A Medieval Woman’s Companion: Women’s Lives in the European Middle Ages

253 Pages·2015·4.593 MB·English

by  Susan Signe Morrison

A
Medieval
Woman’s Companion
Women’s Lives
in the European Middle Ages
Susan Signe Morrison
Oxbow Books
Oxford & Philadelphia

Dedication
To those women in the Middle Ages – some named, many
anonymous – who continue to inspire us today
Published in the United Kingdom in 2016 by
OXBOW BOOKS
10 Hythe Bridge Street, Oxford OX1 2EW
and in the United States by
OXBOW BOOKS
1950 Lawrence Road, Havertown, PA 19083
© Susan Signe Morrison 2016
Paperback Edition: ISBN 978-1-78570-079-8
Digital Edition: ISBN 978-1-78570-080-4
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Morrison, Susan Signe, 1959- author.
Title: A medieval woman’s companion : women’s lives in the European Middle
Ages / Susan Signe Morrison.
Description: Oxford ; Philadelphia : Oxbow Books, 2015. | Includes
bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015040589 | ISBN 9781785700798 (pbk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Women--Europe--History--Middle Ages, 500-1500. |
Women--Europe--Social conditions.
Classification: LCC HQ1147.E85 M67 2015 | DDC 305.4094--dc23 LC record available at
http://lccn.loc.gov/2015040589
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher in writing.
Printed in the United Kingdom by Hobbs the Printers Ltd, Totton, Hampshire
For a complete list of Oxbow titles, please contact:
United Kingdom United States of America
Oxbow Books Oxbow Books
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Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]
www.oxbowbooks.com www.casemateacademic.com/oxbow
Oxbow Books is part of the Casemate group
Front cover: Judith with the Head of Holofernes by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1472–1553.
© The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Image source: Art Resource, NY.
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Website and blog viii
Introduction 1
PART I
Pioneers
1. Gudrun Osvifsdottir: Viking Vixen 18
2. Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir: Fearless Explorer 26
3. Hrotsvit of Gandersheim: First Woman Playwright 32
4. Anglo-Saxon and Norman Women: Political Power, Dynasties
and Steadfast Sovereigns 39
Emma of Normandy 39
St Margaret of Scotland 44
Matilda of Scotland 45
5. The Importance of Language 49
PART II
Fearless Females
6. St Christina of Markyate: Resolute Virgin 56
7. Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen and Cougar 65
8. Margaret of Beverley: Fighting Crusader 74
PART III
Women of Wisdom
9. Anna Komnene: Dutiful Daughter 84
10. Understanding the Female Body: Misogyny and Sympathy 88
11. Trota of Salerno: Compassionate Physician 96
Contents
12. Hildegard von Bingen: Audacious Innovator 104
13. Heloise d’Argenteuil: Scandalous Nun 113
14. Marie de France: Rhyming Romancer 119
PART IV
Non-Conformists
15. Women Troubadours/Trobairitz: Clever Composers 126
16. Marguerite Porete: Heroic Heretic 135
17. St Birgitta of Sweden: Righteous Reformer 143
18. Margery Kempe: Peerless Pilgrim 152
PART V
“My Most Honored Ladies”
19. Christine de Pizan: Vocal Feminist 160
20. Joan of Arc: Savior of France 169
21. Textile Concerns: Holy Transvestites and the Dangers
of Cross-Dressing 177
PART VI
“Experience is Right Enough for Me”
22. Teresa de Cartagena: Foremother of Deaf Culture 186
23. Margaret Paston: Matchless Matriarch 195
24. Looking Forward: Contemporary Feminist Theory
and Medieval Women 204
Glossary 219
Bibliography 233
vi
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Texas State University for support, especially to Mike Hennessy,
Dan Lochman, Cynthia Opheim, Eugene Bourgeois, and Melody Edwards.
Warm gratitude to Elizabeth Makowski, who has been an inspiring colleague,
collaborative co-teacher, and brilliantly provocative thinker. The Interlibrary
Loan Office at Alkek Library provided me with intellectual sustenance.
Countless students have inspired me over the years. To you, consummate
