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This article examines how a medieval noblewoman’s positive reputation could be framed through different aspects of seigneurial power, using a case study of Jeanne de Penthievre and her war for the duchy of Brittany. Froissart wrote about Jeanne in the three main redactions of the first book of his Chroniques. However, he focused in the Amiens manuscript on her position as an heiress and the object of her followers’ loyalty, while the B text largely reduced her prominence but planted the seeds for the active military role Jeanne assumed in the Rome redaction. Such changes did not move strictly between more or less accurate reports, but engaged with different tropes that had also featured in the official portrayals of Jeanne during her lifetime. These parallel constructions of reputation reveal a plasticity to models of lordly authority even in rhetorical contexts more usually associated with formulaic and conventional representations of elite society.

In this article I gather the lives of a group of Castilian sante vive from the 15th and 16th centuries (María de Ajofrín, Juana de la Cruz and María de Santo Domingo and others) and establish a detailed hagiographic comparative analysis which takes into account some previous and contemporary Italian narrative patterns. I am particularly interested in clarify two issues: first, to what extent Catherina of Siena's Legenda maior by Raymond of Capua inspired the narratives of these Iberian lives (and, additionally, what do these results mean in the pre-Modern Castilian context); second, what a comparison with the bio-hagiography of an Italian charismatic woman as Lucia Broccadelli da Narni could tell us about the construction of radical models of sanctity. I divide the analysis in two parts: the childhood, as a symbollic formative period of the saint, and the maturity of the visionary women, where I focus especifically on the signification of the narratives of the stigmatization.

The article deconstructs the myth of Dorotea Bocchi, still considered the first female professor of medicine and/or philosophy at the University of Bologna in the fifteenth century. The narration of this myth is part of a series of biographies of women, created from the early modern age to give prestige to families, institutions or cities. Although historiography has dismantled the link women-medieval universities, the idea of an extraordinary precedent still finds credit in the historical disclosure and in the historiography of women and the sciences.

[ES] Juana de Arco (Domrémy 1412 - Ruán 1431), ha sido una de las figuras femeninas más controvertidas y a la vez fascinantes del Medievo, llevada al cine a través de distintas versiones cinematográficas. El presente estudio, analizará brevemente la aportación que sobre el proceso inquisitorial seguido a la doncella de Orleans realizó el director de cine y guionista danés C. Th. Dreyer en 1928, centrándonos desde una perspectiva de género en la importancia del significado de la imagen femenina y su representación, a través del séptimo arte. [EN] Joan of Arc (Domrémy 1412 - Rouen 1431), has been one of the most controversial and at the same time fascinating female figures of the Middle Ages, taken to the cinema through different cinematographic versions. The present study, will briefly analyze the contribution that the film director and Danish screenwriter C. Th. Dreyer made in 1928 about the inquisitorial process followed the maiden of Orleans, focusing from a gender perspective on the importance of the meaning of the feminine image and its representation, through the seventh art.

