Women and their legal rights and obligations in the middle ages have been largely overlooked, but increasing speculation about women's freedom to act, and their...

Women and their legal rights and obligations in the middle ages have been largely overlooked, but increasing speculation about women's freedom to act, and their conventional role in social and domestic circumstances, has identified how little is generally know about the law and its shaping of women's lives. Drawing on records from roughly 1300 to 1500, the studies here look at particular issues and cast illuminating light on many aspects of medieval society where women were centre stage. Studies focus on the making of wills, the age of consent, rights concerning marriage, care, custody and guardianship (with particular emphasis on the rights of a mother attempting to gain custody of her own children within the court system), women as traders, women as criminals, prostitution, the rights of battered women within the courts, the procedures women had to go through to gain legal redress and access, rape, and women within guilds.

Contributors: P. J. P. GOLDBERG, VICTORIA THOMPSON, JENNIFER SMITH, CORDELIA BEATTIE, KATHERINE J. LEWIS, NOEL JAMES MENUGE, CORINNE SAUNDERS, KIM M. PHILLIPS, EMMA HAWKES.