The tender beloved of Dante’s Beatrice, the courageous Maid of Orléans Jeanne d’Arc, the beautiful Queen of England Eleanor of Aquitaine—these images come to mind above all when the Middle Ages are mentioned. But in reality, in those times beautiful ladies didn’t live nearly as sweetly as the author of “The Divine Comedy” sang in his poems. What was she—this “proper” medieval woman? “A vessel of sin” or the Beautiful Lady? A valuable commodity on the marriage market or a powerless slave of her husband? A bold harlot or an exalted nun? Or perhaps all of this at once? Or none of it—so that it’s better to forget everything we knew or thought we knew about this topic, start studying again from the beginning, and look for the truth somewhere else, where no one has searched yet.