FC.71A WOMEN’S CHANGING STATUS IN LATE MEDIEVAL EUROPE Rising piety Cult of Virgin Mary (FC.66)...

FC.71A WOMEN’S CHANGING STATUS IN LATE MEDIEVAL EUROPE

Rising piety Cult of Virgin Mary (FC.66)

Peasants Nobles

“Little Ice Age” after

1300 (FC.71)

Plague after mid 1300s

(FC.71)

Status won’t change until 1800s when MC women have leisure time & money

to work for equal rights (FC.114)

Trad. gender rolesStrong resistance

to change (FC.6)

TownsMore law & order

(FC.64)


to change (FC.6)

Middle ClassRise of Towns in High Middle Ages (FC.64)

Later marriage More assertive in

choice of husband

Children’s games that mimic adult

behavior

Ideal of romantic love between

equals

Chivalrous behavior toward

women

Early arranged marriages

Typically secluded from

public life

Usually banned from

guilds

Lower status for women as seen by:

Higher age of marriage to control

pop. growth

Agr. Women’s labor is vital Relatively high

status

Artificial courts of love presided over

by women

War Lower status for women, though higher

than peasant & MC men

Men can run businesses themselves Less need for women’s labor than on farms

Higher status for women as seen by:Higher status for women as seen by:

Women during the High and Later Middle Ages

(c.1100-1500)

The passages below reflect how ambiguous attitudes were toward medieval women. This has been referred to as the “virgin and whore” syndrome.

"They murder no one, nor wound, nor harm, Betray men, nor pursue, nor seize, Nor houses set on fire, nor disinherit men, Nor poison, nor steal gold or silver; They do not cheat men of their lands, Nor make false contracts, nor destroy Kingdoms, duchies, empires.... Nor wage war and kill and plunder...”



…"every reasonable man must prize, cherish, love woman...She is his mother, his sister, his friend; he must not treather as an enemy.”

-- Christine de Pisan (b.1364)



…"every reasonable man must prize, cherish, love woman...She is his mother, his sister, his friend; he must not treather as an enemy.”-- Christine de Pisan (b.1364)

"Of all the things that God has given for human use, nothing is more

beautiful or better than the good woman."—Marbode




"Of all the things that God has given for human use, nothing is more beautiful or better than the good woman."—Marbode

Though she be servant in degree, in some degree she fellow is”-- English handbook






"And do you not know you are Eve?...You are the gate of the Devil, the traitor of the tree, the first deserter of Divine Law; you are she who enticed the one whom the devil dare not approach; you broke so easily the image of God, man; on account of the death you deserved, even the Son of God had to die."--Tertullian







"A good woman and bad one require equally the stick"--Florentine proverb







"A good woman and bad one require equally the stick"--Florentine proverb

"Provided he neither kills nor maims her, it is legal for a man to beat his wife when she wrongs him."--French law code, 1200’s

Aristotle, considered the best authority on scientific knowledge in the Middle Ages, declared that women were "weaker and colder by nature, and we should look upon the female state as being as it were a deformity, though one which occurs in the ordinary course of nature."

Left: a 13th century depiction of how people imagined our arteries & veins looked. Their views on female anatomy were even less informed since most anatomical knowledge was based on dissecting corpses of condemned criminals, who were mostly men.

While people typically associate Muslim society with veiled women, other civilizations restricted their women’s freedom in similar ways. Women in classical Greece, when not confined at home (as they usually were), had towear veils as in this Hellenistic statue from the third century BCE.

Similarly, women in medieval and early modern Europe were expected to keep their hair covered in public, only letting it down in the privacy of the home.

In Sung Dynasty China, a surge in agricultural production and population growth prompted a rapid expansion of its cities. As men moved into the cities to practice various crafts instead of farming, they no longer needed the labor of the women that had been so crucial in cultivating rice paddies. From this came the painful and confining practice of foot-binding, which broke the arches of girls’ feet, making them unable to walk normally.

Of course, as this cartoon suggests, women today may subject their feet to a modern version of foot-binding with high heeled shoes.

In the sixteenth century political treatise, The Prince, Machiavelli advises rulers to especially avoid taking their subjects’ property and women, treating the latter as largely a subset of the former.

