Geoffrey de Mandeville – The Terror of Widows and Nuns
Candidate Number Four in the Medieval Misogyny Series
One of multiple skirmishes during the Anarchy
The Chaos of the Anarchy
England in the 1140s was a land without peace. King Stephen and Empress Matilda fought bitterly for the throne, plunging the realm into what chroniclers called “the Anarchy.” Castles sprang up overnight, roads were unsafe, and the law of the sword replaced the law of the crown.
It was in this chaos that one man carved out a reputation so dark that even in an age of violence, his name stood out: Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex.
The Robber Baron
De Mandeville Coat of Arms
Geoffrey inherited immense lands and titles but he wanted even more, shifting loyalties between Stephen and Matilda whenever it suited him, extorting charters and privileges from both. When Stephen finally moved against him in 1143, Geoffrey unleashed a reign of terror across eastern England.
Chroniclers such as the Peterborough Chronicle and Orderic Vitalis described him as a robber baron, commanding brutal mercenaries who pillaged the countryside. Hardly chivalric, the man was a misogynist bully who preyed on the weak. For women, especially widows and nuns, he was the Devil’s own demon.
Widows Extorted by a Medieval Protection Racketeer
Medieval widows were particularly vulnerable. Without a husband to protect them, their lands and wealth made them easy prey for powerful men. Geoffrey exploited this ruthlessly. He extorted money from widows to “protect” their property, and when they could not pay, he seized their estates outright.
Some chroniclers accused him of using threats of violence against noblewomen to extract ransoms, stripping them of security in an already lawless world.
Nuns Driven from Convents
Nuns driven from their convent
Perhaps Geoffrey’s worst crimes were against religious women. Castles were scarce in the flat fenlands of Cambridgeshire, so Geoffrey seized convents and abbeys, expelling their nuns and monks to turn the holy sites into fortresses. The image of nuns driven weeping from their cloisters while mercenaries fortified sacred ground burned itself into the memory of contemporaries.
For medieval people, attacking a convent was shocking sacrilege. For the women displaced, it was the destruction of their homes, safety, and livelihoods.
Outlawed… then Death
Geoffrey’s terror grew so extreme that King Stephen declared him an outlaw, stripping him of his earldom. From then on, Geoffrey was justifiably hunted across the marshes of Ely like a beast.
In 1144, he was mortally wounded during a skirmish near Burwell. Fittingly, his violent life left him with no resting place. Because he had died excommunicated, his body could not be buried in consecrated ground. His corpse lay unburied for years until the church relented. Even in death, he remained an outcast.
Why He’s a Villain
He extorted and dispossessed widows.
He drove nuns from their convents and desecrated holy sites.
He spread terror in a time of already brutal warfare.
The Women’s Legacy
Unlike Marie of Boulogne or Melisende of Jerusalem, the women Geoffrey harmed left no individual voices behind. They were the widows stripped of wealth, the noblewomen left defenceless, the nuns weeping as mercenaries broke down convent doors. Their silence in the records is itself a legacy — a reminder of how violence against women has so often been erased them from history.
Closing Thought
Geoffrey de Mandeville is remembered as the archetypal robber baron, a medieval gangster, and a man whose greed and cruelty targeted the weakest members of society. If Matthew of Boulogne’s villainy lay in his abduction of a single nun, Geoffrey’s lay in the systematic terrorisation of many women.
Was he the most dangerous villain of the 12th century, or does the crown still belong to Philip, Fulk, or Henry?
Next week: Henry II of England — brilliant king, but the jailer of queens.