The Real Rhetoricians of the Time

Let's be honest, most of the men back in medieval times were oblivious. We either had it or we didn't. Either we were poor and starving or we were rich and entitled. Being rich meant we didn't have to take no shit, from anybody! We were entitled, apparently by God, to rule over the minions of our kingdom. When you have this kind of entitlement and a mentality that you are better than everyone else, at least 98% of the population, it is easy to see how rhetoric flew out the window pretty fast. Why argue a point to the dust when you can lop off the other person's head?

Yet, because of our manly bullish ways, our minions kept dying. The gigantic pig we used to have on our table every night got replaced by a shriveled runt. "Why is this happening?" we asked. "We need to tax the people more!" we deducted by our logic. Fail, again. The people start grumbling and a few tax collectors come back empty, their heads replaced by pumpkins. We just can't figure out why our minions aren't responding as they should... Let's see if our wife can talk to these people and see.

The ladies egos/identities were not invested in their land and kingdom like the lords. They could distance themselves from the problem and not take it personally like the men would. While the lord would take a peasant's plea over taxes personally, thinking of himself, the lady might be able to see that a happy minion/s means a happy kingdom. To convince the lord of this would not be as big of a problem as the peasant trying to convince him, separated by class, wealth, and social hierarchy.

I found it interesting that Pizan inserted the woman as a mediator between kings across boundaries. It seemed to me that two kings would be much too stubborn to let a woman mediate, but maybe it was the two queens that talked and then decided what they each were going to get out of a peace and then convinced the respective husbands of the same. It seems that something like this would not be possible, just given the distance involved between respective castles, but apparently it was, or this is just her hoping that it can happen more than it already does.