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THE MEDIEVAL HOUSEWIFE: & OTHER WOMEN OF THE PDF, EPUB, EBOOK

Toni Mount | 96 pages | 19 Nov 2014 | Amberley Publishing | 9781445643700 | English | Chalford, United Kingdom Women in the Middle Ages - Wikipedia

Mount does not just confine her research to women or women of the lower class; she describes the lives of women of all classes, from the very poor to the very rich. She talks about the lives of peasant women working in the home and the land, women who were servants, women who helped their husbands in their trade or even who had their own businesses. She discusses the lives of prostitutes and the rules about their profession as well as detailing the lives, duties and privileges in some cases of women who were married to wealthy merchants or members of the court. What I most enjoyed about this book were the examples that Mount provided about women from the Middle Ages. Using first hand sources such as wills, letters and court records Mount is able to give examples of the events that affected women throughout various stages of their lives. For example she provided the wills of several women to show the types of items that these women bequeathed to others after their death, showing what women owned and valued depending on their social status. She also used court records to provide examples of different women that had issues regarding the laws of the time, helping to show the real struggles that women faced in regards to their rights and status. I felt that these first hand examples of women, real women that once lived and breathed, was a wonderful way to connect the information being written about to events that happened. I also thoroughly enjoyed the images that were added to each chapter. Some images were of modern day women portraying women of the Middle Ages, other images were of paintings representing women at various stages throughout their lives during the Medieval period. These pictures were fantastic to examine and helped to gain an idea of not only what women wore and how they wore their clothing but also how women were perceived during the Middle Ages. Mount provides a wealth of information about the various happenings, social situations and rules that affected women during the Medieval Ages. This book can also be used as a reference guide and personally I know that I will be using this book in the future! Jul 01, Holly rated it really liked it. Very interesting and very readable. Aug 23, Marie Powell rated it it was amazing. Great research and easy to read. This book was useful and entertaining, and I enjoyed Toni Mount's storytelling style. There's always something new to learn about the middle ages. Nov 26, English rated it really liked it. This little book started out as a series of Lecture notes for a course the author was teaching, and was later developed into a book for general consumption. Unlike a lot of short books on this subject, it combines academic content with a readable style, examining legal and other contemporary records. I don't agree with all the author's conclusion towards the end theologians have largely debunked the idea that the writing of St Paul are mysogynisic for instance, as this is based on a few isolat This little book started out as a series of Lecture notes for a course the author was teaching, and was later developed into a book for general consumption. I don't agree with all the author's conclusion towards the end theologians have largely debunked the idea that the writing of St Paul are mysogynisic for instance, as this is based on a few isolated passages taken out of context , especially those regarding domestic violence. There were cases of women taking abusive spouses to court, and even forms of communal punishment for them. However its a useful work overall. Recommened for anyone who wants a complimentary work on Medieval Englishwomen. Dec 17, Sylwia Zupanec rated it it was amazing. As an avid reader of everything medieval, I I literally gulped this book down holding my breath till I read the last page. Although it's a short read, it's jam packed with valuable information for everyone interested in what medieval housewife's life really looked liked. What I loved about this book is the fact that author gives you many examples from primary sources and you get this feeling of 'seeing' these medieval women. I would heartily recommend this book for everyone interested in the sub As an avid reader of everything medieval, I I literally gulped this book down holding my breath till I read the last page. I would heartily recommend this book for everyone interested in the subject I've already recommended it to all of my medieval-loving friends and I can't wait for Toni Mount's next book. Dec 20, Amy rated it really liked it. I especially enjoyed learning about women in trade, particularly women who sold extra ale for pocket money. I had no idea. Very much an introduction to the subject, but a fun one. The author's tone is conversational, funny but always to the point. I also liked the illustrations of reenactors. Recommended if you are new to the subject and want a quick but never shallow overview. An informative, nicely illustrated book, although I found the telling of it a little dry. I had to keep re-reading some bits as I realised I hadn't taken anything in. Apr 19, Susan Abernethy rated it it was amazing. Bob Cat rated it really liked it Oct 05, Sarah rated it really liked it May 26, As Templarias rated it really liked it Nov 09, Helen Leighton-Rose rated it liked it Jul 12, Aidee A. Ginete rated it it was amazing Jun 22, Helga Fertey rated it liked it Nov 09, Claire Ridgway rated it it was amazing Sep 21, David rated it it was amazing Nov 04, Jade Lauron rated it really liked it Jan 01, The Librarian rated it it was amazing Apr 07, Susan Humeston rated it it was amazing Jan 08, Karen rated it liked it May 11, Ms Samantha C Taillie rated it did not like it Sep 22, Tisha rated it really liked it Jul 01, Anna Stone rated it it was amazing Aug 07, Ashley London rated it it was amazing Jun 10, Karen rated it really liked it Nov 08, There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Readers also enjoyed. About Toni Mount. Franklin considers the lives of widows to have been "liberating" because women had more autonomous control over their lives and property; they were able to "argue their own cases in court, hire labour, and cultivate and manage holdings successfully". Franklin also discusses that some Thornbury widows had second and even third marriages. Remarriage would have affected inheritance of property, especially if the widow had children with her second husband; however there are several cases where sons from the widow's first marriage were able to inherit before the second husband. McDougall also notes like the varying forms of marriage, the canon law regarding remarriage varied across regions. In the Middle Ages the upper socioeconomic groups generally included royalty and . Conduct books from the period present an image of the role of elite women being to obey their spouse, guard their