Assignment:
Introduction
There never was a time when women were more frequently made the subject of verse, nor worshipped with greater devotion, then the age of chivalry. It was a time when the duty and pleasure of every gentleman was to be the slave of the same lady, and when the passion of love was studied more ardently and expressed in more delicate and sincere language than at any other time.
The introduction among the rules of chivalry of the so-called "Science of Love" brought into the customs and ideas of medieval society a new element which became almost immediately dominant, side by side with the purely warlike element and the religious element.
The new doctrine, when brought in from Provence, France and spread by means of crusaders returning from the Holy Land, found a congenial atmosphere in the North of France and among the Normans, where women already occupied a dignified and independent position.
The effects of the troubadour poetry originating from Provence, the new relation of men to women, or knights to ladies, cannot be over-estimated. Fully developed by the Provençal poets, and received by the chivalry of Southern France as a rule of life, it was accepted by the northern French and the Normans as a new gospel.
The brotherhood of the chivalry looked upon a new definition of love and found it in the poetry of troubadours the modish literature of the time. Life was glorified by the discovery that it could be built upon love and that the highest glory of a man was to own the domination of a lady. Gallantry became a rule of knightly conduct and took its place by the side of honor and religion as one of the chief motives of action, the standards to which all conduct must be referred. The rule of gallantry regulated the sentiment of soldiers separated for long periods from their wives, gave the fair to the brave, gave a new position to women, and was justified by authority.
The Roles of Women in the Middle Ages were fundamentally changed between the middle of the 11th Century and the middle of the 12th Century, when women were elevated, literally, to the condition of goddesses. In earlier times, women had reigned, been honored, but there had been no gallantry in a world where relation of the sexes had been natural and simple, the outgrowth of material and social conditions. From this period onwards, a new sentiment takes its place as a leading motive of life, connected with rank, wealth, and pride of place, and which found its natural development in a society governed by a warlike nobility, for whose convenience the trading and laboring classes existed.
Such was the force of this change in the Roles of Medieval Women, that even the three motives of chivalry changed priorities, so now honor, gallantry, and after them religion were the motivating factors of the medieval knightly life. Modern courtesy is descended from the medieval gallantry and owes to it the touch of romance which is absent from the love literature of the antiquity.
Lower status women had little or no role to play within the country at large. Within towns, society would have effectively dictated what jobs a woman could do and her role in a medieval village would have been to support her husband. As well as doing her daily work, whether, in a town or village, a woman would have had many responsibilities with regards to her family.
Within a village, women would have done many of the tasks men did on the land. However, they were paid less for doing the same job. Documents from Medieval England relating to what the common person did are rare, but some do exist which examine what villages did. For reaping, a man could get 8 pence a day. For the same task, women would get 5 pence. For haymaking, men would earn 6 pence a day while women got 4 pence. In a male-dominated society, no woman would openly complain about this disparity.
About 90% of all women lived in rural areas and were therefore involved in some form of farm work.
In medieval towns, women would have found it difficult to advance into a trade as medieval guilds frequently barred women from joining them. Therefore, a skilled job as recognized by a guild was usually out of reach for any woman living in a town. Within towns, women were usually allowed to do work that involved some form of clothes making but little else. For many women, a life as a servant for the rich was all they could hope for. Such work was demanding and poorly rewarded.
The law, set by men, also greatly limited the freedom of women. Women were
• not allowed to marry without their parents' consent
• could own no business with special permission
• not allowed to divorce their husbands
• could not own property of any kind unless they were widows
• could not inherit land from their parents' if they had any surviving brothers
Many women from wealthier backgrounds would have married when they were teenagers. Medieval society had a different outlook on children when compared to today. Children from poor families would have worked from the earliest age possible and they were treated as adults from the age of ten or eleven. Many girls from poor families did not get married until they were in their twenties.
Girls from richer families tended to marry earlier than girls from poor families. The poorer families needed as many working for them as was possible, so a daughter getting married at an early age would have deprived them of a worker. This was not true for a rich family. Girls had no choice over who they married and many girls from rich families were usually married to someone as a political gesture or because it was an advantage to the girl's family itself - as opposed to what the girl herself wanted. Once married, the young lady came under the control of her husband.
Producing a male heir within a rich family was considered vital. So many women spent a great deal of their married life pregnant. However, childbirth was dangerous as medical care was so poor. It is thought that as many as 20% of all women died in childbirth and it was the most common cause of death among young women.
Wives from a rich family usually did not look after their children. This was done by a wet nurse. Women from a poor family not only had to look after the children but had to continue doing her day-to-day work both in the home and on the land. Many women from poor families did not live past the age of forty.
Video: William Marshal the Greatest Knight the Ever Lived
The fascinating story of knighthood told through the extraordinary life and times of William Marshal, whom many consider the world's greatest knight. From Europe's medieval castles to the holy city of Jerusalem, presenter Thomas Asbridge explores William's incredible life, revealing a rip-roaring adventure story in the spirit of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table.
In a career that spanned half a century, this English soldier and statesman served some of Christendom's greatest leaders, from Eleanor of Aquitaine to Richard the Lionheart. Marshal fought in battles across Europe, survived court intrigue and exile, put his seal to the Magna Carta and proved to be the best friend a king could have, remaining loyal to those he served through disaster and victory. Then at the age of 70, despite all the odds, he saved England from a French invasion.
- The video is called William Marshal, The Greatest Knight that Ever Lived (CC)
- The other video is called Western Traditions: The Feudal Order