gratitude for teaching me so much.
Appreciation for help with images goes to John Twyning, University of
Pittsburgh; Sigríður Sigurðardóttir, Director, Skagafjörður Heritage Museum,
Iceland; Tara S. Smith, Alkek Library; Conna Clark, Philadelphia Museum
of Art; Maria Singer, Yale Center for British Art. Thanks to the Master and
Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and Gill Cannell, Parker
Library, Corpus Christi College; Karen Richter, Princeton University Art
Museum; Gayle Richardson and Brian Moeller, Huntington Library; Tricia
Buckingham, Linda Townsend, and Samantha Sherbourne, Bodleian Libraries;
Gerhard Gruitrooy and Liz Kurtulik Mercuri, Art Resource; Nikki Braunton
and Yiqing An, Museum of London; Chris Rawlings and Jovita Callueng,
British Library; Wendy Zieger, Bridgeman Art Library; Richard Sorensen,
Smithsonian American Art Museum; Julie Zeftel, Metropolitan Museum
of Art; Chris Suthers, British Museum; Philippe Bretagnon, Bibliothèque
nationale de France; Dr Gerhard Lutz, Dom-Museum Hildesheim, Germany;
and Gerd Welin.
There have been many supporters in my life, helping to foster my love of all
things medieval. To my cousin and his wife, Lars and Gerd Welin, who made
a pilgrimage of their own to Saint Birgitta’s convent, echoing the pilgrimage
made by our Swedish forebear to North America over one hundred years ago.
To the memory of an early feminist medievalist, Debby Ellis. Her dynamic
daughters, Jenny and Molly Odintz, carry on Debby’s legacy.
To my father Bob, who delighted in teasing me about ‘the Dark Ages’. To my
mother Joan, who loved Shaw’s Saint Joan. They both took me on pilgrimage
to Canterbury, England, when I was 7 years old, instilling in me a love of the
Middle Ages that has resonated all my life. And to my family, who never tire
of hearing about werewolf romances, Viking women, and transvestite saints.
vii
Website and blog
This book is accompanied by a website and blog
A Medieval Woman’s Companion: http://amedievalwomanscompanion.com/
viii
INTRODUCTION
W
hy – and How –
Do We Study Medieval Women?
“I read [history] a little as a duty, but it tells me nothing that does not either
vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences, in
every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all – it
is very tiresome …”
Catherine Morland, heroine of Jane Austen’s novel Northanger Abbey (1803)
P
oor Catherine! Bored by history that in the early nineteenth century
would have mainly focused on men and popes and kings and wars. If
only Catherine could come back today when much medieval history focuses
on gender and the everyday lives of girls and women.
Where would we be without those foremothers who trail-blazed paths
for women today? Without those first brave souls who worked in fields
dominated by men, women might not have the presence they currently do in
professions such as education, the law, and literature. In the field of medicine,
for example, many women deserve our gratitude, including those countless
nameless women who, since humans evolved, assisted at the childbirths of
their daughters, sisters, and friends, enabling new lives to come into the
world. They passed down information about medical treatments via word
of mouth, some of which was later written down. An Old English birth
charm requires the speaker to utter these words as she steps over a dead man’s
grave: “This is my remedy for hateful slow birth, / this my remedy for heavy
difficult birth, / this my remedy for hateful imperfect birth”.1 An early spell
from the tenth century suggests how pregnant women tried get rid of agony
during delivery. The midwife would have uttered: “A swollen woman / Sat in
a swollen road; / A swollen child / She held in her lap … The pain goes out
… Let mother earth receive the pain”.2 These scraps of information tell us
that women attempted to control the ability to conceive a child and the pain
of labor. Such charms open a window into the minds and lives of women in
the past.
1