Author(s): Politano, Cristina | Abstract: This study examines language related to family and familicide within The Book of Divine Consolation of the Blessed Angela of Foligno, a text attributed to a thirteenth-century Italian mystic who claimed intimate and direct knowledge of the divine, Angela da Foligno (1248-1309). Foligno's repudiation of her earthly family allowed her to assert her kinship among Christ, God, and the Eternal Word, positioning herself as a spiritual authority and aspiring to sainthood. Modern critics diverge in their assessment of Angela's visions; some read her mystic speech as empowering, while others call attention to the contradictions and inconsistencies that undermine her position as a spiritual authority. Simone de Beauvoir is the most prominent modern intellectual who critiques the life of Angela da Foligno, arguing that she engaged in mysticism in bad faith and that her writings amount to no more than a narcissistic exaltation of her own person. An examination of Angela's rhetorical strategies and her language related to family throughout The Book of Divine Consolation reveals that her mysticism, whether divinely inspired or the false product of her own ambition, was always engaged with the radical upending of traditional familial hierarchies that limit the status of women in the public sphere.Questa ricerca analizza il linguaggio relativo alla famiglia e al parricidio nel Liber della divina consolazione della beata Angela da Foligno, un testo attribuito ad una mistica vissuta nel tredicesimo secolo che rivendicava una conoscenza intima e diretta del divino, Angela da Foligno (1248-1309). Il ripudio della sua famiglia terrestre le permise di affermare la sua parentela con Cristo, Dio, e lo Spirito Santo, posizionandosi come una autorita spirituale ed aspirando alla santita. I critici moderni divergono nelle loro analisi per quanto riguarda le sue visioni; alcuni dicono che il suo misticismo e produttivo mentre altri attirano l'attenzione sulle contraddizioni e sulle incongruenze che minano la sua posizione come autorita spirituale. Simone de Beauvoir e l'intellettuale moderna piu illustre a criticare la vita di Angela da Foligno, sostenendo che ella si impegnava con il misticismo in malafede e che i suoi scritti ammontano a non piu di una esaltazione narcisistica della sua personalita. Una ricerca sulle sue strategie retoriche e sul suo linguaggio relativo alla famiglia attraverso il Liber rivela che il suo misticismo, che sia divinamente inspirato o il falso prodotto delle sue ambizioni, determinava lo sconvolgimento radicale della gerarchia della famiglia tradizionale minando lo status della donna nella sfera pubblica.

Bu tezin amacı, İngiltere'deki altı idari bölgeye ait Domesday Book kayıtlarının incelenerek on birinci yüzyıl İngilteresi'nde kadın kölelerin rolü ve yerini açığa çıkarmaktır. Orta Çağ'da kadınlar genel olarak, tasvir edilirse, bir erkeğin ya eşi ya da kızı olarak tasvir edilir; aksi takdirde görünmezdir. Ancak Domesday Book kayıtları, Erken Orta Çağ İngilteresi'nde kadın kölelerin varlığını açıkça ortaya koyar. Ayrıca bu kayıtlarda kadın kölelerden bir erkeğin ne eşi ne de kızı olarak bahsedilir. Daha da ilginci, birkaç dul kadın dışında, sadece kadın köleler hem köylü sınıfının erkek üyelerinden bağımsız hem de düzenli bir şekilde sayılmıştır. Cheshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire ve Worcestershire idari bölgeleri, kayıtlarının diğer bölgelere göre daha fazla kadın köle sayısı sunması ve bu idari bölgelerin coğrafi olarak birbirlerine yakın olması nedeniyle bu araştırma için seçilmiş ve incelenmiştir. Domesday Book, kadın köleler hakkında sayısal olarak bilgi verir ancak bu kadınların toplumdaki konumları, görevleri ve potansiyel çalışma alanları çözülmesi gereken bir sır olarak kalmıştır. Bu sebeple, bu tez Domesday Book'un sayısal verilerine ve çalışma alanı olarak ipucu veren kayıtlarına dayanarak kölelerin, özellikle kadın kölelerin nerelerde çalıştırılmış olabileceğini araştırır. Bu yüzden, bu tez, sınıfları ve cinsiyetleri kadın kölelerin hayatını kısıtlamış olsa da onların Erken Orta Çağ İngiliz toplumunun aktif üyeleri olduğunu ortaya koyar.Anahtar Kelimeler: Domesday Book, Kadın Köleler, Orta Çağ'da Kadın, Cinsiyet The aim of this thesis is to provide an insight into the place and role of female slaves in eleventh-century England by examining the records of six counties in Domesday Book. In a general sense, medieval women are portrayed, if they are, as either wives or daughters; otherwise, they are invisible. However, Domesday Book reveals the presence of female slaves in Early Medieval England. They do not seem to be linked to any father or husband, and more interestingly, only female slaves are enumerated with a constant and regular pattern, and separately from the male members of peasantry with a few exceptions of widows. The records of the counties Cheshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire are selected and examined due to the fact that they have a greater number of female slaves than the other counties and they are geographically close to each other. Domesday Book offers statistical data of female slaves; however, their position, their duties and potential working areas remain a puzzle to be solved. Therefore, this thesis explores the possible places where slaves, especially female slaves may have been put to work, based on the number and clues of possible occupations obtained from Domesday Book. In this respect, it manifests that female slaves were active members of Early Medieval English society even though their class and gender may have restricted their life.Keywords: Domesday Book, Female Slaves, Medieval Women, Gender 191

