IMahaut d'Artois is a Capetian princess from the 13th and 14th centuries who survived four kings, ruled two of the most important counties of her time on her own name (Artois) and as a regent (Burgundy), and had two of her daughters become queens of France. We have many accounts on her reign and life, but sources tend to be quieter about her old age.

Historian Christelle Balouzat-Loubet (Université de Lorraine, CRULH) wrote an article in 2022 in peer-reviewed academic journal Médiévale about this part of her life.

Here's the abstract.

Mahaut, countess of Artois, was surprised by death at the age of 59, on 27 November 1329. The sources concerning her reign–mainly practice acts and accounts–only provide tiny clues to the effects of age: physicists perhaps commissioned to visit her more regularly, and purchases of syrups and “medicines” mentioned in the registers of accounts of the Hôtel. The writing of a third and final will, on 24 March 1329, also suggests that the countess felt her end was approaching. No doubt Robert, who in the summer of 1329 brought a final lawsuit against his hated aunt in order to take back Artois from her, intended to take advantage of the old lady’s lesser fighting spirit.We can therefore guess that the princess has to deal with the effects of age, but growing old is not just about undergoing the effects of time, it is also about advancing in age, going through trials and accumulating experience. In fact, the change in attitude dates from about ten years earlier, when Mahaut was emerging from a particularly trying period: the revolt of the nobility in Artois (1315-1319) and, above all, the brutal loss of her son Robert, heir to the county, in 1317. The countess then paid particular attention to charitable works, founded several hospitals and increased the number of bequests to religious establishments. This charity, although ostentatious, nonetheless marked a clear evolution in the countess’ spirituality.

Article (in French): Christelle Balouzat-Loubet, « Les dernières années de Mahaut, comtesse d’Artois (1319-1329) : une vieillesse invisible ? », Médiévales, 82 | 2022, 99-116.

Mahaut d'Artois' Wikipedia page

If you want to know more about her in a less academic way, read the historical saga The Accursed Kings by Maurice Druon!

Hi All,

Some volunteers joined me as moderators and I'd like to welcome them .

This should bring a breath of fresh air through the sub and hopefully we can get more diverse content.

NavissEtpmocia along with her history skills is fluent in French so people can post French language links and posts .

We can have other mods for other languages too if people want to volunteer.

Many thanks

CDfm

I hope this takes off and we can have other languages too.

With 44 countries in Europe we should have more languages than English

I wanted to share a cool book^(1) I've come accross a few years ago by medievalist historian Frédérique Le Nan about female poetesses and writers in medieval Occitania (south of current France) - trobairitz, from 1170 to 1240. Le Nan teaches Medieval Language and Literature at the University of Angers and is a member of the 3L.AM research laboratory. The point of her research is to highlight the presence of women in the medieval literary creation, since it's often overshadowed by dominant male-centric studies.

So sorry for this big low quality picture, that's not how it appeared on my editor and I don't know how to make it smaller!

She shows that poetesses and women writers in medieval Occitania composed high-quality literary works across diverse genres (cansos, tensos, sirventés, saluts) and that these women were recognized as legitimate authors, who engaged in significant literary genres, which refutes the notion that female writing was confined to low or marginal forms. Women embraced the most esteemed literary forms of their time, they were not "on the side", but "part of".

^(1) Frédérique LE NAN, Poétesses et escrivaines en Occitanie médiévale. La trace, la voix, le genre, PUR, 2021.

Book link on the University of Rennes' Presses website (French)

Academic review by Valérie Fasseur (in French but can be translated using your browser's translater)

Wikipedia page about trobairitz (English)