Women in Thirteenth-Century Lincolnshire

by Louise J. Wilkinson

This book offers the first regional study of women in thirteenth-century England, making pioneering use of charters, chronicles, government records and some of the earliest manorial court rolls to examine the interaction of gender, status and life-cycle in shaping women's experiences in Lincolnshire. The author investigates the lives of noblewomen, gentlewomen, townswomen, peasant women, criminal women and women religious from a variety of angles. Not only does she consider how far women were partners alongside men, especially within the family, but she also explores whether they might have been both at once constrained and yet, to an extent, empowered by religious and biological ideas about gender difference which found expression in inheritance practices and the common law. Valuable light on the avenues for political influence open to elite women is shed through case studies of Nicholaa de la Haye (d. 1230), sheriff of Lincoln, Hawise de Quency (d. 1243), countess of Lincoln, and Margaret de Lacy (d. 1266), countess of Lincoln. The book also addresses women's roles within the rural and urban labour markets before the Black Death. LOUISE J. WILKINSON is Lecturer in History, Canterbury Christ Church University.

262 pages, Hardcover

First published March 15, 2007

About the author

Prof. Louise Wilkinson gained her doctorate at Kings College London and is now Professor of Medieval History at the University of Lincoln and has published numerous articles and books on Queenship, childhood and women in Medieval England. Her particular interest lies in the role of women in thirteenth-century political life, a theme explored in her 2012 book Eleanor de Montfort: a Rebel Countess in Medieval England. Prof. Wilkinson was Co-investigator on the AHRC- funded Henry III Fine Rolls Project (where she worked with David Carpenter) and now, for the Magna Carta Project, is exploring the Charter’s clauses on inheritance, women and the family.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Does what it says on the cover, Wilkinson uses a variety of sources, including court records, manorial rolls, charters and government and church records. The book is split into sections which cover noblewomen, gentlewomen, townswomen, peasant women, criminal women and religious. She looks at the interaction between gender, status and lifecycle and examines female identity. Wilkinson doesn’t make the mistake of treating women as a single group and there are lots of interesting discussions. A few of the noblewomen held real power, one was Sherriff of Lincoln and another led the defence of the castle during a siege.
The section on criminality shows a very stark statistic. The conviction rate for rape is pretty much the same now as it was then.
There is a great diversity of roles, I was surprised by the number of women who were brewers! Another fascination for me was reading about women going about their lives walking the streets I walk (named in the book) eight hundred years ago.
Wilkinson touches on the development of political and religious thought in relation to gender. There were a particularly large number of female religious houses in Lincolnshire, many of which played an active role in society. Society and religion were still very male dominated.
Anyone interested in social and gender history would appreciate this. It is the first regional study of women in the thirteenth century and was particularly interesting to me as I recognised many of the places mentioned.