Medieval Sourcesonline from Manchester University Press

Medievalsources

Women in England c.1275-1525 [Enter]
Translated and edited
by P. J. P. Goldberg

This collection of sources demonstrates the variety of evidence that survives of Englishwomen in all walks of life from the time of the first Edward to the eve of the Reformation. The sources are introduced by a substantial overview of current thinking about English medieval women below the level of the greater aristocracy. Additionally, the author explores many of the methodological problems and strengths of particular sources.

Individual chapters explore the life-cycle themes of childhood, adolescence, married life, widowhood and old age. This study then moves on to examine such topics as work in the town and country, prostitution, the law, recreation and devotion. In every case, the reader is exposed to a range of sources, but particular attention is paid to those sources that reflect actual experience or provide insights into the lives of ordinary women rather than the prescriptive or purely literary texts.

A particular feature of this collection is the extensive use of the church court depositions that allow the voices of the peasant women, servant girls, bourgeois wives or poor widows to be heard across the centuries.

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CONTENTS:
Introduction
I: Childhood
II: Adolescence
 Servanthood
 Instruction
 Courtship and marriage
III: Husband and wife
IV: Widowhood, poverty and old age
V: Work in the coutryside
VI: Work in the town
VII: Prostitution
VIII: Law and custom
 Villeinage and custom
 Transgressions against customary law
 Disputes between neighbours
 Fornication
 Defamation
 Scolding and other subversive and anti-social activities
 Casting spells
 Age of majority
 Prison
 Sanctuary
 Women before the law
 Debt
 Theft
 Receiving
 Arson
 Assault
 Abduction
 Rape
 Homicide and petty treason
 Suicide (felo de se)
IX: Recreation
X: Devotion
 Female religious
 Anchoresses
 Hospital sisters
 Lay piety
 Heresy
Bibliography

For links to other sources for the study of women in medieval England visit the Manchester Medievalportal.