The lives of ordinary women in medieval europe

Portrait of a Woman by Robert Campin circa 1420

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Writings by men Writings by women (rare) Art Religious texts and artifacts Material culture Skeletal Remains Oral tradition Social structure and roles Skeletal Remains of a 12th‐ Century Woman, England

Lippo D’Andrea, Italian, 1377�after 1427, The Madonna and Child Enthroned with Angels and Saints John the Baptist and Nicholas of Bari, tempera on panel, 49 1/4 x 23 3/4 inches.

Master of 1419, Virgin and Child, c. 1415, tempera and gold on panel, 45 13/16 x 21 3/8 inches. The Ackland Art Museum, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ackland Fund, 80.34.1

School of Lorenzo Ghiberti, Madonna and Child, c. 1450, polychromed terracotta, 32 x 23 Ÿ x 8 ½ inches. The Cleveland Museum of Art. Gift of Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., for the Coralie Walker Hanna Memorial Collection, 1939.161

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Most important role: wife and mother Marriages arranged; occurred early Bore many children Pious, possibly literate Had servants, but oversaw work of the household

Domenico Ghirlandaio, Lucrezia Turnabuoni, 1475. Florentine school.

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Master of 1419, Virgin and Child, c. 1415,

Religious art demonstrated household wealth and religious devotion Mary as an ideal of female purity and motherhood How did wealthy women’s mothering experiences compare to those depicted in scenes of the Madonna and Child?

The Pit and the Pedestal

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“Of the numberless snares that the crafty enemy spreads for us . . . the worst is woman, sad stem, evil root, vicious fount . . . honey and poison.” ‐‐Marbode, 11th‐century Bishop of Rennes

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“Woman is a stranger to fidelity . . . Beware of every woman as one would of a poison serpent.” ‐‐Albertus Magnus, 13th‐century theologian and scientist

Women gossiping while a demon listens.

Ely Cathedral, England, 11th�Century

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“The most beautiful and useful thing . . . is to have a . . . wife who is good, modest, honest, temperate. . . . If she is full of charity, humility, rectitude, and patience . . . how great should be your mutual friendship!” ‐‐Saint Bernardino of Siena (b. 1380)

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“No priest can soften the heart of a man like his wife can.” ‐‐Thomas of Chobham, 13th‐century writer

Medieval Madonna and Child

Peasants made up the bulk of the medieval population.

Peasant women made large contributions to society.

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People in the Middle Ages formed small communities around a central lord or master.

Why did they do this? 

For safety and defense.

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Most people lived on a manor, which consisted of the castle (or manor house), the church, the village, and the surrounding farm land.

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At the lowest level of society were the peasants, also called serfs or villeins.

The lord offered his peasants protection in exchange for living and working on his land.

Shepherd's Calendar, Medieval Women McMaster University

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Peasants worked hard to cultivate the land and produce the goods that the lord and his manor needed. 

heavily taxed

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required to relinquish much of what they harvested.

Hardworking peasants at home.

Pierpont Morgan Library, New York City.

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Peasant women were expected to marry.

A married woman's place was in the home and the village, while the man's place was in the fields, roads, and forests.

But what exactly did the women have to do in the home and in the village?

Peasant woman spinning with blank sheild, ca 1475‐1480

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In many places, boys could marry at 14 and girls at 12.

Large families were the norm.    

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Medieval women would become pregnant between 4 and 8 times.

Mortality rate for children and babies was high.

A woman would expect to lose at least one child.

Women frequently died in childbirth.

The life expectancy of a Medieval woman was around thirty years.

The Dance of Death [Woodcut, before 1538]

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Housework Maintaining yard and garden Taking care of the animals Gathering wood Helping husband in the fields Caring for and training children Producing goods for household consumption

Woman milking a cow, 13th century

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Wives sometimes performed other tasks that would bring in extra household income.

Some women took up spinning as an occupation. 

Flax was often grown in gardens adjoining the peasant dwelling specifically to be worked into linen.

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Some women became ale wives.

