Women behaving badly

In the twelfth century, Queen Christina (d. 1170) of Denmark was disputing the ownership of the land upon which the monastery of Varnhem had been built. 

Legend accuses her of inciting the women of Øm to confront the monks during their Palm Sunday procession and strip down to their underwear, in order to humiliate and embarrass the monks. 

The monks retaliated and the priest’s house in which the women’s clothes had been stored was burnt to the ground.

(Image: 14^th century, Rothschild Canticles via http://www.gotmedieval.com/2012/01/needs-more-naked-mmm-marginalia-91.html)

- McGuire, B. Conflict and Continuity at Øm Abbey (Copenhagen, 1976) p. 12