virtue, produce offspring, and to oversee the operation of the household. For those women who did adhere to these traditional roles, the responsibilities could be considerable, with households sometimes including dozens of people. Further, when their husbands were away the role of women could increase substantially. By the High and there were numerous royal and noble women who assumed control of their husbands' domains in their absence, including defense and even bearing arms. Noble women were natural parts of the cultural and political environments of their time due to their positions and . Particularly when acting as regents, elite women would assume the full feudal, economic, political and judicial powers of their husbands or young heirs. These women were never prohibited during the Middle Ages from receiving fiefdoms or owning real property during their husbands' lives. Noble women were often patrons of literature, art, and , and religious men. It was not uncommon for them to be knowledgeable in Latin literature. As with peasant men, the life of peasant women was difficult. Women at this level of society are usually considered to have had considerable gender equality, [4] though some scholars have argued that they had fundamentally the same subordinate status as women elsewhere in medieval society [26] but this often meant shared poverty. Until nutrition improved, their life expectancy at birth was significantly less than that of male : perhaps 25 years. Marxist historian Chris Middleton made these general observations about English peasant women: "A peasant woman's life was, in fact, hemmed in by prohibition and restraint. English peasant women generally could not hold lands for long, rarely learnt any craft occupation and rarely advanced past the position of assistants, and could not become officials. Peasant women had numerous restrictions placed on their behaviour by their lords. If a woman was pregnant, and not married, or had sex outside of marriage, the lord was entitled to compensation. The control of peasant women was a function of financial benefits to the lords. They were not motivated by women's moral state. Also during this period, sexual activity was not regulated, with couples simply living together outside a formal ceremony, provided they had permission by their lord. Even without a feudal lord involved with her life, a woman still had supervision by their father, brothers or other male members of the family. Women had little control over their own lives. Middleton provided some exceptions: English peasant women, on their own behalf, could plead in manorial courts ; some female freeholders enjoyed immunities from male peers and landlords; and some trades such as ale- , provided female workers with independence. Still, Middleton viewed these as exceptions which required historians only to modify, rather than revise, "the essential model of female subservience. In medieval , society and economy were rural-based. Ninety percent of the European population lived in the countryside or in small towns. In fact, although peasant women worked as hard as peasant men, they suffered many disadvantages such as fewer landholdings, occupational exclusions, and lower wages. To prosper, medieval Europeans needed rights to own land, dwellings, and goods. Land- ownership involved various inheritance patterns, according to the potential heir's gender across the landscape of medieval Western Europe. prevailed in England, Normandy , and the Basque region : In the Basque region, the eldest child -regardless of sex- inherited all lands [ citation needed ]. In Normandy, only sons could inherit lands. In England, the eldest son usually inherited all properties, but sometimes sons inherited jointly, daughters would inherit only if there were no sons. In , sons received twice as much as daughters' inheritance, yet siblings of the same sex received equal shares. In northern France, , and the , sons and daughters enjoyed partible inheritance : each child would receive an equal share regardless of sex but Parisian parents could favour some children over others. Female land-owners, single or married, could grant or sell land as they deemed fit. Even though up the year female landownership had been increasing, afterwards female landownership began to decline. Generally, research has determined that there is limited gender division of labor among peasant men and women. Rural historian Jane Whittle described this gender division of labor thus: "Labor was divided according to the workers' gender. Some activities were restricted to either men or women; other activities were preferred to be performed by one gender over the other:" e. A woman's standing as a worker might vary depending on circumstances. Generally, women were required to have male guardians who would assume legal liability for them in legal and economic matters: For the wives of elite merchants in Northern Europe [ vague ] , their roles extended to commercial undertakings both with their husbands and on their own, however in Italy tradition and law excluded them from commerce; [24] in Ghent , women had to have guardians unless these women had been emancipated or were prestigious merchants; Norman women were forbidden to contract business ventures; French women could litigate business matters, but could not plead in courts without their husbands, unless they had suffered from their husbands' abuses; [37] Castilian wives , during the , enjoyed favourable legal treatments, worked in family-oriented trades and crafts, sold goods, kept inns and shops, became domestic servants for wealthier households; Christian Castilian wives labored along with Jewish and Muslim free-born women and slaves. Yet over time Castilian wives' work became associated with or even subordinated to that of their husbands, and when the Castilian frontier region had been stabilized, Castilian wives' legal standing deteriorated. Both peasant men and women worked in the home and out in the fields. These include: food preparation, laundry, sewing, brewing, getting water, starting fires, tending to children, collecting produce, and working with domestic animals. Three main activities performed by peasant men and women were planting foods, keeping livestock, and making textiles, as depicted in Psalters from southern Germany and England. Women of different classes performed different activities: rich urban women could be merchants like their husbands or even became money lenders; middle-class women worked in the textile, inn-keeping, shop-keeping, and brewing industries; while poorer women often peddled and huckstered foods and other merchandise in the market places, or worked in richer households as domestic servants , day laborers, or laundresses. There was evidence that women performed not only housekeeping responsibilities like cooking and cleaning, but even other household activities like grinding, brewing, butchering, and spinning; and produced items like flour, ale, meat, , and textile for direct consumption and for sale. These inventions favoured commercial cloth-making and brewing dominated by male