When looking at the status of women in medieval and early modern Europe, we need to look at the different social classes separately, because each class presented a different story on women’s status. In the balance, however, the status of women in Western Europe seems to have been higher than that of their counterparts in other cultures.

A bishop blesses a newly wedded couple to ensure their fertility and ability to bear strong healthy children. This shows how marriage was a public as well as a private affair, since it bound two families and their fates together.

Peasant WomenPeasantsAgr. Women’s labor is

vital Relatively high status

Peasant WomenPeasants


(FC.71)


status



1300 (FC.71)


(FC.71)


status



1300 (FC.71)


(FC.71)


pop. growth


status



1300 (FC.71)


(FC.71)


choice of husband


behavior


pop. growth


status

Higher status for women as seen by:

In general, we have seen that peasant women in different cultures, because they shared in the farm work, had a bit higher status in relation to men as opposed to women in the middle and upper classes who largely lost their economic function and the status that went with it. However, peasant women in medieval Europe apparently made a bit more progress than their counterparts in other cultures.

One reason, oddly enough, was the Black Death which hit in the mid 1300s.

In the Plague’s aftermath, the survivors’ standard of living rose as a result of inheriting the property of those who died. Peasants had their own plates to eat from & stools at the dinner table. They also had their own beds, or at least shared them with fewer people.

Pieter Brueghel the Elder’s The Triumph of Death gives some idea of the traumatic psychological impact the Black Death had on Europeans

Probably to protect their newfound wealth and prevent the overpopulation that had preceded the Plague, peasants delayed the age of marriage to cut the birthrate. Men married when they could support themselves, typically when they inherited the farm at the passing of their parents. Similarly, women married in their twenties instead of middle or late teens.

Pieter Brueghel the Elder’s painting of a peasant wedding banquet in the1500s shows the women sitting with the men, another sign of a bit more equality than seen in other cultures.

However, this had one unforeseen result. It was harder to tell a woman in her twenties whom to marry than it had been to tell teenage girls. Betrothal customs from this time show how women wanted a voice in whom they married.

Raphael, Betrothal of the Virgin

When two people decided to get married, the man would approach the woman in the presence of other villagers and ask her if she were married. When she said no, he would reply that he thought they should get married. The other villagers would agree, except for one woman who would speak up, asserting that the prospective bride should have some say in this, with the crowd agreeing. The young woman would then give her assent.

Ambrosius II Francken or Franck, Betrothal of the Virgin

Children’s games, which often mimic adult behavior, also reflect women’s new level of freedom. One girl, the “bride”, would be surrounded by the other girls. The boys would try to get through the circle to “marry” the girl in the middle, each making promises to entice her to choose them. She would then choose one of the boys to “marry”.

Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1525/30-69), Children’s Games, 1560.

Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1525/30-69), Children’s Games, 1560. There are few things sadder than seeing what games children were forced to play before video games.

Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1525/30-69), Children’s Games, 1560. Seen here:

“Sit on your friend’s head & make him cry”

“Pretend your friend is a horse and break his back”

“Throw Tommy on the table”(Known in France as “Dinner’s ready”)

“Let’s pretend we have marbles”

Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1525/30-69), Children’s Games, 1560

“Wave your friend’s hat on a stickWhile he unties your shoe.”

“Stick parade”

“Count the dots”“Fight”

“Pass gas & run”(also popular with adults back then)

“Climb the wall”(Rock climbing, and for that

matter rocks hadn’t been invented yet)

“Pull the clothes off the Person in front of you parade”

Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1525/30-69), Children’s Games, 1560. Detail: “Shoestring”

Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1525/30-69), Children’s Games, 1560. Detail: “Let’s exorcise Tommy”

Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1525/30-69), Children’s Games, 1560. Detail: “Let’s pretend the porch rail is a big red horse” (Known in Germany as “Let’s act weird” and in Italy as “Chess

Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1525/30-69), Children’s Games, 1560. Detail: playing “Pretend a giant squash is a doll”(After that they often would play “Eat the baby”)

Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1525/30-69), Children’s Games, 1560. Left: “Selling drugs”Below: “Step on Bob”

Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1525/30-69), Children’s Games, 1560. Left: “Beat the tops”Below: “Poopsicle”

Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1525/30-69), Let’s Pretend We’re Two Chained Monkeys, 1562

Enthusiastic wedding guests are hurried out of the bedroom by the groom. Marriages were not usually consummated until after the bride had moved to her husband’s house, which might take weeks or months. The high level of public participation in the wedding night shows how marriage was still mainly about producing heirs to carry on the family name and not about romance. It also shows how little privacy there was then.