By the late Middle Ages, new varieties of dishware, clothing, and furniture were increasingly produced in and imported into English cities. The acquisition, use, and care of an expanding array of manufactured goods, not only made merchant and artisan lives more comfortable, it made them who they were. Yet as material culture scholars have repeatedly shown, the use and meaning of objects is neither stable nor guaranteed. Archaeologists argue that the new variety of dishware available gradually changed urban eating habits, with consequences for gender relations within the household. By reading two late medieval literary descriptions of all-women’s dinner parties against these material changes, this article looks at the impact of changing material culture on household dynamics. À la fin de l’époque médiévale, la production et l’importation d’une nouvelle vaisselle, d’une nouvelle mode vestimentaire et d’un nouveau mobilier s’accélèrent dans les villes d’Angleterre. L’acquisition, l’usage et l’entretien d’une gamme de plus en plus large de produits manufacturés n’a pas seulement rendu plus aisée la vie des marchands et des artisans, mais les a transformés eux-mêmes. Cependant l’usage et le sens des objets – les spécialistes de la culture matérielle l’ont bien montré – n’est pas stable. Selon certains archéologues, la vaisselle qui commence à se répandre change peu à peu les habitudes de table avec des conséquences sur l’ordre de genre au sein du foyer. Cet article examine deux textes littéraires du Moyen Âge tardif qui décrivent des banquets exclusivement réservés aux femmes, pour évaluer l’effet de ces changements dans la culture matérielle sur les relations entre maris et femmes.

Treball Final de Grau en Estudis Anglesos. Codi: EA0938. Curs acadèmic: 2017/2018 In a society controlled by men, the Church and its authorities, fourteen century women had little space for their personal aspirations in life. Their submission and passivity to men controlled all the facets of their existence. Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales present a unique and copious vision of medieval society through his variety of characters belonging to different social classes, thus providing the perfect source from which to analyze women’s roles in the Middle Ages. From his twenty-nine pilgrims, Chaucer only chose to introduce three women: the Prioress, the Wife of Bath and the Second Nun. Though many other women appeared in the Tales, none of them were given voice. This choice yields many interpretations, from those who critique Chaucer to those who applaud him. This work analyzes the roles of the three medieval women who appear in The Canterbury Tales, their possibilities in such society and tests if their depiction is accurate. Aspects such as their characterization, attitudes and actions from both their Prologues and Tales will be studied according to already existing analyses. Moreover, two other uncommon but surprising female characters, a hen and a lady falcon, will be investigated and subjected to the supposition of “what if” they could be considered as representatives of real medieval women. In doing so, a better understanding of Chaucer’s women characters, and most importantly, of the women’s role in such era, will be presented.

Los vínculos entre las mujeres y las cofradías de la Andalucía bajomedieval son de una riqueza extraordinaria, es decir, las mujeres estaban muy presentes en las cofradías en contra de los tópicos al uso. Vínculos existenciales que abarcan un amplio espectro de relaciones económicas, sociales y asistenciales, siendo estas últimas uno de los factores que explican el extraordinario éxito experimentado por estas instituciones a finales de la Edad Media y durante la Modernidad. Y vínculos en el Más Allá establecidos a partir de un amplio conjunto de mandas de naturaleza religiosa, que ocupan un lugar predominante en esta relación testamentaria establecida entre mujeres y cofradías. Por todo ello podemos deducir que en la época estudiada las cofradías prestaron a las mujeres unos servicios y establecieron con ellas unas relaciones contractuales que situaban al colectivo femenino en unas relaciones prácticamente de igualdad con respecto a los hombres. Links between women and confraternities in medieval Andalusia were extraordinarily rich, that is, women were present and took part in these institutions, beyond platitudes. These links were related to economic, social and, specially, welfare relations, which were one of the main factors to explain the extraordinary success experimented by confraternities during the end of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period. But there were also links which connected women and confraternities during the afterlife, trough a wide range of religious dispositions present in testaments. For all those reasons, we can deduce that during this period confraternities provided women with some services and established with them some relationships on equal terms than if they were men.

