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Women in the Middle Ages: The Lives of Real Women in a Vibrant Age of Transition (Medieval Life) Kindle Edition
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Medieval history is often written as a series of battles and territorial shifts. But the essential contributions of women during this period have been too often relegated to the dustbin of history. In Women in the Middle Ages, Frances and Joseph Gies reclaim this lost history, in a lively historical survey that charts the evolution of women’s roles throughout the period, and profiles eight individual women in depth. We learn of Hildegarde of Bingen, an abbess who was a noted composer and founded two monasteries; of Eleanor de Montfort, a 13th-century Princess of Wales who was captured by Edward I and held as a political prisoner for three years; and women of somewhat more modest means, such as the spouse of an Italian merchant, and a peasant’s wife.
Drawing upon their various stories, talented historians Frances and Joseph Gies—whose books were used by George R. R. Martin in his research for Game of Thrones—offer a kaleidoscopic view of the lives of women throughout this tumultuous period.
“[The Gieses] specialize in making the Middle Ages accessible to nonspecialists.” —The New Yorker
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarperCollins e-books
- Publication dateNovember 30, 2010
- File size34748 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
From the Back Cover
The bestselling chroniclers of medieval life Frances and Joseph Gies trace the stories and fates of women in medieval Europe over the course of a millennium.
Medieval history is often written as a series of battles and territorial shifts. But the essential contributions of women during this period have too often been relegated to the dustbin of history. In Women in the Middle Ages, Frances and Joseph Gies reclaim this lost history in a lively historical survey that charts the evolution of women's roles through this period and profiles eight individual women in depth. We learn of Hildegarde of Bingen, a noted composer and abbess who founded two monasteries; Eleanor de Montfort, a thirteenth-century Princess of Wales who was captured by Edward I and held as a political prisoner for three years; and women of somewhat more modest means, such as the spouse of an Italian merchant and a peasant's wife.
Drawing upon their various stories, talented historians Frances and Joseph Gies–whose books were used by George R. R. Martin in his research for Game of Thrones–offer a kaleidoscopic view of the lives of women throughout this tumultuous period.
About the Author
Frances (1915–2013) and Joseph (1916–2006) Gies were the world’s bestselling historians of medieval Europe. Together and separately, they wrote more than twenty books, which col-lectively have sold more than a million copies. They lived in Michigan.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter One
Women in History
Traditional history, all about politics, wars, and revolutions, has devoted few pages to women because few women were prominent in those male-dominated activities. The handful who were received patronizing credit for behaving like men--a woman led an army with "a man's courage," an able queen ruled "as if she were a man."
Modern history, with its accent on the economic, social, and cultural, is beginning to give woman her due. Yet many problems need to be overcome before a picture of the past as a cooperative adventure of both sexes will emerge.
Attempts to do justice to women of the Middle Ages have encountered special difficulties owing to the character of the sources commonly used. The writings of Church Fathers, theologians, and preachers have been repeatedly cited, with little consideration of the accuracy of their description of conditions, or of their audience and influence. By a similar method of investigation one might conclude that modern Catholics never practice birth control. Law books and manuals have also been misleading. William Blackstone's eighteenth-century pronouncement that women throughout ancient and medieval history were totally bereft of legal rights and even legal identities was until recently uncritically accepted. Finally, literary works--romances, poems, moral essays, tales--have been taken literally, without allowance for artistic exaggeration or satiric intent.
Apart from the problem of sources, the test of common sense has been difficult to apply to ideas about medieval women because the period is so remote to us, more remote not only than the modern era but even than the classical world. Its social institutions--feudalism, the manorial system, the guilds--seem oddly foreign and artificial. The very domicile of the ruling class, the grim and forbidding castle, seems legendary rather than historic, while armor, tournaments, chivalric codes, the ritual and trappings of knighthood, have a science-fiction outlandishness. The people, men as well as women, seem unreal, like the stiff decorative figures in the illuminated manuscripts and stained-glass windows, rather than our own flesh-and-blood forebears.
Finally, the time frame is confusing. The Middle Ages lasted a thousand years; during which large changes swept the European landscape: the people's migrations, infusing new ideas as well as new blood into the politically disintegrating Roman Empire; calamitous economic decline and vigorous revival; technological innovations with far-reaching effects; social upheavals that created new class relationships. Women's lives were changed along with men's. Few generalizations can be made about women's role that will fit the whole dynamic millennium.