workers who had more time, wealth, and access to credit and political influence and who produced goods for sale instead of for direct consumption. Meanwhile, women were increasingly relegated to low-paying tasks like spinning. Besides working independently on their own lands, women could hire themselves out as servants or wage-workers. Medieval servants performed works as required by the employer's household: men cooked and cleaned while women did the laundry. Like their independent rural workers, rural wage-labourers performed complementary tasks based on a gendered division of labour. Women were paid only half as much as men even though both sexes performed similar tasks. After the killed a large part of the European population and led to severe labour shortages, women filled out the occupational gaps in the cloth-making and agricultural sectors. Bennett attributed this gender-based wage-gap to patriarchal prejudices which devalued women's work, yet John Hatcher disputed Bennet's claim: he pointed out that men and women received the same wages for the same piece-work, but women received lower day-wages because they were physically weaker and might have had to sacrifice working hours for other domestic duties. Whittle stated that the debate has not yet been settled. To illustrate, the late medieval poem Piers Plowman paints a pitiful picture of the life of the medieval peasant woman:. Peasant women during the time period were subjected to a number of superstitious practices when it came to their health. In The Distaff Gospels , a collection of 15th-century French women's lore, advice for women's health was plentiful. Male involvement with women's healthcare was widespread. However, there were limits to male participation because of the resistance to males' viewing women's genitalia. Childbirth was treated as the most important aspect of women's health during the period; however, few historical texts document the experience. Women attendants assisted in childbirth and passed their experiences to one another. Midwives , women who attended childbirth, were acknowledged as legitimate medical specialists and were granted a special role in women's health care. In 12th-century Salerno , Italy, Trota , a woman, wrote one of the Trotula texts on diseases of women. The book was a compilation of three original texts and quickly became the basis for the treatment of women. Based on medical information developed in Greek and Roman eras , these texts discussed ailments, disease, and possible treatments for women's health issues. The , classed among medieval singlewomen , wrote, in her 12th-century treatise Physica and Causae et Curae , about many issues concerning women's health. Hildegard was one of the most well known of medieval medical authors. In particular, Hildegard contributed much valuable knowledge in the use of herbs as well as observations regarding women's physiology and spirituality. In nine sections, Hildegard's volume reviews the medical uses for plants, the earth's elements earth, water, and air , and animals. Also included are investigations of metals and jewels. Hildegard also explored such issues as laughter, tears, and sneezing, on the one hand, and poisons and aphrodisiacs, on the other. Her work was compiled in a religious environment but also relied on past wisdom and new findings about women's health. Hildegard's work not only addresses illness and cures but also explores the theory of medicine and the nature of women's bodies. Just as Classical Greco-Roman writers, including , , and , assumed that men lived longer than women, [53] medieval Catholic bishop agreed that in general men lived longer, but he observed that some women live longer and posited that it was per accidens , thanks to the purification resulting from and that women worked less but also consumed less than men. Medieval peasants subsisted upon grain-heavy, protein -poor and -poor diets, eating breads of , , and dipped in broth, and rarely enjoying nutritious supplements like cheese, eggs, and wine. As the human body better absorbs iron from , iron salts, and meat than from grains and vegetables, the grain-heavy medieval diet commonly resulted in iron deficiency and, by extension, general anemia for medieval women. However, anemia was not the leading cause of death for women; rather anemia, which lessens the amount of hemoglobin in blood, would further aggravate such other diseases as pneumonia , bronchitis , emphysema , and heart diseases. Since the s, the invention of a more efficient type of plough—along with three-field replacing two-field crop rotation —allowed medieval peasants to improve their diets through planting, alongside wheat and rye in the fall, , barley, and legumes in the spring, including various protein-rich peas. Herring could be more effectively salted, and pork, cheese, and eggs were increasingly consumed throughout Europe, even by the lower classes. Cultural differences across Western and Eastern Europe meant that laws were neither universal nor universally practised. The Laws of the Salian Franks , a Germanic tribe that migrated into Gaul and converted to between the 6th and 7th centuries, provide a well-known example of a particular tribe's law codes. According to Salic Law, crimes and determined punishments were usually orated; however as their contact with literate Romans increased, their laws became codified and developed into written language and text. Peasants, slaves, and maidservants were considered as property of their free-born master s. In some or perhaps most cases, the unfree person might be regarded as of the same value as their master's animals. However, peasants, slaves, and maidservants of the king were regarded as more valuable and even considered to be of the same value as free persons because they were members of the king's court. If someone were to abduct another person's slave or maidservant and were proven to have committed the crime, that individual would be responsible to pay 35 solidi , the value of the slave, and in addition a fine for lost time of use. If someone abducted another person's maidservant, the abductor would be fined 30 solidi. A proven seducer of a maidservant worth 15 or 25 solidi, and who is himself worth 25 solidi, would be fined 72 solidi plus the value of the maidservant. The proven abductor of a boy or girl domestic servant will be fined the value of the servant 25 or 35 solidi plus an additional amount for lost time of use. A free-born woman who marries a slave will lose her freedom and privileges as a free-born woman. She will also have her property taken away from her and will be proclaimed an outlaw. A free-born man who marries a slave or maidservant shall also lose his freedom and privilege as a free-born man. If a freeman fornicates with another person's maidservant and is proven to have done so, he will be required to pay the maidservant's master 15 solidi. If anyone fornicates with a maidservant of the king and proven to do so, the fine would be 30 solidi. If a slave fornicates with another person's maidservant and that maidservant dies, the slave