • Kingdom of Burgundy
      • Merovingian Kingdoms
      • Kent England
      • Principality of Kiev, Drevlyans
      • Thuringi & Franci, 6th century Europe
      • Quedlinburg, Germany, circa 962 AD
    • High Middle Ages >
      • Turin & Susa, Italy circa 1050 AD
      • Europe circa 1000 AD
      • Spanish Kingdoms 1210 AD
      • France & Burgundy circa 1032 AD
      • England & France 1152-1327 AD
      • Salisbury, England
      • England & France in the Reign of Henry I
      • Wales
      • Lincoln, England
      • Norman Lands in Italy & Sicily
    • Late Middle Ages >
      • Forli, Italy
      • Sweden circa 1658
      • Usk, Wales and Cambridge, England
      • Ferrera & Mantuga, Italy
      • Iberian Peninsula 1257-1492
      • England & France 1152-1327
      • Clisson, Anjou, France
      • Brittany, France
      • Florence, Italy
      • England & Wales circa 1399
      • Hainault
    • Roll of Honor >
      • Kingdom of Mercia and Surrounding Kingdoms
      • Byzantine Empire 1000-1100
      • Iberian Peninsula 1257-1492
      • Paris, France
      • Dominions of Cnut
      • Bingen, Germany circa 962 AD
      • Gandersheim, Germany circa 962 AD
      • Military Campaign of Joan of Arc
      • Canossa & Tuscany, Italy
      • Eastern Roman Empire circa 565 AD
      • Duchy of Salerno
  • Members Only
    • The Board
    • Bylaws
    • Meetings
    • Newsletter
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