Women and Power in the Middle Ages

Women and Power in the Middle Ages PDF Author: Mary Erler
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 0820323810
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
Power in medieval society has traditionally been ascribed to figures of public authority--violent knights and conflicting sovereigns who altered the surface of civic life through the exercise of law and force. The wives and consorts of these powerful men have generally been viewed as decorative attendants, while common women were presumed to have had no power or consequence. Reassessing the conventional definition of power that has shaped such portrayals, Women and Power in the Middle Ages reveals the varied manifestations of female power in the medieval household and community--from the cultural power wielded by the wives of Venetian patriarchs to the economic power of English peasant women and the religious power of female saints. Among the specific topics addresses are Griselda's manipulation of silence as power in Chaucer's "The Clerk's Tale"; the extensive networks of influence devised by Lady Honor Lisle; and the role of medieval women book owners as arbiters of lay piety and ambassadors of culture. In every case, the essays seek to transcend simple polarities of public and private, male and female, in order to provide a more realistic analysis of the workings of power in feudal society.

Women and Power in the Middle Ages

Women and Power in the Middle Ages PDF Author: Mary Erler
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 0820323810
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 293

Get Book Here

Book Description
Power in medieval society has traditionally been ascribed to figures of public authority--violent knights and conflicting sovereigns who altered the surface of civic life through the exercise of law and force. The wives and consorts of these powerful men have generally been viewed as decorative attendants, while common women were presumed to have had no power or consequence. Reassessing the conventional definition of power that has shaped such portrayals, Women and Power in the Middle Ages reveals the varied manifestations of female power in the medieval household and community--from the cultural power wielded by the wives of Venetian patriarchs to the economic power of English peasant women and the religious power of female saints. Among the specific topics addresses are Griselda's manipulation of silence as power in Chaucer's "The Clerk's Tale"; the extensive networks of influence devised by Lady Honor Lisle; and the role of medieval women book owners as arbiters of lay piety and ambassadors of culture. In every case, the essays seek to transcend simple polarities of public and private, male and female, in order to provide a more realistic analysis of the workings of power in feudal society.

Women in Medieval England

Women in Medieval England PDF Author: Helen M. Jewell
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 9780719040177
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
This book is about what it meant to build a city in Germany at the turn of the twentieth century. It explores the physical spaces and mental attitudes that shaped lives, restructured society, and conditioned beliefs about the past and expectations for the future in the crucial German generations that formed the young Reich, fought the Great War, and experienced the Weimar Republic.Focusing on ordinary buildings and the way they shaped ordinary lives, this study shows how material space could influence the lives of citizens, from the ways the elderly slept at night to the economy of the city as a whole. It also shows how we integrate the spaces and places of our lives into our explanations of politics, culture and economics. It is aimed at those who want to understand urban modernity, Wilhelmine and Weimar Germany, the use of space in social policy and politics, and the design of cities.

Women and Parliament in Later Medieval England

Women and Parliament in Later Medieval England PDF Author: W. Mark Ormrod
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030452204
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
This Palgrave Pivot provides the first ever comprehensive consideration of the part played by women in the workings and business of the English Parliament in the later Middle Ages. Breaking new ground, this book considers all aspects of women’s access to the highest court of medieval England. Women were active supplicants to the Crown in Parliament, and sometimes appeared there in person to prosecute cases or make political demands. It explores the positions of women of varying rank, from queens to peasants, vis-à-vis this male institution, where they very occasionally appeared in person but were more usually represented by written petitions. A full analysis of these petitions and of the official records of parliament reveals that there were a number of issues on which women consistently pressed for changes in the law and its administration, and where the Commons and the Crown either championed or refused to support reform. Such is the concentration of petitions on the subjects of dower and rape that these may justifiably be termed ‘women’s issues’ in the medieval Parliament.

Women in Medieval History and Historiography

Women in Medieval History and Historiography PDF Author: Susan Mosher Stuard
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 151280729X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
What was the status of women in the Middle Ages? How have women fared in the hands of historians? And, what is the current state of research about women in the Middle Ages? Susan Mosher Stuard addresses these questions in a collection of essays that delve in to the history and historiography of women in medieval England, France, Italy, and Germany. Contributors include Barbara Hanawalt, Diane Owen Hughes, Suzanne Wemple, Denise Kaiser, and Martha Howell. One of the most interesting observations made in Women in Medieval History and Historiography is the way in which the history of women in each country has followed a distinct course that is in rhythm with other concerns of national historical writing. Women in Medieval History and Historiography will interest historians, scholars of women's studies, and medievalists.