For the early Middle Ages, documentation is limited because of the very nature of the epoch. The next chapter briefly summarizes what is known about woman's situation in that fascinating and, to the historian, frustrating era-the period of the migrations, the barbarian kingdoms, and the economic slow down known as the Dark Ages. T he remaining chapters in the first section describe some of the changes which took place at the end of the Dark Ages, and the principal attitudes toward women that prevailed.
The second, and main, section of the book explores what it was like to be a woman in the high Middle Ages--the period from about 1100 to 1500--by examining the lives of individual women in those centuries. The information comes principally from real-life sources: chronicles, tax rolls, legal and manorial records, private account books, diaries, letters.
What are the elements that affect a woman's life? Recent works in women's history have tended to focus on the status of women relative to men. But the first and most important consideration in evaluating the quality of life in the Middle Ages applies equally to men and women: the technological and economic level of a low-energy but expanding society, influencing work, housing, food, -clothing, health, security, comfort, and self-fulfillment.
A second basic element, affecting only women, is the state of obstetrical practice. Throughout the ages, until antisepsis and improvements in obstetrical techniques arrived in the nineteenth century, childbirth was a mortal hazard. Rich or poor, women suffered and were injured in labor; often they died. A medieval gynecological treatise, The Diseases of Women, from the medical school at Salerno, reflects the problems and horrors of childbirth in the whole pre-industrial era, during which doctors and midwives had few aids other than potions and poultices. Nevertheless, amid prescriptions for rubbing the woman's flanks with oil of roses, feeding her vinegar and sugar, powdered ivory, or eagle's dung, placing a magnet in her hand or suspending coral around her neck, the Salernitan text also gives sound advice, for example on breech delivery: "If the child does not come forth in the order in which it should, that is, if the legs or arms should come out first, let the midwife with her small and gentle hand moistened with a decoction of flaxseed and chick peas, put the child back in its place in the proper position."
Although abortion, with its own dangers, was practiced from very ancient times, contraception, by various methodsmechanical, medicinal, and magical-found limited use and even less effectiveness: Women had babies, successfully or otherwise.
Several other special criteria apply to the quality of a woman's life in any historical setting.
First, simple survival: in many times and on different continents, women have been victims of infanticide as a technique of selective population control. The reason, although usually rationalized in terms of the female's alleged weakness of physique, character, and intellect, is transparently economic: the contribution in work of a daughter was often outweighed by the cost of raising her and giving her a marriage portion: investment in a daughter went mainly to the profit of a future husband.
Second, conditions of marriage: the question of consent; the relative age of consent for men and women; monogamy versus polygamy, which emphasizes woman's biological role at the expense not only of her personal, but of her social and economic roles; the seclusion of women in harems or gynaeceums, or their "privatization" at home, where they were segregated from the male spheres of business, politics, and religion; attitudes toward adultery and divorce, where a double standard nearly always prevailed.
Product details
- ASIN : B003P2VO46
- Publisher : HarperCollins e-books (November 30, 2010)
- Publication date : November 30, 2010
- Language : English
- File size : 34748 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 300 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #85,501 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
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Customers find the book an interesting and enjoyable read. They appreciate the well-researched information on women's lives during the Middle Ages. The book provides a historical glimpse into varied social and economic circumstances, including clever and educated women.
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Customers find the book easy to read and well-written. They describe it as a quick, interesting read that covers an under-researched topic. The format is enjoyable and the book is concise.
"wonderfully written and gave me a lot of new insight about the problems women aced for a long time" Read more
"...Women in the Middle Ages is no exception. A concise book it starts with a working definition of the Middle Ages..." Read more
"...I have found it to be informational, applicable, interesting read, high lighting a few women that happen to be my ancestors. Win Win!..." Read more
"I am loving this book. I think it is important and relevant information and all women should read it...." Read more
Customers find the book informative and interesting for those interested in women's lives or medieval times. They appreciate the well-researched and written content. The book provides a good summary of the lives of women during that period, making learning fun.
"wonderfully written and gave me a lot of new insight about the problems women aced for a long time" Read more
"...by this couple; always entertaining, always educational, they do their research, combine it with their sound knowledge of the era or people they are..." Read more
"...I have found it to be informational, applicable, interesting read, high lighting a few women that happen to be my ancestors. Win Win!..." Read more
"I am loving this book. I think it is important and relevant information and all women should read it...." Read more
Customers enjoy the book's coverage of women in varied social and economic circumstances. They find it informative, with examples of women from each class. The historical perspective provides a glimpse into their daily lives, enmities, private and public relationships, and ambitions. The biographical chapters are considered better for presenting these aspects.
