The recent exhibition at the British Library in London (Medieval Women: In Their Own Words) shone a fascinating light into the lives of women in the Middle Ages. I went unsure of what to expect but came away hugely rewarded. It was well worth the trip.
Seeing beyond the stereotype
The problem we have in imagining any form of medieval life is that our visual source material seems stereotypical and almost comical. Whether it is religious iconography, reflections of courtly life or the capturing of battles and jousts, the style and training of the medieval illuminator has determined our visual sense. We must train ourselves to see beyond this.
Medieval Women: In Their Own Words, an exhibition at the British Library which closed on 2nd March, did just that. Yes, the illuminator’s brush was very much in evidence, but the way we were then taken into the everyday life of women through, books and letters was a masterclass in how to see beyond the visual.
A life beyond the imaginary
If we imagine medieval women, we might see them either as the richly adorned figures of the aristocracy in the Trés Riches Heures of the Duc de Berry, or the seemingly neutral depiction of Lady Bertilak erotically tickling Gawain in Cotton Nero’s Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. But, as the Ellesmere Chaucer shows us, we can also imagine more everyday women like the Prioress or the Wife of Bath. And if we examine the marginalia of the Luttrell Psalter, we can see peasant women in the fields.
But who were these women? What were their lives like? The exhibition crosses Europe in its search for answers, revealing a life much removed than the world the imagery suggests. As we pass through the various rooms, women emerge not as damsel bit part players to some chivalric pageant but as actors and facilitators fundamental to their world. Every part of life is examined to deliver a rich and detailed understanding of how medieval women lived at all levels of society.
Margaret Paston, Catherine of Siena and Joan of Arc
We are treated to 15th Century letters from Margaret Paston in Norfolk asking for help defending her property and another dictated in 1429 by Joan of Arc to the people of Riom, asking them to send her gunpowder. A letter by Catherine of Siena (d. 1380) speaks truth to power, urging Pope Gregory XI to move the papal court to Rome from Avignon, which he eventually did in 1377.
Books are fundamental in what they reveal. We are shown the only surviving “Short Text” of Julian of Norwich’s Mid-15th Century Revelations of Divine Love in which she sees all creation as a ball the size of hazelnut resting in her hand. Elsewhere we see a choir book made by the nuns of Seligenthal Abbey in Germany; written in the 1260s, it was still in use two hundred years later.
Christine de Pizan's Book of the Queen
A copy of the Book of the Queen by Christine de Pizan (often cited as the first professional female author) reveals just how influential her writing was. Containing some thirty other works by her, the codex on display was in fact presented to Isabeau of Bavaria.
And as well as being readers and writers, women were also illuminators and retailers of books. In Marco Polo’s Le Devisement du Monde (The Description of the World), for example, we are shown the meticulous workmanship of Jeanne Montbaston in a text seemingly commissioned for the king and queen of France in the 1330s.
A wanton wench or the most beautiful woman of all?
Even a stereotypical imagining of medieval women as counterparts in chivalric romance is challenged.
If love at times was stylised in the chivalric texts of Chretien de Troyes and others, the fascinating “And I war a madyn” (ca. 1500) shows a different sexuality. Here, a twelve-year-old girl comes of age by changing from a “wanton wench” to become the most beautiful of all at age 15; as other exhibits reveal, she was not alone in her feelings.
Such writing is in marked contrast to the stylised and moving marriage portrait of Margaret of York (d. 1503), as well as a treatise written for her in which she is depicted seeing a vision of Christ in her bedroom.
Nonetheless, it is fascinating to consider the inner desires and needs of women shown in such paintings. Would Margaret herself ever have 'wanton' thoughts despite her seeming devotion, and what were the actual parameters of 'wanton'-ness?
As the exhibition also revealed, if a married woman later became dissatisfied then divorce could be sought for a wide range of reasons. If your man wasn’t interested in you, he’d better watch out!
From social climbing to medical dangers
Similarly, if marriage portraits such as that of Margaret suggest political forces shaping grand alliances in a patriarchal society, this was not always the case. Instead of being pawns and playthings, some women were in fact agents of their own destiny.
A book of 1380 shows how some could even be social climbers by their own making; Eleanor Cobham is described as of the lower gentry yet went on to marry Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester and uncle (and heir) to Henry VI of England.
Notwithstanding, whether peasant or lady, marriage still presented problems for women, some of which today we can barely imagine. Perhaps most haunting was the 15th century parchment ‘girdle’ of prayers designed to protect the wearer from the horrors and dangers of childbirth.
Wealth was no guardian in those days if childbirth went wrong. Other documents revealing the primitive nature of medical and anatomical understanding add a further disturbing reminder of just how vulnerable life was in an age of only limited scientific knowledge.
Notwithstanding, in other areas of domestic life knowledge was more honed. In the Regime du corps (ca 1450-1500), we are reminded of the day-to-day and how many women possessed a detailed knowledge not only of preparation but also the health benefits of certain food types. Cookery and household management were not only important skills but also essential ones, as Margaret Paston’s letters reveal.
Medieval Women: In Their Own Words - a fabulous exhibition
Finally, it is perhaps appropriate to return to the backbreaking work of women and men in the fields as depicted in Luttrell Psalter. As this magnificent manuscript continues to remind us, any kind of power remains the gift of those seemingly below and life is a team game if we are to get through it successfully.
Then as now, everyone must work together if they wish to see the dawn; no one must be taken for granted. This fascinating exhibition was well worth the entrance fee to unveil the social riches and magnificent insight it contained.
As the exhibition revealed, women in the medieval world were no mere romanticised bystanders in the distant events of those times; they were fundamental and distinguished actors playing a key role in the shaping and administration of society at every level.
Medieval Women: In Their Own Words ran at the British Library until 2nd March, 2025. To learn more about it and the exhibits on display, the BL's own website contains its own dedicated page.
About the reviewer, Michael Smith
Michael Smith is a British translator and illustrator of medieval literature; he is also an accomplished printmaker, whose work is in private collections worldwide.
His books, including a translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the Alliterative Morte Arthure, are available through all the usual outlets. His translation of The Romance of William and the Werewolf published on 19th December, 2024. All Michael's books feature his linocut prints as their illustrations.
For more details of Michael's books and how to purchase signed copies, click here.
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