Medieval Women Couldn't Hold Power? Meet the Two Female Sheriffs Who Ran Entire Counties

Added: 2026-06-10

[00:00:00]Okay, so I want to talk today about something that broke my brain just a little bit when I found it because everything that we think we know about women and power in the medieval world is just not the whole picture. You know how people always say things like, "Well, women just couldn't hold public office back then." Like that's just [music] the received wisdom. And it's not entirely wrong, but it's also not entirely right.

[00:00:24]And the exceptions are so good that I can't stop thinking about them. There were, as far as we know, two women who served as sheriffs [music] in medieval England. And the first thing that you need to know is that they knew each other or more accurately one of them was actively [music] trying to steal the other's castle.

[00:00:46]And if that doesn't make you want to keep watching, I don't know what else to tell you. So this is a little bit of a shorter video today. We're going to talk about two women who did traditionally men's jobs [music] and their extraordinary lives.

[00:01:00]So let's get started.

[00:01:10]Hey friend, welcome back to the Renaissance English History podcast. I'm your host Heather. I've been podcasting on Tudor and sometimes medieval England since 2009 with my show which makes me the original Tudor history podcaster. I am, as always, just so glad, so honored, so delighted that you are here with me today to have this quick chat about two very very extraordinary women. I first heard about one of them when I was listening to a book, uh, Ian Mortimer's book Medieval Horizons. So here's a fun guilty pleasure fact about me, something I do. I play that really addictive matching game that's such a waste of time called Lily's Garden. I play this thing. I've been playing it for like 6 years um, because 6 years ago I had a health scare and I was waiting for biopsy result and I needed something to take my brain off of the fact that I was waiting for biopsy or and it was fine. But I got completely addicted to this Lily's Garden game.

[00:02:03]It's one of the things where you like you match the blocks and then like you supposedly design a home and design a garden and like that's not the whole point. The point is matching the blocks and anyway, I got like super addicted to it and I'm still kind of addicted to it.

[00:02:16]And so to make myself not feel as bad about the fact that I'm playing this game, I listen to audiobooks while I'm doing that. So a really good relaxation session for me is to sit there with Lily's Garden and an audiobook. Uh I was listening to Ian Mortimer's Medieval Horizons, I believe it's called, and I heard this woman's name and I was like, "Hang on, I need to like go research that right now because that's just crazy." So with that very long intro, let's get started. We're going to start with Nicola de Haye because she's slightly earlier and honestly her story is absolutely unhinged in the very best possible way.

[00:02:53]So Nicola was born sometime in the 1150s. Exact year unknown, which means that by the time things get really interesting for her, she is in her 60s.

[00:03:02]She's outlived two husbands and she's been doing something that was almost unheard of for a medieval woman. She held the office of Castellan of Lincoln Castle.

[00:03:14]Basically, she ran the entire castle.

[00:03:17]Her husband's technically held the title by right of her, but in practice, she was the one who was doing the work.

[00:03:25]Now here's the part where it gets really wild. England at this time was descending into a civil war after the Magna Carta, the Barons Revolt. And in 1216, King John comes to visit Lincoln Castle where Nicola has been holding the fort through sieges, through rebellions, and through general sheer chaos. She meet at the gates with the castle keys in her hand and she tries to resign, telling him that she is of great age and she has endured great labors and anxieties and she just cannot do it anymore.

[00:03:58]And John said, "No, absolutely not." He was like, "You're the only competent person I have. Please keep doing this."

[00:04:04]And then, things get even more dramatic because the French prince Louis actually invades. And Nicola, now like I said, in her 60s, endures a siege that lasts over 3 months. She was still Sheriff of Lincolnshire in May 1217 when she led the defense of Lincoln Castle against the forces of the French prince Louis during the Battle of Lincoln, which turned out to be one of the most decisive moments of the entire conflict.

[00:04:35]Thank you very much.

[00:04:36]A French chronicler at the time called her a very cunning, bad-hearted, and vigorous old woman.

[00:04:44]I want a French chronicler to say that about me. Anyway, like let's just like think about that for a second. He clearly meant it as an insult, but like she won. She helped to defend England from a French invasion in her 60s and the best that they could come up with is cunning old woman?

[00:05:01]Thank you very much. That was amazing.

[00:05:04]So, what happens next after she, you know, like saves this whole thing? Well, within 4 days of the relief of the castle, Nicola's position of Sheriff of Lincolnshire was given to the king's uncle, William Longsword, Earl of Salisbury, who took control of the city and promptly seized the castle. She got her castle back eventually through the courts, but she had to fight for it. The woman who helped to save England got her job taken away from her 4 days after she helped to save England. Like, I genuinely cannot.

[00:05:37]Which brings us to our second female Sheriff because William Longsword's wife was Ela of Salisbury and she is extraordinary in her own completely different way. Now, before I go further, if you are enjoying this kind of discussion into medieval women doing completely unexpected things, please subscribe. I put out new videos on Tudor and medieval history most days of the week, and like there's so many more stories like this one, and I can't wait to dive into them with you. Ela was born in Amesbury in Wiltshire in 1187.

[00:06:07]Amesbury is a beautiful place. I have a fun story about Amesbury. This is another Heather diverges from the story, but it's a fun story. So, when I had been living in England for about 2 weeks at this point, I was maybe 25 years old, 24. I was think I was 24.

[00:06:23]Um, I didn't know anybody. I didn't like have friends there. I just moved to England on my own because I wanted an adventure, which is a whole different story. Uh, but I'd been living there for about 2 weeks, and I wanted to go see Stonehenge. And Amesbury is on the way, or like there's a bus stop in Amesbury, and I stopped there, and I got fish and chips at this pub. And across the street from the pub, there's this really old church, which think is associated with Eleanor of Provence.