will be fined and also be required to pay the maidservant's master 6 solidi and may be castrated; or that slave's master will be required to pay the maidservant's master the value of the deceased maidservant. If a slave fornicates with a maidservant who does not die, the slave will either receive three hundred lashes or be required to pay the maidservant's master 3 solidi. If a slave marries another person's maidservant without her master's consent, the slave will either be whipped or required to pay the maidservant's master 3 solidi. The first group of peasant women consisted of free landholders. Free peasant women, unlike their male counterparts, could not become officers such as manorial jurors, constables, and reeves. The second category of medieval European workers were serfs. Conditions of applied to both genders. A serf woman would pass her serfdom status to her children; in contrast, children would inherit status from their father. When female serfs got married, they had to pay fines to their lords. The first fine upon a female serf getting married was known as merchet , to be paid by her father to their lord; the rationale was that the lord had lost a worker and her children. Chris Middleton cited other historians who demonstrated that lords often regulated their serfs' marriages to make sure that the serfs' landholdings would not be taken out of their jurisdiction. Lords could even force female serfs into involuntary marriages to ensure that the female serfs would be able to pro-create a new generation of workers. Over time, English lords increasingly favoured primogeniture inheritance patterns to prevent their serfs' landholdings from being broken up. Hildegard of Bingen receiving divine inspiration. lecturing to a group of men. Misericord picturing a fictional joust between two naked women, each straddling a man. Faltonia Betitia Proba teaching the history of the world since the Creation through her Cento Vergilianus de laudibus Christi. Hunting: the women in the middle is shooting with a bow and arrow, the lady on the left is using a rod to drive game toward the huntress. The status of women differed immensely by region. In most of Western Europe, later marriage and higher rates of definitive the so-called " European marriage pattern " helped to constrain patriarchy at its most extreme level. The rise of Christianity and had both created incentives to keep families nuclear and thus the age of marriage increased; the Western Church instituted marriage laws and practices that undermined large kinship groups. From as early as the 4th century, the Church discouraged any practice that enlarged the family, like , , taking concubines , , and remarriage. The Church severely discouraged and prohibited consanguineous marriages, a marriage pattern that has constituted a means to maintain and thus their power throughout history. The Church and state had become allies in erasing the solidarity and thus the political power of the clans; the Church sought to replace traditional religion , whose vehicle was the kin group, and substituting the authority of the elders of the kin group with that of a religious elder; at the same time, the king's rule was undermined by revolts on the part of the most powerful kin groups, clans or sections, whose conspiracies and murders threatened the power of the state and also the demand of manorial lords for obedient, compliant workers. Those who could and did delay marriage presumably were rewarded by the landlord and those who did not were presumably denied said reward. The Medieval Housewife: & Other Women of the Middle Ages by Toni Mount, Paperback | Barnes & Noble®

Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Medieval Housewife , please sign up. Be the first to ask a question about The Medieval Housewife. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. May 30, Helena Schrader rated it really liked it Shelves: middle-ages. As Ms. This book is a refreshing change from polemical tirades against male domination that lets medieval women speak for themselves — through the books they wrote yes, even middle class women in the Middle Ages were literate! The book is organized by theme, looking at women in their homes housewives , in trade, in rural communities peasants , in the church and in the upper class. Mount uses exclusively primary sources and archaeological evidence to build her case, and provides many photos from medieval sources and re-enactments. The book is short and easy to read, yet meticulously documented with a good bibliography of recommended further reading. What completely surprised me was learning that girls were also frequently apprenticed at young ages to learn trades, many of which they continued to practice after marriage. The ability of women to run their own business while still wives, not just as widows, was news to me as well. It makes much more sense that women, regardless of class, had a comparable relationship with the men of their respective class. After all, women at the lower end of the social scale looked to the women of the elites not only for fashion but also as role models. A powerful queen would embolden the ladies of her court, who in turn inspired the women serving them etc. My only disappointment with this book is that it remains a collection of anecdotes rather than a more systematic analysis of women in the Middle Ages. A pity — unless that will be the subject of a later book. View 1 comment. Mar 08, Sarah Bryson rated it it was amazing. If you are looking for a book that will give you an overview of what life was like for women during the Medieval Ages then this is your book! She also examines women as mothers, women that work for themselve If you are looking for a book that will give you an overview of what life was like for women during the Medieval Ages then this is your book! She also examines women as mothers, women that work for themselves or for their husbands and the role of women within the house as well as within the community. Mount also looks at the different type of clothing that women would have worn dependant on their status and how women were represented in poems, literature and paintings. Mount does not just confine her research to peasant women or women of the lower class; she describes the lives of women of all classes, from the very poor to the very rich. She talks about the lives of peasant women working in the home and the land, women who were servants, women who helped their husbands in their trade or even who had their own businesses. She discusses the lives of prostitutes and the rules about their profession as well as detailing the lives, duties and privileges in some cases of women who were married to wealthy merchants or members of the court. What I most enjoyed about this book were the examples that Mount provided about women from the Middle Ages. Using first hand sources such as wills, letters and court records Mount is able to give examples of the events that affected women throughout various stages of their lives. For example she provided the wills of several women to show the types of items