When I think of nuns, I picture them living quietly and in seclusion from the outside world - well as this book proves, I was wrong.
This is meticulously well researched and engaging book to read (although there is sometimes a lot of information to take in)

If you like reading about women who are not the meek and obedient type; then this is the book for you


Thank you to Netgalley and Pen & Sword for providing me with an advanced review copy for free. I am leaving this review voluntarily and all opinions are my own.

** Thank you to NetGalley and Pen and Sword Books for providing this E-ARC in exchange for an honest review **

A truly riveting exploration of one of the often-dismissed aspects of medieval Christian history: the lives, achievements, and influence of nuns.

By focusing on a specific handful of cases, Quillen provides us with a tome that in just a few hundred pages is both densely packed with information and thoroughly researched. It's interesting, fascinating, and the kind of book that always compels me to continue looking into the figures explored. Truly wonderful!

Now, this being said, there are a few things that I wish had been different when it came to the layout of the book. This was hard to read on Kindle at times, and I also believe that some chapters would have benefited from subdivisions. At the same, time there are certain aspects of the historical context around these nuns that should have been further clarified, explained, and explored. As a simple example, in the last chapter, not giving in-depth explanations of terms like criollo, hidalgo, and encomienda could lead the reader that isn't as familiar with the time period to misinterpretation.

All through reading this book, I had my grievances when it came to this, but when focusing on what is said on the nuns alone (which is, after all, the main topic here), rather than the further context given, I did find it to be incredibly enjoyable, and one that I will definitely be revisiting.

I both enjoyed this book and didn’t. First, the topic itself — medieval nuns, in their own words (when possible); their struggles, their successes, their efforts to gain autonomy within their cloisters, their struggles to hold power in a world increasingly divided by conflict — it’s all fascinating. And heartbreaking; and strange and funny and even inspiring. (And frustrating, and infuriating. All the good emotions I like to experience when reading a book.)

But.

This is a doorstopper of a book — in content if not page count. Each chapter is filled with dense, detailed information and it’s given non-stop. There’s never a pause to reflect, or absorb the information thrown at me, and it made me tired, reading it. This is, however, a me thing. With non fiction I like my trivia and information to be parceled in slightly more bite size chunks than this book offers, and perhaps breaking some of these larger chapters into smaller chapters would be easier to read.

The writing is good. I prefer a conversational tone to an academic one, and this book straddles that line, giving me a style I find easy to read while still making me feel like I’m learning something. But it’s just … so much, and so monotonous. No matter how engaging the writing, it just drones on and on and on and there were times I struggled to keep paying attention, finding myself trying to skim through a few pages and had to go back to read them again.

The topic is fascinating, the writing is decent, but the book itself wasn’t a fun read for me. However, I don’t read a great deal of non-fiction, and other readers may have no issue with the format. Thank you so much to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC.

This book was wonderful. It was fascinating to read about stories we rarely here about. Before reading this book I had an incorrect image in my mind that nuns were calm and well behaved. While I am sure many were this book demostraighed that women all throught history haven't rolled over for what others wanted. While reading I enjoyed how clear everything was. Sometimes history and be difficult with so many different names and places. A chapter I took the most joy in was the cross dressing/genderqueer nun. I love hearing stories about gender in history that is not in the binary.

In her first published book, Elizabeth A. Quillen offers us to discover the lives of many nuns whose stories have been forgotten or neglected throughout history. She ‘illuminate[s] the variety of religious lives that women carved out for themselves over the course of the medieval period’ through six stories.

And what stories these were! I found the book very engaging from start to finish. Never would I have suspected women living all these adventures, let alone to have enough examples of such women to not make them complete isolated cases. I kept being surprised at what was happening, as if I was reading a work of fiction. The writing was concise, and things were easy to follow. Even if at times, general context is needed to understand a story, I could always follow (even without previous knowledge of some of the figures or events that were talked about). You can tell that the author has put a lot of time, effort, care and love into this book.

I would recommend ‘Medieval Nuns at War’ to anyone who enjoys history, or likes to read a good story. Even if you don’t have a lot of knowledge of this period of history, I think you will be able to appreciate this book. And if you do know a lot about this period, still, pick up this book because you may learn some new exciting stories about forgotten women that deserve to be remembered and talked about.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pen & Sword for allowing me to read this book.


N.B.: This review will also be published on Amazon (Canada) on August 31st, 2025 (or the day this book will be published there).

[3 stars]

“The mingling of nuns' pilgrimages, vows, and deaths with the battles and deaths of counts and emperors is a clear statement: we are a part of this history.”