[00:06:47]And anyway, I went into the church to check it out, and the caretaker was in there, and he had to leave to run an errand, and he asked me if I wanted to like stay and just hang out and meditate in the church, and I did because that's a good time for me.

[00:07:03]And anyway, in order for him to do that though, he had to lock me into the church. So, I got locked into the church in Amesbury uh, for It was like about maybe like I want to say 45 minutes, but that seems really long. It seemed like 45 minutes.

[00:07:19]It might not have been 45 minutes.

[00:07:21]Anyway, during that time, I walked around, and I sang. I checked to make sure I had a signal on my mobile phone, thanks very much. If I had it to do over again, I probably wouldn't have agreed to being locked in a church, but I mean, I don't know what's going to happen. I well, that's a different story, but anyway, point is, Amesbury is beautiful, and I had a lovely spiritual experience in Amesbury when I was like 24 years old and that's not related to the story at all, but it is a Heather connection. All right, let's go back to the story. Ela was born in Amesbury in Wiltshire in 1187, the only child and heiress of the Earl of Salisbury.

[00:07:56]When her father died, she was 9 years old and suddenly one of the most prized heiresses in all of England. Now, according to legend, this is legend, one of her paternal uncles promptly kidnapped her and hid her in a castle in Normandy hoping to get control of her title and her estates. The story goes that she was eventually found by a knight who toured Norman castles singing ballads under the windows until she responded. Look, I don't know if that's true, but I want it to be true so very badly.

[00:08:32]Now, King Richard sorted things out by arranging her marriage to his half-brother William Longespée. So, right from the jump Ela's life is not so simple. She and William seem to have had actually a good marriage. They co-founded Salisbury Cathedral together.

[00:08:48]They had eight children. And then William got shipwrecked coming back from Gascony, spent months recovering in a monastery in France, finally arrived back in England where he died at Salisbury Castle on March the 7th, 1226.

[00:09:03]Some chroniclers at the time said that he'd been poisoned by a man named Hubert de Burgh. And when William's tomb was opened in 1791, they found a rat skeleton inside his skull with traces of arsenic in his bones. So, yeah, that happened. Now, to be fair to history though, the arsenic could have gotten there several different ways. It was like 500 years later. The poisoning theory rests mostly on one chronicle account, so you know, take it with a grain or two of salt or, you know, arsenic. No, don't. Now, this is is Ela does something remarkable. She paid the king a substantial sum, around 500 marks, for the privilege of holding the office of Sheriff of Wiltshire.

[00:09:45]And then she shows up and she does the job. She appeared at the Exchequer in person to render accounts. This is not a ceremonial role. This is actual governance. She also invoked the Magna Carta to decline remarriage, which is so good I want to put it on a t-shirt.

[00:10:04]Clause eight of the Magna Carta states, "No widow shall be compelled to marry so long as she wishes to remain without a husband." So, she uses a clause from one of the most famous legal documents in English history to tell a suitor, essentially, "No thank you, and also now this is the law, so goodbye."

[00:10:24]She eventually stepped back from her job. She founded Lacock Abbey. She became a nun and then became the abbess.

[00:10:30]And her tombstone reads, "Below lie buried the bones of the venerable Ella, who gave this sacred house as a home for the nuns."

[00:10:40]And like here's something I just keep thinking about is like we talk about the medieval period as if women had no power and no agency and no public role. And we talk about that a lot in this channel, especially recently, because you know, I've been going down some rabbit holes.

[00:10:52]And in general, structurally, yes, that was true. But there were women who found the gaps. They found the places where inheritance law or feudal obligation or sheer competence made exceptions possible. They didn't bite the system, exactly. They used the system. And they ran counties, and they defended castles, and they showed up at the Exchequer, and they did the paperwork. So, the history of women doing so-called men's work is not a modern story. It's just a story that we haven't been told loudly enough.

[00:11:27]So, I'm all about trying to tell that story. And I think it's amazing. What do you think about these women? Did you know that there were women sheriffs in medieval England? I did not know that.

[00:11:37]So, I love the fact that I discovered that. And I'm excited I got to tell you about it if you didn't already know it.

[00:11:43]If you My hair is still Yesterday my hair was doing this thing like my hair is still doing this thing. It's really annoying.

[00:11:49]Anyway, if you know stories I've I'm on a caffeine bender, you guys.

[00:11:55]If you know stories of women like Ella and Nicola who are doing amazing things, I would love to hear them, too. So, please leave them in the comments. And if you enjoy these kinds of stories and want to hear more, also please let me know that because I've got so many rabbit holes to go down. All right.

[00:12:11]We will leave it there for now. This was just a quick one today because I wanted to tell you this story.

[00:12:15]Thank you so much for being here. If you enjoyed this, I would appreciate a press of that like button. It helps to feed the algorithm and get our content to more people. I hope I earned your subscription to my channel where I put out content like this like most days of the week.

[00:12:28]If you would like to continue down some rabbit holes of women doing traditionally men's jobs, there's the story of Katherine Fenkle who is a woman, a draper. She ran the draper's guild essentially. You can check that out right here. Or here's a video YouTube thinks you'll enjoy. Thank you so much for being here. Remember, my friend, you are deeply loved. I'm so glad I share the planet with you. Yes, you. You make the world a better place.

[00:12:48]I'm grateful we got to spend this time together today chatting about Ella and Nicola. I'll be back very soon. In the meantime, don't forget to drink your water. Bye-bye, friend.