Women in Middle English Society - 1

As Alcuin Blamires (1997:34) states, in the Middle Ages the case for marriage can often be simultaneously understood as the case for women. Marriage was seen largely in terms of property and commerce in the Middle Ages. The wife was the property of her husband and children were considered to be the property of their parents (Starkey, 1981:235).                          

            
In the gentle and knightly classes, the choice of a marriage partner usually had little, if anything, to do with love. Marriages were often arranged by parents, and child-marriages occurred regularly. If a child resisted the rebellion was stopped, at least in the case of a daughter, often with physical violence (Trevelyan, 1960:132). Physical violence against wives was also generally accepted, as long as a husband beat his wife ‘only in reason’ (Coulton, 1968:190).


REFERENCES

Blamires, A
   1997. The Case for Women in Medieval Culture. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Coulton, G.G.
  1968. Chaucer and his England. London: Methuen.
Medcalf, S (ed.)
   1981. The Later Middle Ages. London: Methuen.
Starkey, D
   1981. The age of the household: politics, society and the arts. Medcalf 1981:225-290.
Trevelyan, G.M.
   1960. Illustrated English Social History: 1. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.