"...Hildegarde of Bingen, one of the most highly educated and clever women of the Middle Ages, an Abbess; the magnificent Queen Blanche of Castille a..." Read more
"...But this book, although it seems to relate to higher classed women, gives a feel for the every day work in a women's life...." Read more
"...The historical peak into women of varied social and economic circumstances was informative and entertaining...." Read more
"...Complete with examples of women in each class. A great read." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2018wonderfully written and gave me a lot of new insight about the problems women aced for a long time
- Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2013I love anything written by this couple; always entertaining, always educational, they do their research, combine it with their sound knowledge of the era or people they are writing about and produce something that history buffs, writers, or just those with a healthy curiousity about the past will thoroughly enjoy.
Women in the Middle Ages is no exception. A concise book it starts with a working definition of the Middle Ages (around 600AD to the end of the Fourteenth Century) before explaining popular misconceptions and some facts about the role women played in these fraught and fascinating times. They then explain the primary models against which women were measured – Eve and Mary – sinner and saint, mother and whore, basically. Reductive they might be and yet they set the framework against which women lived, worked, loved, worshipped, ruled, and died.
The second part explores specific women, using contemporary sources, in more detail. We are introduced to (or reacquainted with) Hildegarde of Bingen, one of the most highly educated and clever women of the Middle Ages, an Abbess; the magnificent Queen Blanche of Castille a canny ruler who, despite enemies seeking to capture her throne managed to rule beside her husband and later, as a regent, handling the power thrust upon her with courage and intelligence; Eleanor of Montefort, sister to Henry III, devoted mother, wife to the courtier and warrior Simon de Montefort (their relationship is beautifully and sympathetically explored by Sharon Kay Penman who, though working in fiction does extensive research and she paints a softer portrait of Eleanor), and someone very aware of and prepared to fight for her rights. We also meet Agnes Patiniere of Douai, a woman who lived in a city and who had a successful trade, negotiating the politics of the guilds. Then there’s Margherita Datini, an Italian woman who became literate later in life, helped run her husband’s business and avoided succumbing to the plague. Finally, there’s Margaret Paston, member of one of the most successful families of the Middle Ages who rose from crofters to wealthy landowners (and later, Earls) and who are survived by abundant correspondence (the book of their letters, The Pastons, is enthralling) that reveals their daily lives, enmities, private and more public relationships and even their ambitions for themselves and each other.
While it seems sad that there are so few women to draw on in order to explore their diverse roles over such a long stretch of time, when considering the division that occurred in medieval lives – men = public, women= private, and the fact most females were confined to domestic space, it’s fortunate we have anything. The Gies’ also ensure they compare and contrast the women they discuss in relation to place and class and draw analogies with literature (eg. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales) as well demonstrating how women’s role altered (for better and worse) over time.
The contradictions in women’s roles are evident in this book, as is how women worked within and against popular and religious expectations, how they managed, sometimes against impossible odds, to find and create their own spaces and lives – some more successful than others.
Overall, this was an interesting and enjoyable read.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2016Makes you appreciate your time in history!
- Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2013The Gies have written several books on teh Middle Ages and if this is an area of study for you I would encourage you to read them. If I could give them a 10 I would!
- Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2016I am a genealogist and I'm researching the medieval period as it applied to my relatives. I have found very few books with women being represented as anything other than the wife who stayed home while families are out at war. But this book, although it seems to relate to higher classed women, gives a feel for the every day work in a women's life. I have found it to be informational, applicable, interesting read, high lighting a few women that happen to be my ancestors. Win Win! I look forward to reading this book, and look forward to it each night. Well written, enjoyable format.
This item was free or discounted for my review.
- Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2018I am loving this book. I think it is important and relevant information and all women should read it. Being aware of the awful, misogynistic practices throughout the ages lets us see how and why they are so ingrained that still persist to this day.
- Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2019I liked this book. It was a good quick read on an oft over looked segment of middle ages life. The historical peak into women of varied social and economic circumstances was informative and entertaining. I recommend this book to anyone wishing to understand this often overlooked historical segment in an easy to read book. Thank you for a good read.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2016Provides the best summary of the lives of women of the period I have ever read. Complete with examples of women in each class. A great read.
Top reviews from other countries
- Grumpy HistorianReviewed in the United Kingdom on June 24, 2015
4.0 out of 5 stars An early but useful contribution.....
I liked most of the Gies' books I have read- at this is no exception. A fascinating and useful introduction to the source material revealing Medieval Women in every guise. Perhaps it will serve to challenge the misconceptions that they were an universally repressed and downtrodden class with no rights. From noblewomen to Merchants, there was far more to the fairer sex in the Middle Ages than being locked on towers.....also it has proved useful for a number of academic pursuits and assignments.