that these women bequeathed to others after their death, showing what women owned and valued depending on their social status. She also used court records to provide examples of different women that had issues regarding the laws of the time, helping to show the real struggles that women faced in regards to their rights and status. I felt that these first hand examples of women, real women that once lived and breathed, was a wonderful way to connect the information being written about to events that happened. I also thoroughly enjoyed the images that were added to each chapter. Some images were of modern day women portraying women of the Middle Ages, other images were of paintings representing women at various stages throughout their lives during the Medieval period. These pictures were fantastic to examine and helped to gain an idea of not only what women wore and how they wore their clothing but also how women were perceived during the Middle Ages. Mount provides a wealth of information about the various happenings, social situations and rules that affected women during the Medieval Ages. More has been written about medieval women in the last twenty years than in the two whole centuries before that. Female authors of the medieval period have been rediscovered and translated; queens are no longer thought of as merely decorative brood mares for their royal husbands and have merited their own biographies. In the past, historians have tended to look at what women could not do. In this book we will look at the lives of medieval women in a more positive light, finding out what rights and opportunities they enjoyed and attempting to uncover the real women beneath the layers of dust accumulated over the centuries. Product Details About the Author. About the Author Toni Mount has been a history teacher for fifteen years. Born in London, Toni now lives in Gravesend, Kent. We may shudder at the idea, but an elderly man marrying a teenager was thought to be beneficial to both parties: he got a new lease of life, and she enjoyed the fruits of his successful career and wisdom. However, in certain circumstances a widow might be able to choose her second husband. Guy de Montigny admits this, declaring that, if his wife is well trained in her duties, when she marries again after his death she will be a credit to his teaching. This is how he expects her to care for him:. And the next day fresh shirts and garments. Certes, such services make a man love and desire to return home and to see his goodwife, and to be distant with others. On the subject of how a housewife ought to behave, an anonymous verse, known as How the Good Wif taughte hir Doughtir , has down-to-earth instructions for young women, to help them to capture better husbands by behaving suitably:. When you sit in the church, your prayers you shall offer. Make you no chattering to friend or relation. Laugh you to scorn neither old folk nor young, But be of fair bearing and of good tongue…. Go you not into town as if you were a flighty person From one house to another in search of vain amusement; And go not to market your burrel [cheap, home-spun cloth] to sell, And then to the tavern to destroy your reputation…. Go not to wrestlings, nor to shooting at cock, As if you were a strumpet or a wanton woman. Stay at home daughter, and love your work much, And so you shall, my dear child, soon grow rich. The goodman [husband] and his lad to the plough are gone, The goodwife had much to do, and servant had she none, Many small children to look after beside herself alone, She did more than she could inside her own house. Home came the goodman early in the day To see that everything was according to his wishes. How would you have me do more than I can? The Medieval Housewife: & Other Women of the Middle Ages by Toni Mount

However its a useful work overall. Recommened for anyone who wants a complimentary work on Medieval Englishwomen. Dec 17, Sylwia Zupanec rated it it was amazing. As an avid reader of everything medieval, I I literally gulped this book down holding my breath till I read the last page. Although it's a short read, it's jam packed with valuable information for everyone interested in what medieval housewife's life really looked liked. What I loved about this book is the fact that author gives you many examples from primary sources and you get this feeling of 'seeing' these medieval women. I would heartily recommend this book for everyone interested in the sub As an avid reader of everything medieval, I I literally gulped this book down holding my breath till I read the last page. I would heartily recommend this book for everyone interested in the subject I've already recommended it to all of my medieval-loving friends and I can't wait for Toni Mount's next book. Dec 20, Amy rated it really liked it. I especially enjoyed learning about women in trade, particularly women who sold extra ale for pocket money. I had no idea. Very much an introduction to the subject, but a fun one. The author's tone is conversational, funny but always to the point. I also liked the illustrations of reenactors. Recommended if you are new to the subject and want a quick but never shallow overview. An informative, nicely illustrated book, although I found the telling of it a little dry. I had to keep re-reading some bits as I realised I hadn't taken anything in. Apr 19, Susan Abernethy rated it it was amazing. Bob Cat rated it really liked it Oct 05, Sarah rated it really liked it May 26, As Templarias rated it really liked it Nov 09, Helen Leighton-Rose rated it liked it Jul 12, Aidee A. Ginete rated it it was amazing Jun 22, Helga Fertey rated it liked it Nov 09, Claire Ridgway rated it it was amazing Sep 21, David rated it it was amazing Nov 04, Jade Lauron rated it really liked it Jan 01, The Librarian rated it it was amazing Apr 07, Susan Humeston rated it it was amazing Jan 08, Karen rated it liked it May 11, Ms Samantha C Taillie rated it did not like it Sep 22, Tisha rated it really liked it Jul 01, Anna Stone rated it it was amazing Aug 07, Ashley London rated it it was amazing Jun 10, Karen rated it really liked it Nov 08, There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Readers also enjoyed. About Toni Mount. Toni Mount. Toni Mount is a history teacher, speaker and author, specialising in ordinary lives and fascinating characters from history. Books by Toni Mount. Cultural differences across Western and Eastern Europe meant that laws were neither universal nor universally practised. The Laws of the Salian Franks , a Germanic tribe that migrated into Gaul and converted to Christianity between the 6th and 7th centuries, provide a well-known example of a particular tribe's law codes. According to Salic Law, crimes and determined punishments were usually orated; however as their contact with literate Romans increased, their laws became codified and developed into written language and text. Peasants, slaves, and maidservants were considered as property of their free-born master s. In some or perhaps most cases, the unfree person might be regarded as of the same value as