This book compares two successful, elite women, Empress Adelheid (931 999) and Countess Matilda (1046 1115), for their relative ability to retain their wealth and power. Both owned extensive property in and exercised power across overlapping geographical regions, at either end of a century that proved formative for the rise of a more organized society. The comparison between these two women informs and transforms the debate about the change in opportunities for women to access wealth and power. It is particularly revealing because the general changes of the eleventh century brought about a...