I struggled to read most of this pretty short book. Part of this was the walls and walls of dense information with no breaking up or pauses added (I’ll mention this later) and part was that I found this to be a bit more academic than I expected. Not a bad thing for the book inherently and I am not letting it weigh heavily on my rating (though naturally my own enjoyment while reading needs to be considered in my own review) but I just wish I knew more about some of the things Quillen glosses over as expected knowledge to fully appreciate this book because she can write. The more narrative-styled sections of the book (mostly parts in “Nuns and the Crusades” and the entirety of “Nun on the Run”) were a blast to read and I found myself enthralled by the collected stories of these women (+ Erauso). Some of the other areas, or even nearly the whole chapters, felt dull and lacking. I know that Quillen is limited by the scant information about women in religious orders that has been preserved from this era, but I just wish I could enjoy it more.

There needs to be titled sub chapters added ASAP before publication. Though not overly long chapters (21-27 pages), they are so dense with information and moving timelines (and often subjects) that it can get easy to lose your place. I already felt that the author had a bad habit of skipping the establishing of location and I just felt lost and had to reread earlier parts to reestablish where we were. I genuinely think that titled subchapters would help with the readability of this book so much (I also just have a love of subchapters with fun titles).

“Saladin's army flung stones and Greek fire. One stone - Margaret thought it may have been the grindstone from a mill - struck the wall near her as she brought water to soldiers. Fragments of stone struck her. She was stunned and bleeding, but 'she learned to conceal her weakness' and continued with 'the air of a warrior'. She armed herself with a sling and hurled bits of rock right back at the enemy soldiers below.” Chapter Three - about Margaret of Beverley

Chapter Three “Nuns and the Crusades” is the best chapter by far (though “Nun on the Run" stands out as the only chapter that had me laughing as I read it). This chapter rapidly moves through the scant stories we have about religious women during the crusades. We excitingly move from woman to woman, Crusade to Crusade and explore the different stories we have left. I am embarrassingly ignorant about the Crusades at all let alone the involvement of women on the Christian side, so I appreciate the concise background information Quillen gives on the Crusades.

I always ask for analysis of sources in primary source-heavy books like this and Quillen delivers. In the previously mentioned chapter, she explores the fact that many stories about women from the First Crusade were most likely false or needlessly exaggerated in their negative aspects as women were given blame for the losses of the men (resources, distraction, etc.) despite the help that they gave in food, logistics, and refilling ammunition. Quillen describes why this can be expected for one source but not another in such a nicely written way. She does this earlier in Chapter Two, “‘Mothers of the Fatherland’”, when discussing Saint Leoba when she points out how Rudolf (the author of her biography) wrote about her piety since childhood within the context of the time. The recent connection of the Church and the Empire under Charlemagne and the concerns about women not strictly following its teachings definitely affected how Rudolf wrote about his topic as he would have wanted to provide a good example for these women to follow. “Whether a reader does or does not believe that Leoba was such a model of virtue, they can peek around this ideal to find a lived reality” is such a good way to conclude this analysis without throwing away Leoba’s history as a whole. Obviously I know that the author is very knowledgeable about the topic and translation, but a moment like this helps me appreciate her intent and intelligence in sharing these stories.

Though I did not personally enjoy this book as much as I really wanted to, it is still such a well-researched work and a wonderful reference piece in and of itself. It’s one of those where you know if you’re going to be interested in it or not based on whether a primary source heavy exploration of several religious orders and the women in them during times of war or strife is something that you want to pick up.

Thanks so much to NetGalley for the free Kindle book. My review is voluntarily given, and my opinions are my own.

I'm not Catholic, so I have very limited knowledge on this topic. Beyond not reading much about nuns or the Catholic Church, I haven't read much about the Medevial period. So this was pretty much all new information to me, which was wonderful. So many times, I read a non-fiction book and already know so much of it (although that doesn't have anything to do with the book, just my knowledge of the subject).

This was so interesting and well researched. It immediately pulled me in, and I didn't want to put it down. There were so many amazing stories in here, detailing the lives of these women (being a nun doesn't take away from the fact they are women at all).

Definitely would recommend!

5 out of 5 stars. An incredibly accessible, well researched, and approachable book on an incredibly interesting part of women’s history in medieval Europe.