Even when they did not spin or brew ale for the market, peasant women performed these tasks for their own families.

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…’After I have lain awake all night with our child, I get up in the morning and find our house chaotic.

I milk the cows and turn them out in the field, While you are quite sound asleep….

Then later on in the day I make butter.

Afterwards I make cheese. These you think a joke.

Then our children start crying and must be got up, Yet you will blame me if any of our goods are not there.

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When I have done this, I look at the sun.

I get the food ready for our beast before you come home, And food for ourselves before it is noon, Yet I don't get a fair word when I have done.

So I look to our welfare both outdoors and inside, So nothing great or small is lacking.

I take care to please you, lest any strife arises, And therefore I think you do wrong to tell me off…

When I have done this, there is still even more to do: I feed our chickens otherwise they will be scrawny; Our hens, our capons and our ducks all together, I also tend to our goslings that go on the green.

I bake, I brew, otherwise it will not be well; I beat and swingle flax, so help me God, I heckle the tow, I warm up and cool down, I tease wool and card it and spin it on the wheel. ..

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www.york.ac.uk/teaching/history/pjpg/BALLAD.htm

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Some peasant women did not marry.

Some became servants. 

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main jobs were to clean, cook, and do other domestic work helped with crafts in masters’ homes nursed masters’ children

A servant in Supper in the House of the Pharisee by Giotto, early 14th century

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Some medieval women became blacksmiths, merchants, and apothecaries.

Preparing the wine.

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Some women became nuns and devoted their lives to God and spiritual matters.

Primary motivation: 

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Devotion to God

Secondary motivations:  

Opportunities for intellectual life Avoidance of death in childbirth

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Nuns lived in convents Along with monks, provided for the less‐fortunate members of the community Monasteries and nunneries were safe havens for pilgrims and other travelers.

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Many peasant families ate, slept, and spent time together in very small quarters, rarely more than one or two rooms. The houses had thatched roofs and were easily destroyed.

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In simpler homes where there were no chimneys, the medieval kitchen consisted of a stone hearth in the center of the room. This was not only where the cooking took place, but also the source of central heating.

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The wife did the cooking and baking.

Diet consisted of breads, vegetables from their own gardens, dairy products from their own sheep, goats, and cows, and pork from their own livestock.

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Meat was salted and dried for use throughout the year Flavor was masked by the addition of herbs, leftover breads, and vegetables.

Some vegetables, such as cabbages, leeks, and onions became known as "pot‐ herbs." This pottage was a staple of the peasant diet

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Peasant women wore long gowns with sleeveless tunics and wimples to cover their hair.

Sheepskin cloaks and woolen hats and mittens were worn in winter for protection from the cold and rain.

Leather boots covered in wood were used to keep the feet dry.

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Outer clothes were almost never laundered, Linen underwear was washed regularly.

The smell of wood smoke that permeated the clothing seemed to act as a deodorant.

Peasant women spun wool into the threads that were woven into the cloth for these garments.

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Medieval handbook on wellness One of the most important picture books of the Middle Ages Some pictures depict housewives in their daily chores as well as other aspects of medieval life not generally recorded.

Harvesting cabbages; Tacuinum Sanitatis, 15th c., Paris.

A woman making barley soup in the Tacuinum Sanitatis of Liege, circa 1380.

The gourd harvest, 15th century Tacuinum Sanitatis.

Picking cherries

Gathering herbs

Barley c. 1370‐1400

Men and women working in the fields, Tacuinum Sanitas of Vienna, late 14th century

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Williams, Mary Newman and Anne Echols. Between Pit and Pedestal: Women in the Middle Ages. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1993.

Leyser, Henrietta. Medieval Women: A Social History of Women in England. Great Britain: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1995.

“The Middle Ages: Myth and Reality.” http://www.onlinehistory.com/The%20Middle%20Age s.ppt (accessed 11‐19‐09).

Thinkquest, “The Distaff Side.” http://library.thinkquest.org/12834/text/distaffside.htm l (accessed 11‐19‐09).