The Women Are Safe with Us: Difference between revisions

See also [[Politically-Correct History]] and [[Historical Hero Upgrade]]. Subversions often involve [[Historical Villain Upgrade]], [[Crapsack World]], [[No Woman's Land]].

== Media in General ==

* Though it's popular to portray the Middle Ages as [[No Woman's Land]], this isn't actually the case; war-rape was forbidden, along with looting and massacre of civilians, by the Peace of God movement. Medieval armies often had poor discipline, and the Peace's sanctions were sometimes difficult to enforce, but the same is true of modern armies and the Geneva Conventions. Rape was ''always'' a crime in peacetime, though (as in every society) it could be difficult to prove, and the powerful could often get away with it through bribery or corruption. The Late Middle Ages did see a resurgence of all the things the Peace had tried to curtail; the professional, mercenary armies that came to dominate the battlefield operated largely outside the rules designed to govern feudal war, and had little stake in the lands they fought in. In medieval wars against non-Christians, rape, along with massacre and looting, was often denounced as contrary to Christian principles (infidels still being in the image of God and, pragmatically, it being much easier to convert people if you treated them well), but the penalties of the Peace of God weren't usually applied to it. One exception, [[Reality Is Unrealistic|contrary to what the trope named after them might indicate]], was the [[Knight Templar|Templars]], who considered the Peace of God to apply equally against all enemies.