Margaret of Beverley, 12th Century 'Amazon warrior'
Getty ImagesThe crusades involved some of the most famous men who ever lived, from Saladin to Richard the Lionheart.
But history also records another, far less likely, figure who fought in the religious wars.
Her name was Margaret of Beverley and, while on pilgrimage, she found herself caught up in the Siege of Jerusalem in 1187, when a Muslim army sought to recapture the city from the Christian crusader state.
"Margaret is the lead character," historian Marcus Ramshaw tells the Hidden East Yorkshire podcast.
"She did everything a soldier did on the battlements. That's a polite way of saying she killed plenty.
"She also loaded the catapults. And this is unheard of. She's like an Amazon warrior of the Middle Ages.
"She must have been a pretty courageous, strong character."
Today, we know of Margaret's incredible story because it was recorded by her brother, Thomas, a scholar who began his education at Beverley Grammar School and went on to become one of the leading chroniclers of medieval history.
She was born in Jerusalem between 1140 and 1150, the daughter of a wealthy merchant family.
"But she was conceived in Beverley," says Marcus. "And we know that because her parents went on pilgrimage and it took them nearly nine months to get to Jerusalem.
"She comes back, obviously as a newborn with her parents, to Beverley, which then is a prosperous international inland port."
When her parents died, Margaret was left to bring up Thomas.
She must have done a good job because he came to the attention of Thomas Becket, the provost of Beverley Minster and future Archbishop of Canterbury.
Getty ImagesBecket took young Thomas into his household.
"After Thomas has left, Margaret, who's got plenty of money, is sort of kicking her heels, not really sure what to do," says Marcus.
"She decides that she'll go on pilgrimage herself with her money. And the place she'll go to first is Jerusalem."
At the time, the city was controlled by the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem, which had been established in 1099.
Unfortunately, Margaret arrived just as Saladin, the Sultan and Egypt and Syria, was leading an army of 30,000 against the city.
"Now, our Margaret is no shrinking violet. She goes into the kitchens of part of the fortifications, and she finds a cooking pot or a cauldron, which she puts on her head as a helmet," says Marcus.
"She finds a breastplate and a back-plate, and she goes up and she joins the battlements, and she does everything that a soldier does.
"She fires crossbow bolts. She helped load the catapults and the trebuchets.
"She fights, she uses water to put out fires.
"She helps with ammunition with the other soldiers. And this is for 15 days."
At one point, she was wounded, almost mortally, by a fragment from a stone fired by a catapult, which broke off and hit her on the brow. She was covered in blood and concussed.
Eventually, after 15 days, Jerusalem surrendered, but a bargain was struck allowing the Christian inhabitants of the city to go free.
Margaret was among those who escaped, but found herself stuck in the middle of the desert.
She managed to travel the 300 miles from Jerusalem to Antioch, but arrived just in time to find that city besieged as well.
"This time, she is captured and she's held as a slave for 15 months," says Marcus.
"She eventually manages to escape by helping bribe another Palestinian there with a bit of gold that she's somehow managed to keep on her person.
"She's now wandering around the desert. She doesn't know where to go. She's starving. Her clothes are pretty much in rags."
Near Acre, she was captured for a third time, by a man with a knife.
"She thinks, all right, this is it. It's game up now, really. So she falls on her knees and she prays desperately.
"She prays to the Blessed Virgin Mary, oh Mary, Mary, Mary, please just save me."
"Because she prays to Mary, the Seljuk Turk is astonished, and this saves her life, because Mary is a very, very important figure in the Quran.
"So he realises, gosh, how do you know about Mary? I can't kill you now."
Margaret found her way back to Beverley, via Rome, but rather than retire into obscurity, she decided to continue her travels.
"She becomes a sort of 12th Century permanent pilgrim. She starts travelling all around Europe.
"Eventually, she decides, well, I probably need to find out what's happened to my younger brother Thomas."
Now in her 50s, Margaret travelled to Canterbury. By now, however, Becket has been murdered by followers of King Henry II, and her brother had fled to France.
She found Thomas at the Abbey of Citeaux, near Paris, where he was writing a biography of Becket.
"Margaret tells him her story, what she's been doing in Jerusalem," says Marcus. "And he's just gobsmacked.
"So he writes down her story, he said, on a loose bit of paper, which he then puts at the back of his life of Thomas Becket, because this is what my sister did, and it's so astonishing that this needs to be recorded.
"And then it just lies there, this one manuscript source, this one page, almost forgotten for the next 800 to 900 years, because people are more interested in the life of Thomas Becket, and nobody pays attention to what Margaret did."
Margaret died in 1215 after living in France as a nun.
"And we would know nothing about her if Thomas hadn't recorded a truly remarkable story of a 12th Century life," says Marcus.
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