Women In Medieval Europe 1200 1500

`Women in Medieval Europe¿ is full of original insights; and alongside such figures as Joan of Arc and Margery Kempe are a host of less familiar women presented in social contexts that necessarily include the men who were their contemporaries: from kin, peers and partners, to judges and spiritual guides. This is a book to inform and enthuse expert scholar, enterprising student and interested general reader alike.¿  Janet Nelson, King¿s College London

Women in medieval Europe were expected to be submissive, but such a broad picture ignores great areas of female experience. Between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, women are found in the workplace as well as the home, and some women were numbered among the key rulers, saints and mystics of the medieval world. Opportunities and activities changed over time, and by 1500 the world of work was becoming increasingly restricted for women.

Women of all social groups were primarily engaged with their families, looking after husband and children, and running the household. Patterns of work varied geographically. In the northern towns, women engaged in a wide range of crafts, with a small number becoming entrepreneurs. Many of the poor made a living as servants and labourers. Prostitution flourished in many medieval towns. Some women turned to the religious life, and here opportunities burgeoned in the thirteenth century. The Middle Ages are not remote from the twenty-first century; the lives of medieval women evoke a response today. The medieval mother faced similar problems to her modern counterpart. The sheer variety of women¿s experience in the later Middle Ages is fully brought out in this book.

Jennifer Ward was Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at University of London Goldsmiths College. Her books include `English Noblewomen in the Later Middle Ages¿ (1992) and `Women of the English Nobility and Gentry, 1066-1500 (1995).

The conventional view of women in medieval Europe was one of submissiveness and obedience. But as this book shows, such a bland and generalised picture ignores great areas of female experience. Jennifer Ward compares and contrasts the lives and experiences of women across Europe, including examples from Spain, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe as well as the France, Germany, Italy and England.  Looking at all the major themes in women's history for this period - female saints, marriage, the arts, the family, women and their relationship with popular religion, work,  power - this synthesis of recent research explores the experiences of medieval women across Europe in all their diversity. 

Women in Medieval Europe were expected to be submissive, but such a broad picture ignores great areas of female experience. Between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, women are found in the workplace as well as the home, and some women were numbered among the key rulers, saints and mystics of the medieval world. Opportunities and activities changed over time, and by 1500 the world of work was becoming increasingly restricted for women.

Women of all social groups were primarily engaged with their families, looking after husband and children, and running the household. Patterns of work varied geographically. In the northern towns, women engaged in a wide range of crafts, with a small number becoming entrepreneurs. Many of the poor made a living as servants and labourers. Prostitution flourished in many medieval towns. Some women turned to the religious life, and here opportunities burgeoned in the thirteenth century. The Middle Ages are not remote from the twenty-first century; the lives of medieval women evoke a response today. The medieval mother faced similar problems to her modern counterpart. The sheer variety of women s experience in the later Middle Ages is fully brought out in this book.

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Books on the experience of women in medieval Europe have been relatively frequent of late. This latest contribution is intended as an accessible but scholarly overview of each area of a medieval woman's life and the different opportunities, both good and evil, that were open to them. In a text unencumbered with notes, Ward examines a wide range of themes: upbringing, marriage, the family and household, work inside and outside of the home, aristocrat women and queens, the arts, a religious life, mystics, charity and witchcraft. The strength of this book is that it is packed full of interesting details taken from the lives of both well-known and less familiar figures who lived in Britain and on the Continent throughout the Middle Ages.

Jennifer Ward has taught Medieval History in the Dept of Historical and Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths College, University of London. Her previous books include English Noblewomen in the Later Middle Ages (Longman 1992).

Preface Abbreviations

Introduction

1. Upbringing

2. Marriage

3. Women and Family

4. The House and Household

5. Women and Work: Domestic Service, Farming, Trade and the Crafts

6. Women and Work: Medical Care, Nursing and Prostitution

7. Women and Power: Noblewomen and Queens

8. Laywomen and the Arts

9. Religious Life: Nuns and Nunneries

10. Religious Life: Beguines, Penitents and Recluses

11. Mystics and Saints

12. Laywomen and Charity

13. Lay Beliefs and Religious Practice

14. Women, Heresy and Witchcraft

Conclusion

Further Reading

Notes

Index