their master's animals. However, peasants, slaves, and maidservants of the king were regarded as more valuable and even considered to be of the same value as free persons because they were members of the king's court. If someone were to abduct another person's slave or maidservant and were proven to have committed the crime, that individual would be responsible to pay 35 solidi , the value of the slave, and in addition a fine for lost time of use. If someone abducted another person's maidservant, the abductor would be fined 30 solidi. A proven seducer of a maidservant worth 15 or 25 solidi, and who is himself worth 25 solidi, would be fined 72 solidi plus the value of the maidservant. The proven abductor of a boy or girl domestic servant will be fined the value of the servant 25 or 35 solidi plus an additional amount for lost time of use. A free-born woman who marries a slave will lose her freedom and privileges as a free-born woman. She will also have her property taken away from her and will be proclaimed an outlaw. A free-born man who marries a slave or maidservant shall also lose his freedom and privilege as a free-born man. If a freeman fornicates with another person's maidservant and is proven to have done so, he will be required to pay the maidservant's master 15 solidi. If anyone fornicates with a maidservant of the king and proven to do so, the fine would be 30 solidi. If a slave fornicates with another person's maidservant and that maidservant dies, the slave will be fined and also be required to pay the maidservant's master 6 solidi and may be castrated; or that slave's master will be required to pay the maidservant's master the value of the deceased maidservant. If a slave fornicates with a maidservant who does not die, the slave will either receive three hundred lashes or be required to pay the maidservant's master 3 solidi. If a slave marries another person's maidservant without her master's consent, the slave will either be whipped or required to pay the maidservant's master 3 solidi. The first group of peasant women consisted of free landholders. Free peasant women, unlike their male counterparts, could not become officers such as manorial jurors, constables, and reeves. The second category of medieval European workers were serfs. Conditions of serfdom applied to both genders. A serf woman would pass her serfdom status to her children; in contrast, children would inherit gentry status from their father. When female serfs got married, they had to pay fines to their lords. The first fine upon a female serf getting married was known as merchet , to be paid by her father to their lord; the rationale was that the lord had lost a worker and her children. Chris Middleton cited other historians who demonstrated that lords often regulated their serfs' marriages to make sure that the serfs' landholdings would not be taken out of their jurisdiction. Lords could even force female serfs into involuntary marriages to ensure that the female serfs would be able to pro-create a new generation of workers. Over time, English lords increasingly favoured primogeniture inheritance patterns to prevent their serfs' landholdings from being broken up. Hildegard of Bingen receiving divine inspiration. Christine de Pizan lecturing to a group of men. Misericord picturing a fictional joust between two naked women, each straddling a man. Faltonia Betitia Proba teaching the history of the world since the Creation through her Cento Vergilianus de laudibus Christi. Hunting: the women in the middle is shooting with a bow and arrow, the lady on the left is using a rod to drive game toward the huntress. The status of women differed immensely by region. In most of Western Europe, later marriage and higher rates of definitive celibacy the so-called " European marriage pattern " helped to constrain patriarchy at its most extreme level. The rise of Christianity and manorialism had both created incentives to keep families nuclear and thus the age of marriage increased; the Western Church instituted marriage laws and practices that undermined large kinship groups. From as early as the 4th century, the Church discouraged any practice that enlarged the family, like adoption , polygamy , taking concubines , divorce , and remarriage. The Church severely discouraged and prohibited consanguineous marriages, a marriage pattern that has constituted a means to maintain clans and thus their power throughout history. The Church and state had become allies in erasing the solidarity and thus the political power of the clans; the Church sought to replace traditional religion , whose vehicle was the kin group, and substituting the authority of the elders of the kin group with that of a religious elder; at the same time, the king's rule was undermined by revolts on the part of the most powerful kin groups, clans or sections, whose conspiracies and murders threatened the power of the state and also the demand of manorial lords for obedient, compliant workers. Those who could and did delay marriage presumably were rewarded by the landlord and those who did not were presumably denied said reward. In Eastern Europe however, there were many differences with specific regional characteristics. In the , Bulgarian Empire and Kievan Rus' , the majority of women were well educated and had a higher social status than in Western Europe. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Role of women in Medieval Europe. Female physician caring for a patient. She is dressed in the height of contemporary fashion. The evidence that follows indicates that rural women faced limitations fundamentally similar to those restricting women of the more privileged sectors of medieval society. Norms of female and male behaviour in the medieval countryside drew heavily upon the private subordination of wives to their husbands. Byzantine Empire and Byzantine world , Prosveta - Sofia, p. Muir Allen, Prudence a. The Early Humanist Reformation, , Part 1. The Concept of Woman. Allen, Prudence b. The Early Humanist Reformation, , Part 2. Bennett, Judith M. The Journal of Interdisciplinary History. Bouchard, Constance B. Bullough, Vern; Campbell, Cameron Classen, Albrecht Old age in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: interdisciplinary approaches to a neglected topic. Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture. Walter de Gruyter. Dowty, Alan Twentieth Century Fund Report. Yale University Press. Erler, Mary C. Cornell University Press. Franklin, Peter The Economic History Review. Garay, Kathleen; Jeay, Madeleine Canadian Bulletin of Medical History. Georgieva, Sashka Bulgarian Historical Review. Green, Monica H. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Greif, Avner []. Stanford University. Hanawalt, B. Dumbarton Oaks Papers. Harding, Alan Heather, Peter J. Levin, Eve Mount has a concise bibliography and the book is filled with lovely pictures from illuminated manuscripts. Also provided are photos from recent medieval reenactment groups. I highly recommend this book. I learned a lot. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email.