Medieval Nuns at War: Rebellious, Resilient & Rowdy Women, by Elizabeth A Quillen, is, hands down, one of the best books I’ve read so far this year. Quillen expertly balances fantastic research and voice, making each account come alive. Facts (as we understand them) are illustrated with action and personalization that, while speculative, are appropriate to the scene being set.

Spanning roughly 1,000 years of history, Medieval Nuns introduces the reader to a series of stories of historic women who persistently challenged what religious life could look like for medieval women, how religious life could also intersect with the civic, and how history is always so much more than we think. Quillen’s writing skill, in particular, shines when telling the story of one specific person at a time.

Chapter 1 focuses on the Saint-Croix monastery, located in Poitiers, France, which was also in the at-the-time Merovingian domain. (This region had not yet been fully converted to Christianity.) Civic and religious authorities were in constant change, which left substantial room for new definitions of religious life. In Chapter 2, Quilen focuses on Saint Leoba and her work with Saint Boniface in Saxony. This point in time yielded a number of convents that were headed by daughters of the imperial family.

In Chapter 3, Quillen writes of Margaret of Beverley and Hildegund von Schonau, women who were active in the first century of the Crusades. Chapter 4, in particular, I found particularly compelling, and in which Quillen’s eye for narrative truly shines: We meet Marguerite Porete, a beguine nun who authored The Mirror of the Simple Soul, a theological text that was considered heretical. Quillen takes the time to really explore Porete’s theology, which centered around the goal to dissolve oneself in the divine and give oneself over completely to love. The beguines were also fascinating; they lived somewhat religious lives, did not take formal vows, and could leave any time to get married or move on with other personal affairs.

Chapter 5 centers on the convent of Le Murate, a group of unaffiliated religious women living together in Florence. Though they eventually affiliated themselves with a religious order to save one sister from an unwanted marriage, the convent’s continued prosperity hinged on navigating de’ Medici family politics and one of the most violent periods in Florence history. The convent thrived under the guiding hand of Scholastica Rondielli, who saw the establishment of an apothecary, additional building projects, and much, much more.

Chapter 6 celebrates Catalina/Antonio de Erauso, a challenging yet popular figure from Spain. At 15, Catalina fled her convent and started a life of adventure as a man. This particular chapter reads as an incredibly compelling adventure tale, with Antonio going overseas to fight in wartime; end up in bloody disputes over gambling, and lead a rambling, free life. While some of the history of Antonio’s life seem too good to be true; Quillen does note that many of the names he claims to have encountered (for fortuitous and dangerous reasons) have left correspondence concerning him.

Medieval Nuns at War: Rebellious, Resilient & Rowdy Women is a must-read for anyone interested in medieval European history, and especially a fantastic book for anyone interested in reading more nonfiction and exploring what reading history has to offer. And with Quillen’s writing style, you will, more than once, start thinking of these women from history as very cool family ancestors.

Medieval Nuns at War: Rebellious, Resilient & Rowdy Women will be published in the U.S. on September 30, 2025. The book is already available to purchase in the UK.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Pen and Sword Books for the opportunity to review this book.

The classic image of nuns is simple: black habit, wimple, maybe stuck in a convent. And historically, there was some truth to this—there was tremendous pressure on nuns not just from within convents but from the Catholic church more broadly to stay cloistered, stay out of worldly life.

Not all nuns obeyed. "Medieval Nuns at War" tells the stories of a few of these nuns, as much as is known. These are varied stories: Some nuns did battle within their own convents, fighting for control or against corruption; others left their convents entirely and sought a less reclusive life.

It boggles my mind a bit to read about literal children being consigned to convents—Matilda, whom the book discusses early on, was eleven when she was made abbess of a convent. She was the daughter of an emperor, so I suppose the normal rules did not apply (most eleven-year-olds stuck in convents were not immediately put in positions of power!), but...oh, it's much like child marriages of the era, I suppose; all these life-determining choices made when girls were far too young to decide for themselves. (Worth noting, perhaps, that leaving a convent after a nun had taken vows could get her excommunicated, so the choices made by others mattered.)

Far and away the most interesting story is that of Antonio de Erauso, which comes at the end; Erauso was born Catalina de Erauso in the late 1500s, consigned to a convent as a child...and then escaped and, according to Erauso's own memoirs, lived a wild and varied life. It's a little hard to gauge how much of Erauso's stories are true and how much are "the fish was THIS big", but Quillen has the sources to back up the general thrust of the story. Erauso is the most interesting character here simply for there being so much information available; Quillen focuses largely on nuns about whom not all that much was written, which is something of a double-edged sword: these are stories worth telling, but because they were not treated as stories worth telling centuries ago, when people were in a position to record more details, there is a very limited amount that we can know now.