Universidad Pablo de Olavide. Departamento de Geografía, Historia y Filosofía, Postprint

The article discusses the background to the erection of the huge church tower in Bjälbo, Östergötland, Sweden. It also focuses on medieval women as founders of churches. The author maintains that new dendrochronological dating of the tower could mean that founder of this building piece was not one of the male members of the important Bjälbo dynasty, but Ingrid Ylva the mother of Birger Jarl.

La propaganda política durante la Edad Media utilizó en ocasiones a las mujeres como arma arrojadiza entre facciones, dándose así la paradoja de que las figuras femeninas, excluidas del espacio político, eran claves en épocas de conflicto. Para demostrarlo se analizan tres momentos cruciales en la monarquía castellana, en los que se producen enfrentamientos entre hermanos por cuestiones sucesorias, y en los que se utiliza a las mujeres de la familia como medio para desprestigiar al contrario. En el último tercio del siglo XI, la rivalidad entre Sancho II y Alfonso VI, tuvo en medio a su hermana Urraca de Zamora; a mediados del siglo XIV, el enfrentamiento entre Pedro I y Enrique II, utilizó a varias mujeres de la familia como medio de propaganda; en la segunda mitad del siglo XV, la pugna entre Enrique IV e Isabel de Castilla, envolvió también a las mujeres de la familia. During the Middle Ages Spanish monarchs and nobles developed a form of political propaganda in which women were used as weapons against their political rivals. The result was that female figures, excluded from the political arena, took a great role in problematic periods. To illustrate this point, I analyze three cases from crucial times of the Kingdom of Castile, when in the fights for the throne between siblings, women of the immediate family were involved. One, which took place in the second half of the XIth century, involved the rivalry between Sancho the IInd and Alfonso the VIth. Another which centered on the rivalry between Pedro the Irst and Enrique the IInd, occurred in the middle of the XIVth century. And the third, which took place in the second half of the XVth century, pitted Enrique the IVth and Isabel of Castile.

La propaganda política durante la Edad Media utilizó en ocasiones a las mujeres como arma arrojadiza entre facciones, dándose así la paradoja de que las figuras femeninas, excluidas del espacio político, eran claves en épocas de conflicto. Para demostrarlo se analizan tres momentos cruciales en la monarquía castellana, en los que se producen enfrentamientos entre hermanos por cuestiones sucesorias, y en los que se utiliza a las mujeres de la familia como medio para desprestigiar al contrario. En el último tercio del siglo XI, la rivalidad entre Sancho II y Alfonso VI, tuvo en medio a su hermana Urraca de Zamora; a mediados del siglo XIV, el enfrentamiento entre Pedro I y Enrique II, utilizó a varias mujeres de la familia como medio de propaganda; en la segunda mitad del siglo XV, la pugna entre Enrique IV e Isabel de Castilla, envolvió también a las mujeres de la familia. During the Middle Ages Spanish monarchs and nobles developed a form of political propaganda in which women were used as weapons against their political rivals. The result was that female figures, excluded from the political arena, took a great role in problematic periods. To illustrate this point, I analyze three cases from crucial times of the Kingdom of Castile, when in the fights for the throne between siblings, women of the immediate family were involved. One, which took place in the second half of the XIth century, involved the rivalry between Sancho the IInd and Alfonso the VIth. Another which centered on the rivalry between Pedro the Irst and Enrique the IInd, occurred in the middle of the XIVth century. And the third, which took place in the second half of the XVth century, pitted Enrique the IVth and Isabel of Castile.