Facts About Medieval Women and Marriage - HistoryExtra

Overview Have you ever wondered what life was like for the ordinary housewife in the Middle Ages? Or how much power a medieval lady really had? Find out all about medieval housewives, peasant women, grand ladies, women in trade and women in the church in this fascinating book. More has been written about medieval women in the last twenty years than in the two whole centuries before that. Female authors of the medieval period have been rediscovered and translated; queens are no longer thought of as merely decorative brood mares for their royal husbands and have merited their own biographies. In the past, historians have tended to look at what women could not do. In this book we will look at the lives of medieval women in a more positive light, finding out what rights and opportunities they enjoyed and attempting to uncover the real women beneath the layers of dust accumulated over the centuries. The very concept of "woman" changed in a number of ways during the Middle Ages [2] and several forces influenced women's roles during their period. The Roman was a major unifying cultural influence of the Middle Ages with its selection from Latin learning, preservation of the art of writing, and a centralized administration through its network of bishops. Historically in the Catholic and other ancient churches, the role of bishop, like the priesthood, was restricted to men. With the establishment of , other roles within the Church became available to women. From the 5th century onward, Christian convents provided an alternative to the path of marriage and child-rearing, to play a more active religious role. could become important figures in their own right, often ruling over monasteries of both men and women, and holding significant lands and power. Figures such as c. Spinning was one of a number of traditional women's crafts at this time, [4] initially performed using the spindle and distaff ; the spinning wheel was introduced towards the end of the . For most of the Middle Ages, until the introduction of made with hops , brewing was done largely by women; [5] this was a form of work which could take place at home. Such partnerships were facilitated by the fact that much work occurred in or near the home. Midwifery was practised informally, gradually becoming a specialized occupation in the Late Middle Ages. — was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in Western Europe during the High Middle Ages. Eleanor succeeded her father as suo jure Duchess of Aquitaine and Countess of Poitiers at the age of 15, and thus became the most eligible bride in Europe. Hadewijch of Antwerp was a poet and mystic. Both Hildegard of Bingen and were medical writers in the 12th century. Female artisans in some cities were, like their male equivalents, organized in . Regarding the role of women in the Church , Pope Innocent III wrote in "No matter whether the most blessed Virgin Mary stands higher, and is also more illustrious, than all the apostles together, it was still not to her, but to them, that the Lord entrusted the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven". The mystic was also significant in England. Christine de Pizan was a noted late medieval writer on women's issues. Her Book of the City of Ladies attacked , while her The Treasure of the City of Ladies articulated an ideal of feminine virtue for women from walks of life ranging from princess to peasant's wife. She will ponder long and hard whether she can do something always preserving the honour of her husband to prevent this war. From the last century of the Middle Ages onwards, restrictions began to be placed on women's work, and guilds became increasingly male-only; some of the reasons may have been the rising status and political role of guilds and the increasing competition from cottage industries, which prompted the guilds to tighten their entrance requirements. Medieval marriage was both a private and social matter. According to canon law , the law of the Catholic Church , marriage was a concrete exclusive bond between husband and wife; giving the husband all power and control in the relationship. McDougall concurs with Charles Reid's argument that both men and women shared rights in regards to sex and marriage; which includes: "the right to consent to marriage, the right to ask for marital debt or conjugal sexual duty, the right to leave a marriage when they either suspected it was invalid or had grounds to sue for separation, and finally the right to choose one's own place of burial, death being the point at which a spouse's ownership of the other spouse's body ceased". Regionally and across the time span of the Middle Ages, marriage could be formed differently. Marriage could be proclaimed in secret by the mutually consenting couple, or arranged between families as long as the man and woman were not forced and consented freely; but by the 12th century in western canon law, consent whether in mutual secrecy or in a public sphere between the couple was imperative. Peasants, slaves, and maidservants needed the permission and consent of their master in order to marry; and if they did not they were punished see below in Law. Marriage also allowed for the couples' social networks to expand. This was according to Bennett who investigated the marriage of Henry Kroyl Jr. Due to the couples' fathers, Henry Kroyl Sr. Bennett details how Kroyl Jr. Agnes' connections expanded also based on Kroyl Jr. However, Bennett also signifies that a familial alliance between the couples' families of origin did not form. Kroyl Jr. Agnes, though all contact with her family did not cease, her social network expanded to her husband's family of origin and his new connections. Upon the death of a spouse, widows could gain power in inheriting their husbands' property as opposed to adult sons. Male-preference primogeniture stipulated that the male heir was to inherit their deceased father's land; and in cases of no sons, the eldest daughter would inherit property. However, widows could inherit property when they had minor sons, or if provisions were made for them to inherit. Through court rolls, he found that many widows in this area independently held land successfully. He argued that some widows may have remarried due to keeping up with their tenure and financial difficulties of holding their inherited land, or community pressures for the said widow to remarry if she had a male servant living in her home. Remarriage would put the widow back under the thumb and control of her new husband. Even young widows, who would have had an easier time remarrying, remained independent and unmarried. Franklin considers the lives of widows to have been "liberating" because women had more autonomous control over their