I read this in part because I had just read a historical novel set in part in a beguinage, and there is some overlap (indeed, Quillen also discusses beguines and their connections to nuns). I did find it a slow read at times, partly because there's a limit to what even the most determined researcher can turn up and partly because I don't have a background in medieval history; it probably would have done me well to do a bit more general catch-up on that history (and, in particular, the medieval Church) before turning to this. An excellent book for researchers, though, and for those who want a reminder that convents have always been more complicated places than popular culture would suggest, and many nuns have lived lives every bit as interesting as those outside the habit.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

I wanted to read this based on the title alone, desperate to know if the text would live up to the image the title conjured in my head of nuns in full head-to-toe robes, riding war stallions into battle and swinging broadswords.

And while the text doesn't give us that exact scenario, it does show how nuns have been extremely active over the centuries, with far more agency than most give them credit for. The cliche of a secluded nunnery filled with quiet nuns who stay inside and don't interact with the outside world is only a recent one - nuns have spent far more time interacting with the world and being active agents in both their own lives and historical events.

Quillen takes us through a history of nuns and nunneries, zeroing in on specific people and places, from just after the fall of the Roman Empire to just before the Industrial Revolution. We meet nuns who defend besieged forts, nuns who take kings to task, nuns who - literally - trample over bishops, nuns who question the entire damn theology of Christianity, nuns who genuinely care for the poor and sick while other nuns live in the lap of luxury, nuns desperate to take vows and put on the robes while others are desperate to shed them, and more.

An excellent book on a topic that is far too overlooked.

Elizabeth A. Quillen delivers a fascinating deep dive into the lives of combative, resilient, and rebellious nuns throughout history. Drawing on centuries of research, she highlights not only their actions but also their aristocratic backgrounds, showing how their origins shaped the paths they took and the roles they carved out for themselves.
I found it engrossing to see where these women came from and where they ultimately ended up. The book offers a wide lens on how society viewed women particularly in a secular context—which added a rich layer to the historical detail. While the tone sometimes leaned more toward academic research than narrative storytelling, it remained accessible and engaging to read.
My favorite section was the opening chapters on the 6th century, which set the stage brilliantly. This is certainly a niche book, but very much up my alley. I am Catholic so it was deep within me to enjoy this. I plan to buy a physical copy so I can reread and annotate at my leisure.
Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC copy of this book!

An utterly fascinating dive into medieval nuns, and women in the wider world, how they were perceived and how they dealt with the world around them. The characters crammed in this relative slim volume range from Queens, Princesses, Abbess who commanded control over large stretches of land, pious martyrs, heretics, killers and more. If anyone wants to prove the lie that women in history had no power and did nothing but make babies, books like this are a great resource.

Highlights include the first chapter, which deals with rampaging nuns who broke out and hired mercenaries to wage war against not just their abbess but against the church in general.

I was surprised to find the chapter about women during the crusades didn't mention Eleanor of Aquitaine, possibility the most (in)famous woman to ever go on crusade, but I was delighted to learn of all these lesser known women.

Then, the final chapter which dealt with Erauso, a nun who escaped a convent in 1600 and lived a life of a male adventurer in the new world. His exploits are so outlandish, so dramatic that if it was fictional, it wouldn't be believed. That Erauso existed cannot be denied, and the book does a good job of drawing on multiple sources to trace this extraordinary life.

Well researched and very well written, this unputdownable book is a triumph and a worthy monument to these oft overlooked women and the spirt they represent.

As a nonfiction fan, I did enjoy this book. As a Catholic, and a former religion teacher, I enjoyed this book. I think it had enough variety in stories in the lives of these women to keep me interested and wanting to know more.

However, it was a slow start and a slight dry read. I think the best nonfiction has accessible language and feels like a conversation, this read more like a textbook. That doesn't make it bad, you just need to be ready for what you're in for!

The story that stuck with me the most was at the very end of the text, on the Lieutenant Nun. I think Elizabeth Quillen has really presented a great picture of Sisters as people, not just as these untouchable religious figures.

This book is perfect for fans of historical romance suspense is magic or anyone who’s wanting a fantasy that’s also steep in family drama. It’s very cleverly written and clearly a lot of thought has gone into the writing process to make it feel so real and vivid!

