Table of Contents

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

About the Author

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).

Reviews

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