lives and property; they were able to "argue their own cases in court, hire labour, and cultivate and manage holdings successfully". Franklin also discusses that some Thornbury widows had second and even third marriages. Remarriage would have affected inheritance of property, especially if the widow had children with her second husband; however there are several cases where sons from the widow's first marriage were able to inherit before the second husband. McDougall also notes like the varying forms of marriage, the canon law regarding remarriage varied across regions. In the Middle Ages the upper socioeconomic groups generally included royalty and nobility. Conduct books from the period present an image of the role of elite women being to obey their spouse, guard their virtue, produce offspring, and to oversee the operation of the household. For those women who did adhere to these traditional roles, the responsibilities could be considerable, with households sometimes including dozens of people. Further, when their husbands were away the role of women could increase substantially. By the High and Late Middle Ages there were numerous royal and noble women who assumed control of their husbands' domains in their absence, including defense and even bearing arms. Noble women were natural parts of the cultural and political environments of their time due to their positions and kinship. Particularly when acting as regents, elite women would assume the full feudal, economic, political and judicial powers of their husbands or young heirs. These women were never prohibited during the Middle Ages from receiving fiefdoms or owning real property during their husbands' lives. Noble women were often patrons of literature, art, monasteries and convents, and religious men. It was not uncommon for them to be knowledgeable in Latin literature. As with peasant men, the life of peasant women was difficult. Women at this level of society are usually considered to have had considerable gender equality, [4] though some scholars have argued that they had fundamentally the same subordinate status as women elsewhere in medieval society [26] but this often meant shared poverty. Until nutrition improved, their life expectancy at birth was significantly less than that of male peasants: perhaps 25 years. Marxist historian Chris Middleton made these general observations about English peasant women: "A peasant woman's life was, in fact, hemmed in by prohibition and restraint. English peasant women generally could not hold lands for long, rarely learnt any craft occupation and rarely advanced past the position of assistants, and could not become officials. Peasant women had numerous restrictions placed on their behaviour by their lords. If a woman was pregnant, and not married, or had sex outside of marriage, the lord was entitled to compensation. The control of peasant women was a function of financial benefits to the lords. They were not motivated by women's moral state. Also during this period, sexual activity was not regulated, with couples simply living together outside a formal ceremony, provided they had permission by their lord. Even without a feudal lord involved with her life, a woman still had supervision by their father, brothers or other male members of the family. Women had little control over their own lives. Middleton provided some exceptions: English peasant women, on their own behalf, could plead in manorial courts ; some female freeholders enjoyed immunities from male peers and landlords; and some trades such as ale-brewing , provided female workers with independence. Still, Middleton viewed these as exceptions which required historians only to modify, rather than revise, "the essential model of female subservience. In medieval Western Europe, society and economy were rural-based. Ninety percent of the European population lived in the countryside or in small towns. In fact, although peasant women worked as hard as peasant men, they suffered many disadvantages such as fewer landholdings, occupational exclusions, and lower wages. To prosper, medieval Europeans needed rights to own land, dwellings, and goods. Land-ownership involved various inheritance patterns, according to the potential heir's gender across the landscape of medieval Western Europe. Primogeniture prevailed in England, Normandy , and the Basque region : In the Basque region, the eldest child -regardless of sex- inherited all lands [ citation needed ]. In Normandy, only sons could inherit lands. In England, the eldest son usually inherited all properties, but sometimes sons inherited jointly, daughters would inherit only if there were no sons. In Scandinavia , sons received twice as much as daughters' inheritance, yet siblings of the same sex received equal shares. In northern France, Brittany , and the Holy Roman Empire , sons and daughters enjoyed partible inheritance : each child would receive an equal share regardless of sex but Parisian parents could favour some children over others. Female land-owners, single or married, could grant or sell land as they deemed fit. Even though up the year female landownership had been increasing, afterwards female landownership began to decline. Stay at home daughter, and love your work much, And so you shall, my dear child, soon grow rich. The goodman [husband] and his lad to the plough are gone, The goodwife had much to do, and servant had she none, Many small children to look after beside herself alone, She did more than she could inside her own house. Home came the goodman early in the day To see that everything was according to his wishes. How would you have me do more than I can? I wish you would go all day to plough with me, To walk in the clods that are wet and boggy, Then you would know what a ploughman be. If you were to follow me for a day, You would be weary of your part, I bet my head on it. The goodwife then tells him how she had hardly any sleep last night because of the baby, yet she was first up in the morning to milk the cows and take them out to pasture while he was still asleep. Then she spends the day making butter and cheese and tending the children. She has to feed the chickens, ducks and geese, and take them onto the green. She bakes and brews and prepares flax for weaving. She teases, cards and spins wool. Her husband then complains that she brews and bakes more often than necessary — once a fortnight would be enough. She laughs. She prepares food for the animals:. However, this ballad was written to entertain the audience. Then we come to the fun part: the goodman insists that, if his wife believes she labours long and hard, the next day they will swap places and she can try her hand at ploughing, to see what real work entails:.

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