Women in Medieval Europe
The medieval period in Europe was a time in which both the legal pillars of Roman society and the technological knowledge of the ancients had been lost; all that remained that could legitimately be termed "Roman" was the form of religion that was practiced. Christianity and, in particular, Catholicism had survived the fall of the Holy Roman Empire in the West. However, its ideals and moral codes of conduct were eventually augmented by European society to more suitably complement the feudal system. Essentially, "Christianity was in theory egalitarian in respect to sex as to race and class . . . although it stirred echoes in later sermons and texts, equality, whether between man and man, or between man and woman, was never a medieval doctrine," (Gies 9). So despite the inclusive ideal that men and women were equal in social and humanistic status, the female in medieval society was, to a large extent, perceived as being merely a commodity to be bought and sold by the male. Women were married off to consolidate riches or political contracts between men, while the men were at liberty to use them virtually however they wished. In all public spheres women occupied a subordinate role to men-in the clergy, in legal proceedings, even in d
To historians, this feature of medieval society makes the study of women particularly problematic; not only were women commonly restricted from participating in public and political affairs, but the nature of history to focus upon these features of the past automatically draws attention away from the lives of medieval females. This is not to mention the additional fact that almost all sources of pre-modern history are records written by men. Accordingly, there is a problem of sources as well as a problem of focus when it comes to women in history: "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," (Gies 3). From the standpoint of many such figures, medieval women could only be understood in their relation to men; they were what men were not: weak, feeble-minded, domestic, motherly, and dependent. The book Women in the Middle Ages by Frances and Joseph Gies attempts to apply our modern understanding of women's equality to the medieval period in history, as well as to generate some models of various types of women-from different social and political realms-with a more modern conception of the roles they were likely to have played in medieval life. Of course, the status of women in European society deteriorated along with nearly everything else after the collapse of the Roman Empire: "By the end of the Empire women in most of Roman-dominated Western Europe had achieved a degree of equality with men in respect to marriage, property rights, and divorce, and even enjoyed some economic independence," (Gies 13). However, from what is known of most Germanic laws of the same time period, "Germanic women were considered incapable of looking after their own interests. The Lombard code, for example, regarded women as perpetual minors, under the guardianship of a male relative whose permission was needed for any transaction involving property," (Gies 17). Clearly, the customs that carried the most weight through medieval Europe were those that originated from Germanic traditions and social arrangements. Although the same religious and moral entity remained as a powerful force in Europe-the Catholic Church-its relationship with the rights and status of women was altered by the preexisting value systems existent in the barbarian tribes. Gies also notes that polygamy was still practiced by the Frankish and their kings well after their conversion to Christianity. Margherita is particularly fascinating because her lifestyle reflected the nature of what it meant to be a middle-class merchant's wife: "Fifteenth century English marriage handbooks also stressed modesty of dress and demeanor for merchants' wives, who were advised not to try to compete with ladies in fashion and to go out to wrestling matches and cockfights, where they might be taken as strumpets," (Gies 191). From the evidence presented by Gies, it appears that Margherita treaded this line between peasant life and ladyship; since she was truly neither, the nature of her dress, her concerns, and her actions were far more modern than virtually any other well-documented female from the middle ages. Gies writes, "Datini appears to be one of the most modern of the medieval women whose lives are well doc
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Approximate Word count = 2240
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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