Middle-aged Women in the Middle Ages

Middle-aged Women in the Middle Ages PDF Author: Sue Niebrzydowski
Publisher: DS Brewer
ISBN: 1843842823
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
The phenomenon of medieval women's middle age is a stage in the lifecycle that has been frequently overlooked in preference for the examination of female youth and old age. The essays collected here draw variously from literary studies, history, law, art and theology in order to address this lacuna.

Encyclopedia of Women in the Middle Ages

Encyclopedia of Women in the Middle Ages PDF Author: Jennifer Lawler
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476601119
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Most people have heard of Lady Godiva and her horseback tax protest in the 11th century and Joan of Arc who in the 15th century fought against the English for the French gaining sainthood in 1920. Many know of Eleanor of Aquataine, 12th century Queen of France and England, and powerful manipulator and protector of kings. Some know of Hildegarde and Beatrice and Blanche and Clare. There are many famous women of the Middle Ages whose lives and leadership brought important changes to history. This encyclopedia contains several hundred entries on the culture, history and circumstances of women in the Middle Ages, from the years 500 to 1500 C.E. The geographical scope of this work is wide, with entries on women from England, France, Germany, Japan, and other nations around the world. There are entries on queens, empresses, and other women in positions of leadership as well as entries on topics such as work, marriage and family, households, employment, religion, and various other aspects of women's lives in the Middle Ages. Genealogies of queens and empresses accompany the text in an appendix.

Illuminating Women in the Medieval World

Illuminating Women in the Medieval World PDF Author: Christine Sciacca
Publisher: Getty Publications
ISBN: 1606065262
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 124

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Book Description
When one thinks of women in the Middle Ages, the images that often come to mind are those of damsels in distress, mystics in convents, female laborers in the field, and even women of ill repute. In reality, however, medieval conceptions of womanhood were multifaceted, and women’s roles were varied and nuanced. Female stereotypes existed in the medieval world, but so too did women of power and influence. The pages of illuminated manuscripts reveal to us the many facets of medieval womanhood and slices of medieval life—from preoccupations with biblical heroines and saints to courtship, childbirth, and motherhood. While men dominated artistic production, this volume demonstrates the ways in which female artists, authors, and patrons were instrumental in the creation of illuminated manuscripts. Featuring over one hundred illuminations depicting medieval women from England to Ethiopia, this book provides a lively and accessible introduction to the lives of women in the medieval world.

Divorce in Medieval England

Divorce in Medieval England PDF Author: Sara Margaret Butler
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415825164
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 207

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Book Description
Divorce, as we think of it today, is usually considered to be a modern invention. This book challenges that viewpoint, documenting the many and varied uses of divorce in the medieval period and highlighting the fact that couples regularly divorced on the grounds of spousal incompatibility.

Medieval Women's Writing

Medieval Women's Writing PDF Author: Diane Watt
Publisher: Polity
ISBN: 0745632556
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
Medieval Women's Writing is a major new contribution to our understanding of women's writing in England, 1100-1500. The most comprehensive account to date, it includes writings in Latin and French as well as English, and works for as well as by women. Marie de France, Clemence of Barking, Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, and the Paston women are discussed alongside the Old English lives of women saints, The Life of Christina of Markyate, the St Albans Psalter, and the legends of women saints by Osbern Bokenham. Medieval Women's Writing addresses these key questions: Who were the first women authors in the English canon? What do we mean by women's writing in the Middle Ages? What do we mean by authorship? How can studying medieval writing contribute to our understanding of women's literary history? Diane Watt argues that female patrons, audiences, readers, and even subjects contributed to the production of texts and their meanings, whether written by men or women. Only an understanding of textual production as collaborative enables us to grasp fully women's engagement with literary culture. This radical rethinking of early womens literary history has major implications for all scholars working on medieval literature, on ideas of authorship, and on women's writing in later periods. The book will become standard reading for all students of these debates.

Stolen Women in Medieval England

Stolen Women in Medieval England PDF Author: Caroline Dunn
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107017009
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 275

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Book Description
The first comprehensive exploration of women's multifaceted experiences of forced and consensual ravishment in medieval England.