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Gender, war, and the State

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Stephen Bowd explores Alda Pio Gambara’s letters, revealing her role in managing estates and supporting her husband’s military activities by providing supplies and organizing troops.

Image courtesy of interviewee. March 4, 2024

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This video video discusses the life of Alda Gabra, an Italian noblewoman married into the Gamba family in Russia. Originating from a prominent family with lands in Central Italy, her husband was a military leader who provided mercenary services to Venice. Their marriage occurred during a tumultuous period for Italy, increasingly affected by French invasions.

Alda's significant role emerges through her correspondence—240 letters spanning from approximately 1498 to 1527—detailing her management of household and estate, notably during wartime. The letters reveal her proactive involvement in organizing military defenses, managing supplies, and rallying troops in place of her husband when he was away. After becoming a widow, she continued these responsibilities, demonstrating a clear connection between domestic estate management and military leadership.

This video video highlights a specific event in 1512 when Brescia faced a conflict between pro-French and pro-Venetian factions, culminating in a violent uprising. Alda was actively engaged in defending against Venetian forces and leading cavalry, showcasing active female participation in military affairs during a time generally dominated by men.

The author argues that Alda's involvement should not be seen as exceptional but rather as a natural extension of noblewomen's roles, challenging traditional notions of gender and women's expected passivity in military contexts. This video video concludes by suggesting a reevaluation of women's experiences in war, moving beyond the narrative of victims to recognizing their multifaceted roles, including leadership and management.

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X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

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FP Gamara.

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It was an Italian noble woman.

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Uh, so she came from, quite a, a,

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a a a well-known family, with, land

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and holdings in central Italy.

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Um, and she married into a family,

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the Gamba family in Russia.

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Russia is a, a city, to the, between

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Milan and Venice, up in the north, of Italy,

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an important, commercial city, important for,

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land and agricultural production,

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but also for weapons, weapons.

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And, it's a center for military activity.

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Um, so she was, married to,

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account, of, Gamara.

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And, she, he, who was someone

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who offered his services as a mercenary to Venice

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as a, as a military leader.

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So he regularly organized and mustard troops

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and infantry for Venice, which was at that time, of course,

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an independent republic.

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Um, so he offered his services

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as a military commander.

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Uh, and so she was very much marrying into that world of,

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a military landed

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what we might call a feudal world in which noble families

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had great local, power.

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Um, so,

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and at this time when she married into the family

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and moved, to Brescia, Italy was, had been invaded

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by the French, who were keen, to gain control of,

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Naples,

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and, were also allies for various powers,

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on the peninsula.

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So it was a war torn era in which she found herself.

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I became interested in Alda p Gabra,

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and the Gabra family when I was writing a book about,

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breia, but the city of Brescia, which as I said, was a,

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a very, well populated, wealthy, prosperous city

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within the Venetian Empire.

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It was part of, Venice's mainland Empire.

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Um, so it, it, it, it,

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and, I was particularly looking at Bresha

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during its experience of war

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and its experience during the Italian wars.

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And so I was really excited to come across,

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about 240 letters written, by

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Alde Gabra during this period to family, me, to largely

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to family members, to her brother-in-Law, her sister-in-Law,

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and to some, sometimes her nephew or niece.

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And these are, very rich

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in detail about her experiences of war

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and, other experiences, during this period.

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So we're talking, the first letter is roughly,

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I think about 1498,

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and then the last letter's 15, I think, 1527.

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So the letters span a period of 30 years.

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So they give us incredible insight into our experiences,

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including our experiences, all defending

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and organizing the defense of her estates and household.

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Firstly, in the absence of her husband,

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who's away fighting elsewhere in, Italy on behalf of,

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Venice or, is in France, promoting his

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interests and the estate's interests there,

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so they give us an insight into our activities,

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organizing defenses, organizing, supplies

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and even organizing the reason of troops

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and the buying of, cannons, artillery,

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send out spies,

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and so on a full range of

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what we might call military activities, which she undertook.

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He then died her husband, she's then widowed,

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and she carries on many of these activities,

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after his death.

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So the letters are rich, detailed about household

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and estate management.

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Um, so they, she talks about organi sending,

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her foreman

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or, the head of her household out to make sure

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that, the board boundaries

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and borders of their lands are not being

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encroached upon by neighbors.

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She can be right quite, she can be quite fierce

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in defending the boundaries of the estate from people

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who come in and chop down trees

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or try to use, use their mills

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or use the divert waterways for their own use and so on.

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So she often has to organize armed, men to go down

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and scare off the neighbors and to enforce, her

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and the family's authority in those, areas.

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So we have a lot of evidence for that.

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We have a lot of evidence for her, organizing the sale

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of, their agricultural produce, buying of,

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work to goods like, iron work and tools

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and so on, which are necessary for the farm

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and for the hou for, for the estate and for households.

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And this obviously, my argument and,

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and it's quite clear that her experience

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with household management in estate management in this way

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is directly transferrable to military management.

