Women in Medieval Times

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at women in medieval times and investigates the situations and cultural influences that paved the way toward change. It focuses on Frankish and Anglo-Saxon societies in the early Middle Ages in which women of that period were first distinguished in society because of their birth. It analyzes the lives of women born in the royal families and in the upper classes compared to the lives of the lower-class women. It examines how marriage was also a factor of division among medieval women and, in particular, looks at queens, wives, widows, concubines, and nuns.

Outline
Introduction
Women's Lives
The Upper Classes
Monastic Life
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"The family structure in the early Middle Ages was patriarchal. Women had rights as a person, who distinguished them from slaves, but they were not allowed to appear in political formality, such as in front of a judge in order to defend those rights. Women could not administrate directly their patrimony, and laws about heredity were not favorable to them. Women belong to their parents while they were maturing and to their husbands after they were married. According to Germanic laws, marriage was most often arranged between the woman's tutor and her future husband who gave on that occasion a bride gift. From the basis of Germanic law, a marriage which followed this formula was the only one to be completely valid in Germanic society."

More papers on Women in Medieval Times:

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• Research Paper # 93426 : "The Royal Women of Medieval Europe"

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