Two paintings entitled Peasant Dance. Nowhere else are women portrayed as participating so freely in public festivals.

Women as Healers

Medieval medical tradition was strongly based on the theories of a second century physician, Galen. Since human dissections were frowned upon, he had to dissect animals, especially pigs which he thought were closer to humans in terms of anatomy. Of course, he was often wrong in his assumptions about human anatomy based on that of pigs. But Galen had the force of tradition and support of the Church behind him, so his theories were generally accepted.

Medieval medical theory was also heavily based on Aristotle’s theory of four humors (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile) which corresponded to the four terrestrial elements (air, water, earth, and fire). All sickness was seen as an internal imbalance of humors, not the result of outside factors.

Thus all treatments had to do with restoring the balance by purging the excess humor through bleeding, enemas, or vomiting.

However inaccurate this theory was, it was strongly backed by the Church and medical establishment, which consisted solely of men, as these pictures suggest.

There was another completely separate and less publicized medical tradition: midwives. Throughout much of history these women were often the only healers available for women and poor people in general. Also, they usually knew as much, if not more, about herbal cures and anatomy than male doctors trained in the questionable traditions of ancient medicine.

Not that midwives didn’t have their own superstitions using such things as hyena's feet, snake sloughs, canine placentas, sticks, and vulture feathers along with opening all the drawers and untying any knots in the house to ease the birthing process.

Midwifery has been the realm of women in most cultures such as the ancient Egyptians, Israelites, Greeks, Japanese, and Persians. Two Hebrew midwives Shifra and Puah, are even mentioned by name in the book of Exodus.

Luckily, many of the herbal cures these women learned through trial and error had applications beyond childbirth. Therefore, midwives often provided the only medical care that many or most people could get. This is even reflected in the contemporary novel, The Hunger Games.

Luckily, many of the herbal cures these women learned through trial and error had applications beyond childbirth. Therefore, midwives often provided the only medical care that many or most people could get. This is even reflected in the contemporary novel, The Hunger Games.

A study of Russian folk medicine showed that roughly half of its 400 herbal treatments were legitimate for at least relieving symptoms of an ailment, if not curing it.

From Midwives to Witches

Unfortunately, these herbal healers had to be careful because their practices often ran counter to accepted theories of the medical establishment and Church. Also, since only women were involved in midwifery, the source of their knowledge was a mystery to men, who sometimes suspected they were witches practicing black magic and reacted by burning them at the stake.

The stereotype of witches as hags with disheveled hair and warts on their noses may also be partially rooted in fact. For one thing, many, maybe most, midwives were without male relatives, being single women or widows. Given the medieval corporate mentality of valuing people largely according to what group they belonged (family, guild, city, etc.), such women in essence belonged to no group having no families and being barred from citizenship and membership in the guilds. This also barred them from any profitable trades, forcing them into either prostitution or midwifery. Therefore, their isolation, by medieval standards, made them virtual nobodies. Below: Witches brewing up a storm.

Since their clientele were mostly women, who also had little money to spend, these midwives/herbal healers typically had to survive on very limited means in hovels at the edge of town or in the nearby woods. Not having access to hairdressers or nice clothes, they must have presented a somewhat ugly sight, even by medieval standards.

Likewise, their diets would consist of items not usually found on the tables of richer people in town (e.g., eye of newt). A common stereotype of witchcraft, the witch’s brew, may have arisen from midwives’ diets or because of their familiarity with different healing herbs that other people didn’t understand.

Being so isolated, haggard, and mysterious, rumors of unsavory practices sprung up to fill in any gaps of knowledge about them. If something went particularly wrong, such as an epidemic, they could be convenient scapegoats and be charged as witches. By the same token, their greater success than real doctors in treating ailments might lead to such charges as well.

Even townswomen who knew them and used their services would be reluctant to defend them or even admit they knew them, since they might also be charged with witchcraft by association. Wives and daughters might also fear the wrath of their menfolk if they were to find out their women had been using such services.

