Dame

[11] Unlike the male knights, it was virtually unimaginable to see women taking part in medieval battles or commanding battalions of soldiers, but there were exceptions.

One woman to wear full armour into battle was the Duchess Gaita of Lombardy (also called Sikelgaita), who rode beside her Norman mercenary husband, Robert Guiscard.

[11][12] Another was Petronilla de Grandmesnil, Countess of Leicester; wearing a mail hauberk with a sword and a shield, she defended her lands from Henry II of England.

[citation needed] The youngest person to be appointed a Dame was golfer Lydia Ko at the age of 27.

[13] The oldest had been actress Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies at the age of 100,[14] until Olivia de Havilland was appointed two weeks before her 101st birthday.

[18] In French Louisiana from the 17th through to the 19th centuries, Dame was the title accorded to a woman "of substance or position in the locality".