PORTRAITS OF MEDIEVAL WOMEN

Honour, devotion, and duty; murder, abduction, and mayhem: all describe the experiences and activities of the medieval English noblewomen whose lives are explored in this volume of case studies. The range of sources available, from public documents to private papers, makes it possible for these women's individual lives to be revealed. Whether they were the wives, widows, and daughters of minor barons or attached to the greatest magnate lineages, noblewomen in the 13th and 14th centuries all shared the common experience of striving for recognition, security, and satisfaction in the "man's world" of medieval England.