Keep in mind that the lives of men and women intersected much less then than now, so men were much more in the dark about midwives and the world of women in general, and would tend to be more suspicious of their mysterious practices.

Keep in mind that the lives of men and women intersected much less then than now, so men were much more in the dark about midwives and the world of women in general, and would tend to be more suspicious of their mysterious practices.

As the Florentine proverb put it: "A good woman and bad one require equally the stick.” Such treatment must have constantly been in the forefront of women’s minds when deciding what they could safely tell their husbands.

The Middle ClassRise of Towns in High Middle Ages (FC.64)



Typically secluded

from public life

Usually banned

from guilds



In some countries, such as England, the wives of guild masters helped their husbands with the business. Widows could run the business if there was no son to carry it on or until their son was old enough to take over.

The fact that both women in these pictures are handling books also indicates they are literate, another sign of status back then.

Below left: Quentin Metsys, Banker and his WifeBelow right: Marinus Claesron van Reymerswaele, The Moneychanger and his Wife, 1539.

In contrast to the peasants, betrothal ceremonies for the middle & upper classes were much more business deals arranged by families with little or no input from the bride to be.

The Arnolfini wedding portrait by Van Eyck. Women’s status as trophy wives and little else is reflected in one man’s advice: “Buy the Adimari girl. She’s good meat with lots of flavor.”

Old man and Maid by David Teniers (Flemish). Sexual harassment is nothing new to our times. Teenage girls from poorer homes typically would work as domestic servants for richer families to supplement their own families’ income. Being poor, young, and female, they were especially vulnerable to attentions of their employers. and more liable to being blamed if they became pregnant.

Another unfortunate practice involving young women was prostitution. Contrary to many male fantasies, women did not enter “the world’s oldest profession” because it offered loads of fun and exciting career opportunities. Rather, it was typically an act of desperation driven by poverty, and even fathers desperate for money. Since the age of marriage for young townsmen was commonly the mid to late twenties, towns kept brothels in order to control or channel their wilder testosterone driven tendencies and minimize street violence. Farmers might also bring their daughters into town to sell their services, especially during trade fairs when business was particularly good.

Noble Women & the Courts of Love in the High

& Late Middle AgesWar Lower status for women, though

higher than peasant & MC men


& Late Middle Ages


War Lower status for women, though higher than peasant & MC men


& Late Middle Ages



(FC.64)



& Late Middle Ages



(FC.64)

Artificial courts of love presided over by women



& Late Middle Ages



(FC.64)

Ideal of romantic love between equals

Chivalrous behavior toward women

Artificial courts of love presided over by women


Higher status for women as seen by:

Reasons for rising status of women in High Middle Ages:


1) Popularity of Virgin Mary as source of mercy



2) Unhappy wives due to non-romantic reasons for marriage



2) Unhappy wives due to non-romantic reasons for marriage

3) Fewer women than men from dying in childbirth

During the turbulence of the Early Middle Ages, noblewomen had fairly low status, since they generally did not fight.

However, after c.1000 C.E. things started to change.

For one thing, the more settled times put less of a premium on fighting, giving women an opportunity to raise their status.

Dirk Bouts the Elder (1420-75), Virgin & Child.

Another important development was the rising popularity of the Virgin Mary. Whereas God was seen as just, she was seen as merciful and became the saint the most widely invoked by far to intercede for God’s mercy.

Hans Memling (1435-94), Madonna & Child

We get valuable insight on the status of European women from the shocked account of an Arab observer in the 12th century:"The Franj (Franks, Western Europeans) have no sense of honour. If one of them is walking in the street with his wife and encounters another man, that man will take his wife's hand & draw her aside and speak to her, while the husband stands waiting for them to finish their conversation. If it lasts too long, he will leave her with her interlocutor & go off.”

At this time we first see the emergence of the Courtly Love movement which still heavily influences our modern attitudes toward romance.

It largely started with love poems in Moorish Spain.

“A gazelle's are her eyes, sun-like is her splendor,Like a sandhill her hips, like a bough her stature:With tears I told her plaintively of my love for her,And told her how much my pain made me suffer.My heart met hers, knowing that love is contagious,And that one deeply in love can transmit his desire…”

It then caught on with William IX of Aquitaine, whose daughter, Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the most famous women in the Middle Ages. Once he started singing these songs of praise for a woman’s beauty, others in court caught on to it. It then spread to and was spread by traveling troubadours who depended on the generosity of their hosts to make a living. Since the lords they sang for liked war, that’s what they sang about.

