mirelle, i just noticed what it says in your sig...priceless!
and then i searched for woman knights and i found this article...don't know if you've read any of this...but i thought it was pretty interesting stuff myself...
(whole article)
http://www.heraldica.org/topics/orders/wom-kn.htm(small quotable noteworthy portion of said article)
"
Women KnightsMedieval French had two words, chevaleresse and chevalière, which were used in two ways: one was for the wife of a knight, and this usage goes back to the 14th c. The other was as female knight, or so it seems. Here is a quote from Menestrier, a 17th c. writer on chivalry: "It was not always necessary to be the wife of a knight in order to take this title. Sometimes, when some male fiefs were conceded by special privilege to women, they took the rank of chevaleresse, as one sees plainly in Hemricourt where women who were not wives of knights are called chevaleresses."