Daily Life of Women in Chaucer's England

Jennifer C. Edwards (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

328 Seiten

2026
Bloomsbury Academic (Verlag)
979-8-216-44333-9 (ISBN)

Artikel merken

Providing an indispensable resource for students and scholars studying the history of medieval women and gender, this book provides a comprehensive depiction of women's lives in the 14th and 15th centuries.

The late medieval period in England was one rich with opportunities for women, who played fundamental roles in family businesses as well as in the peasant community and economy, and who wrote letters, created autobiographies, and documented their spiritual journeys. Their lives fit into a pattern of seasonal celebrations and rituals shaped, for the majority of women, by work, marriage, and motherhood. The text further considers status distinctions, then shifts to experiences that affected all women, such as the ritual year, disease, food and drink, sex or celibacy, and religion.

By providing an overview of the history of English women and gender in the 14th and 15th centuries, the book provides a background suitable for students as well as for academics beginning work in this field.

Jennifer C. Edwards, PhD, is professor of history at Manhattan University, Riverdale, NY, USA.

Preface
Introduction
Chaucer
Geography of England
Women’s Lives
Political Background
Crises of the Fourteenth Century
Writing and Sources
Money
Timeline
Glossary

1. MARRIAGE
Expectations
Property and Negotiations
Wardship
Ceremony
Love and Affection
Marital Relations
Concubinage
Dissolution
Feme Sole
Widowhood

2. MOTHERHOOD
Women’s Health
Pregnancy
Childbirth
Baptism
Churching
Infertility
Contraception and Abortion
Child Rearing
Single Mothers

3. ROYAL AND NOBLEWOMEN
Ladies
Charity and Spirituality
Queenship
The Queens

4. URBAN AND RURAL WOMEN
Women’s Work
Shape of the Year
Manor
Town
Singlewomen
Housing
Clothing
Food and Drink
Markets
Disease and Disability
Death, Burial, Afterlife

5. SEX AND SEXUALITY
Norms and Expectations
Adultery and Fornication
Mistresses and Concubines
Prostitution
Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence
Homosexuality
Cross-Dressing

6. RELIGION
Charity
Lay Devotion
Saints and Pilgrimage
Monasticism
Anchoresses and Alternative Religious Lives
Church Architecture
Heresy
Jews in England

Further Reading
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	20.12.2025
Reihe/Serie	The Greenwood Press Daily Life Through History Series
Zusatzinfo	15 bw illus
Verlagsort	New York
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 235 mm
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Mittelalter
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Gender Studies
ISBN-13	979-8-216-44333-9 / 9798216443339
Zustand	Neuware