However, the troubadour's chansons de geste (songs of great warlike deeds) were so inspiring that many lords spent a lot of time away from home emulating them.

Therefore, the troubadours’ only audience might be the ladies left behind to mind the castle. They found that songs praising the ladies’ beauty got a much better reception (and paycheck) from their audiences. In Southern France, where they started, they had to be careful not to make the songs too explicitly romantic, in case the man of the house came home early, such as in this picture.

According to Andreas Coppolamus, an early writer on courtly love:

True love improved a man in every way: Fools became wise; klutzes became graceful & polished; cowards became heroes.

A true lover never slept soundly, but always tossed & turned in bed.

It was doubted whether a man who didn't truly love a woman could be a true knight.

When the courtly love movement spread into Northern France, it took on a less platonic and more physical character.

By the same token, courts of love were always presided over by women and reflected their ideas on love and romance.

True love is:Always adulterous. The Church idea that sex was only for reproduction led to the belief that people so bound to each other couldn't love each other. Therefore, courtly love must be outside marriage and one was not in fashion if one didn't have boyfriend or girlfriend outside of marriage.

True love is:Idealized & pure. This was a fairly new notion, considering love before was often spelled l-u-s-t (e.g., Ovid). With courtly love, the true test of love was for a couple to sleep together without doing anything but sleep.

True love is:Religious in tone. This fit well with being idealized and pure, but hardly with the Church's stance on sex & love.

True love is:Secretive. Expressed through sly glimpses, shadows of a smile & other signs of affection. Although it was best to keep one's extramarital affairs secret, women naturally wanted to advertise the attentions of other men to themselves. This led to a highly stylized ritual behavior where every word or action had significance.

True love is:

Always between people of nearly equal social standing. Ironically it was supposedly alright for a noble to rape a peasant without losing his lady’s favor since peasants were considered incapable of feeling love.

True love is:Long lasting, faithful, & arduous, as seen in this story by Boccaccio:

"A knight who had offended his mistress was told, after two years of refusal, that if he would have one of his fingernails torn off & if 50 loving & faithful knights presented it to her, she might forgive him. He hastened to obey her. The nail was brought to her by 50 knights- all certified to be in the good grace of their ladies- resting on a velvet cushion. She was so touched by his obedience & commitment that she forgave him.”

According to Andreas Coppolamus, an early writer on courtly love: "Love is a certain inborn suffering derived from the sight of or excessive meditation upon the beauty of the opposite sex which causes each one to wish above all things the embraces of the other and by common desire to carry out all of love's precepts in the other's embraces.”

Whatever that means.

So how did they get noblemen to buy into this crazy new code of behavior?

For one thing, women did have higher status than before, and therefore more say in who received their favors.

One possible scenario may be that if one nobleman at court brushed his teeth and bathed regularly, talked about nice things rather than the latest foe he decapitated in battle, and used a handkerchief instead of his hand to blow his nose, he must have gotten all the ladies’ attention. Therefore, the other nobles would have to do the same if they wanted a date for Saturday night.

Since nobles set the tone for the rest of society, these new ideas about romance, everlasting love, and chivalrous behavior toward women spread to the lower classes and became firmly embedded in our culture. Not until the later twentieth century would these values come under attack.

FC.71A WOMEN’S CHANGING STATUS IN LATE MEDIEVAL EUROPE


Peasants Nobles


1300 (FC.71)


(FC.71)

Status won’t change until 1800s when MC women have leisure time & money

to work for equal rights (FC.114)


to change (FC.6)


(FC.64)


to change (FC.6)

Middle ClassRise of Towns in High Middle Ages (FC.64)


choice of husband


behavior

Ideal of romantic love between

equals

Chivalrous behavior toward

women


Typically secluded from

public life

Usually banned from

guilds



pop. growth


status

Artificial courts of love presided over

by women

War Lower status for women, though higher

than peasant & MC men


Higher status for women as seen by:Higher status for women as seen by:

FC.71A WOMEN’S CHANGING STATUS IN LATE MEDIEVAL EUROPE Rising piety Cult of Virgin Mary (FC.66)...

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