- Lady Reason feels as though she hasn't yet made her point about women showing great virtues when they're in positions of authority. So she tells a story about the noble Queen Artemisia.
- Basically, Artemisia was left to govern a huge country after her husband died. Then some other country decided it would be a good time to attack because they didn't think a woman could direct her army properly. Artemisia showed them a thing or two, though. Like the Amazons, she pretended as though her army was giving up, then sneak-attacked the invaders at the last second and wiped them all out.
- Artemisia also helped the Spartans defeat the invading Persian armies of King Xerxes. You might remember both Xerxes and the Spartans from the movie 300.
- In this chapter, Lady Reason tells the story of how a woman named Lilia shamed her son for abandoning a losing battle. She instead tells him to fight until the death, and the guy is so inspired by her speech that he runs back into battle and ends up achieving a near-impossible victory.
- For Lady Reason, the mother deserves just as much credit for this victory as the son.
- Now it's time to learn about Queen Fredegund, a French queen who not only ran her country but also fought in battles.
- This queen was so smart that she had the idea of dressing her soldiers up as shrubs and trees and slowly advancing on her enemies until they were close enough to slaughter everyone in their tents.
- The next chapter tells us the story of Camilla, who learned to hunt like a man and killed lots of scary beasts. She also remained a virgin her whole life, which was an admirable thing in Pizan's day.
- In Chapter 25, we learn about how Queen Berenice of Cappadocia defended her kingdom when her dead husband's brother tried to steal away her inheritance by force. It's all pretty exciting.