It may be hard to imagine that in the despised and “dark” Middle Ages there were women who beat up bishops, literally knocking them to the ground and trampling them, or whose blades sent clergymen fleeing at full gallop. I fell in love with this topic during my third year at university, started working on it in a seminar, and eventually chose it as the subject of my thesis. History really should be studied more systematically and with a critical mindset—if it were, a lot of things would be clearer, especially the fact that the Church did not systematically destroy or hate women, but that much depended on the circumstances and the region. That’s why I value books like this: they are objective and grounded in what history actually testifies.

The author shows through historical records that nuns could be feisty and combative. Most of them, of course, had aristocratic blood and thus a certain kind of protection, but that doesn’t change the fact that they fiercely stood up for themselves and for what they considered their right—even if sometimes that meant acting out of personal interest. One nun, for instance, kicked a bishop to the ground because he wouldn’t let her run the convent. He later gave a terrified testimony of her behavior. She wasn’t punished; in fact, she continued to pursue him (literally!).

Although I devoured all the information in record time, this is not a book you read once and put away. It’s the kind of book you can always return to for references. What impressed me most was the part that explores women’s involvement in the Crusades. For example, Sikelgaita, a Lombard princess and wife of the Norman leader Robert Guiscard, was known for her remarkable martial bravery. The Byzantine princess Anna Komnene described her as tall, strong, and intimidating—almost like an Amazon. And there were many other women who played important military roles during the Crusading era, not just following men as pious pilgrims.

This is a book for all lovers of history and those interested in slightly different topics. You will be surprised at how wise, insightful, creative, and fierce these women were. Many thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this excellent book.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DNfd0wXtF0j/?igsh=MXZsbTZvd21jdGM4Yg==

Disclaimer: ARC via Netgalley.

Quillen’s book seems to be a product of research that she was doing for her degree. She found references but wanted to know more. In many cases, such as this one, that is where some of the best books come from. Even though, Quillen must have been hampered by the lack of the women’s own voices. Yet, despite this drawback, Quillen does a good, even-handed job of relating history.
Whether or not everyone will agree with the definition of warrior that she uses would be fair to wonder, but there are other wars to fight besides just strength in arms.

The book opens with an account of a group of nuns having to deal with an assault on their convent by men looking for a woman. She also includes tales of women who went on crusades and what happened to them, including whether or not they would be able to return back home.

What is more important is that Quillen goes into the lenses through which we see these stories. She shows how society views of women -but religious and secular influenced not only how the women were seen but also how their stories were recorded. She doesn’t go down the road of kick ass Xena warrior nuns, as it were, but presents the more nuanced view as the various reasons why the women did what they did. She also travels widely in the historical time and place, so it is not entirely euro-centric.

If you liked Vicki Leon’s series about unruly women, you will love this book

This was a short, well researched read that still managed to be engaging in parts. There are sections that are dry and bogged-down with historical information, but not to the extreme. In choosing to cover a select few fascinating stories, the author is able to successfully provide the reader a wealth of info while sticking to an overarching theme. This read very much reminded me of a women's history class I took in college.

It's great to see so many texts remaining about these women when many men would not deign to record them. I do not envy the author in utilizing texts from 500AD, even parsing out the writing of the 1200s would be a chore. It's also powerful to be reminded that women were still able to claim their own spaces and make their own way in male-dominated society. Nuns had power and influence even if so many of their stories were not captured.

The only thing I wish would have been included was a final chapter with the author's final thoughts. The last chapter feels almost abrupt. Some kind of wrap up or bigger picture narrative would be a nice addition. These are stories of resilience, fighting social norms of gender roles, and also humanity. It would be nice for the author to end-cap her work.

Overall, enjoyable read for those who don't mind well researched and dense historical writing about rarely explored subjects.

Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read and reviewing this work.

This was an amazing nonfiction book, it had that element that I was looking for and enjoyed from this type of book. I enjoyed learning about the medieval nuns and really didn't think about nuns during this time-period. It was well researched and was glad I was able to read this. Elizabeth A Quillen has a strong writing style and am excited to read more.

4.25 stars. This book is a remarkable, thoroughly researched achievement. Quillen deftly brings to light the lives and accomplishments of women across more than 1,000 years—each of whom defied expectations to protect and uplift their convents and communities.

Given the broad scope and relatively concise length, the project is certainly ambitious. It shines most in chapters where Quillen focuses closely on one narrative. A few sections felt a bit dense and harder to absorb, but that’s a natural challenge with such a sweeping timeline.

Overall, I learned so much and appreciated the glimpse into the lives of these rebellious, resilient, and rowdy women as they navigated power, faith, and resistance.