This thesis concentrates on the role of Welsh noblewomen in the history of Wales in the thirteenth century. Their absence from this history until quite recently is discussed, and several outstanding Welsh noblewomen have been studied in detail. The women studied include the mothers, wives and daughters of the native Welsh rulers of Gwynedd as well as noblewomen from northern Powys, Cydewain, Ceredigion, and so on. One chapter of the work is devoted to the Welsh Laws of Women which, although somewhat archaic by the thirteenth century, were still in use in some parts of Wales and help provide background. Another chapter investigates the evidence for women in the extant literature and poetry of the period. The thesis explores the themes of women’s access to power through the family and also the ability of Welsh noblewomen to take action in their own and their family members’ interests, in the public sphere, when they felt it was necessary. While the later years of the thirteenth century witnessed the final defeat of the Welsh by the Anglo-Normans after more than two hundred years, earlier in the century, Welsh leaders had been able to unite under the leadership of the rulers of Gwynedd and achieve a measure of independence from their oppressors. Welsh noblewomen played an important part in this recovery of Welsh power and their participation in this aspect of Welsh medieval history is also explored. It is clear from the evidence collected that most of the noblewomen studied owned land, in spite of the prohibition against women owning land under native Welsh law. Welsh noblewomen supported their fathers, husbands and sons, and they also took direct action themselves when the need arose.

La necesidad de conocer el papel desempeñado por las mujeres a través de la historia, y en particular, de sus aportaciones intelectuales por medio de la palabra escrita, ha despertado el interés investigativo en torno a diferentes líneas de pensamiento desde hace ya varias décadas. En lo que respecta a la Europa medieval, las dificultades que pueda representar el estudio de estos temas se agrava aún más ante los interminables debates que apuntan hacia la incertidumbre de las autorías femeninas durante el período medieval. El presente artículo, tomando como punto de inicio el siglo IX hasta llegar al siglo XV, retoma cronológicamente la figura de cinco personajes femeninos: Dhuoda de Septimania, Hrotsvitha de Gandersheim, Trotula, Hildegarda de Bingen y Cristina de Pizan, cuya imagen y palabra destacaron de forma contundente en su tiempo, y nos siguen proyectando su legado hasta la actualidad.

Dulcinea y las otras mujeres que aparecen en e/Quijote configuran un panorama de retratos que dan sentido a la obra, casi tanto como las figuras de don Quijote y Sancho Panza. Podría compararse la importancia de las mujeres en el Quijote a la que tienen Jimena y sus hijas como soporte de la figura masculina del Campeador en el Poema de Mío Cid. La remembranza de estas dos obras apunta lo apropiado de buscar en las mujeres medievales los modelos femeninos de Don Quijote. Se ha apuntado que las mujeres del Quijote responden a modelos del Renacimiento o del Barroco, sin embargo, parecen mantener los valores femeninos de la Edad Media. Mediante el análisis de retratos, valores y papeles femeninos, se trata de vislumbrar si continúan los modelos diseñados en la Edad Media o si el Concilio de Trente y el Renacimiento introdujeron cambios importantes en la vida de las mujeres. Women are an important parí of Don Quixote, // not as important as Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Just as the Poema del Mió Cid does not make sense without Jimena and her daughters, so Don Quixote does not make sense without Dulcinea and others like her. In Don Quixote the knight's duties include honoring his lady and fighting for women at risk. Although some scholars have argued that the women of Don Quixote are models of the Renaissance or Baroque, I see them more as medieval types. Through an examination of the women of Don Quixote, thelr roles and valúes, their virtues and vices, I show how they reflect much about the Middie Ages, without forgetting the changes brought about by the Council of Trent and the humanism of the Renaissance.

The history of medieval Irish women is elusive, despite a rich variety of textual sources. These are often normative rather than descriptive and are a predominantly male clerical product. This paper will examine the dossiers of two female saints, both from Co Cork. It will ask whether we can identify female aspirations and female voices in the literary celebration of their careers. Are they models of female empowerment or do their representations ultimately support male power structures.