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So she's then using the same skills to raise troops,

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to raise men for the armies,

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and she raises them from their own estates,

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from the men in their own estates.

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Uh, she also equips them, with tools

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and other items, some with handguns

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and so on from, from, from, from with money that,

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that she provides, that the family, provides.

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Uh, and,

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she is writing at one stage about ordering canons,

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and she specifies, she goes in some detail about specifying

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who, who the canons should be ordered from, from a local,

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iron masters, iron founders and,

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and weapons producers.

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So she clearly had an expert and,

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and, you know, clear view, of, what is needed

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for, those activities.

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So we see, we see very much how all that household

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and estate activity directly applies

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to our military management.

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In 1512, the, the, there is an attempt to

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return the city of Russia to, the rule of Venice.

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So I mentioned that Breia was part of the Empire

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of Venice at the Republic of Venice at this stage.

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But, once the Italian war started

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and the French invaded, many parts

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of Italy fell under French control,

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and Brescia was one of those places, justice

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as Milan fell under French control for a time.

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So, so did Brescia.

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And in fact, the Bress opened their gates.

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A faction in the city opened their gates to, the French.

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And Alda Gabra was very much among those

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who were pro French.

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Um, she felt, the family felt that Venice

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was, a distant rather distant republic of,

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traders and merchants.

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It wasn't, it didn't, culturally,

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I think in many ways it jarred with her sense of nobility

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and landed aristocracy.

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So she perhaps looked down on the, the Venetian, the,

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the merchants of Venice somewhat,

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and she was much more, seems to be much more sympathetic

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to the French royal, to the king

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and of France to, to the royal.

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And courtly set up more feudal, set up of the French,

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much more sympathetic, to them.

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So she was one of those people that was, you know,

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organizing to welcome the French in to the city.

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And her followers, the Gki,

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as their known followers in the city are very pro French,

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but there were people who,

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felt they'd done well under the Venetians,

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particularly the poor

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or ordinary people who felt

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that Venice was a good counterweight to the gamba

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and other local heavyweight families, noble families.

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Uh, so there's a real struggle, there at Le, which leads

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to one point 1512, a sort of uprising,

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a revolution against the French in Brescia,

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and the Venetian forces come to the city, besiege the city,

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and then enter the city.

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And there's a, a great sack, a great fight,

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struggle and sack in the city in which Alda Gbra takes part.

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She is in the citadel of the castle at this time

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with the French troops there,

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and she's said to have been taken part in the firing

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of the artillery down on the Venetian

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troops in the city below.

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And then she's described at the end of the, the battle

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as leading hundreds of cavalry outta the city.

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She's at the head of all the,

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the cavalry heading outta the city.

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So she's very much active in this,

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in suppressing, this revolt,

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but it's a very bloody, affair.

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And it said there's various nu figures given

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for the deaths in, in the sack of, of Resha.

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Some say it was, thousands, single thousands.

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Others even say it's 20,000 people are killed,

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which is pr probably an exaggeration,

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but certainly it is, it is a very violent,

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civil conflict.

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I think the example of Valda Gabra is interesting here

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because, women

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were clearly involved in war

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and military management in many places across Italy.

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And indeed, we've got evidence for this in France

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during the French wars of religion.

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Uh, as well, women wear actively involved in war.

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Some women put on men's clothing

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and wear, active soldiers, so Katarina Dera.

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So for example, famously a nun, from,

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Spain who fought in, central

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and Southern America as a soldier in the 17th century in the

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Spanish wars, with the local populations there,

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and elsewhere.

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Now, this, these, so, so these,

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these figures are sometimes presented as exceptional,

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as exceptional women that they, they go against the norm

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of war as masculine, as male and so on.

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Now, Alda gamba is presented in some ways

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as Amazonian as exceptional.

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Uh, so she's described as sort of masculine, contemporary,

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hostile contemporaries describe her as masculine.

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Some even describe her as being rather sexually,

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disorder, holding right as parties, around the time

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of the, the, the, the revolution, the, the, the, the,

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the supreme, the massacre, inre and so on.

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But I suppose the point I try to make in my work is that,

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we can, we need to move beyond this idea of these women

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as exceptional and see, and,

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and begin to see that, some, the,

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the gendering certainly mar you know, ideas of gender,

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conventional, traditional ideas of gender,

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and what the normal role for women should be,

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marginalized women, then in the military terms,

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and also now in terms of whether we see

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what they're doing is exceptional, unusual

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or not, actually what they're doing is a natural extension

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of their household management.

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It's a natural for noble women, it's a natural extension

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of all the use of all

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The skills at which they had developed in which they,

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they, they, they put into to, to practice.

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So, and then more broadly, it begins

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to clearly the common experience for women in war was often

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as victims, as victims of rape, as victims of violence.

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That was probably in terms of direct experience of war,

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the most common.

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But I think we need to move, beyond that, you know,

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that, that that predominantly passive

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and victim, understanding of women,

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to see the way in which they could play,

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play other roles.

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