Ebook: Young Medieval Women

Much has now been published about the women of medieval Europe, about their social position, their work and their play, their devotions and their belongings. Most of these studies have focused on sorts of women: women from a specific region or women from a narrow historical period. Others have attempted to cover the entire subject, but it is becoming evident that there is a flaw in this approach. Interesting and important though this work is, it must be recognised that the very category of "woman" needs to be broken down. It is only when other variables are introduced, refining the field of enquiry, that the historian is able to gain real insights into the lives and experiences of particular groups of medieval people. The editors of this volume have done just that and two historiographies, that of women and that of youth, are here brought together to give the first study of one such group: young medieval women.

The book consists of a collection of interdisciplinary essays, each of which takes an individual approach to young women or the notion of "youth" as a stage in women’s lives in late medieval Europe. Topics include prostitution, Joan of Arc, a new interpretation of the representation of young women in the Malterer Embroidery, rape in medieval literature, queenmaking during the Wars of the Roses, female wardship, virgin martyrs, and maidenhood as the "perfect age" of a woman’s fife. Together they form a unique collection which is both wide-ranging in its examination of numerous themes related to young medieval women and coherent in its social and historical focus on the culture of late medieval north-western Europe.

Containing work by both established historians and younger scholars, this is a well-focused, innovative and sometimes controversial study of women’s history. Accessible in approach and fascinating in many of its outcomes, "Young Medieval Women" will be required reading for any student of a subject currently at the forefront of medieval studies.