A woman´s place ...

It was a man's world. Girls obeyed their fathers before marriage, and their husbands after. If they did not, they were beaten. Even the church said that men had a right to beat their wives. Most villages had a ducking stool for 'scolds' - women who nagged their husbands.

Some women lived without men. Ladies whose husbands were at the wars had to look after the estates. All the servants and tenants - men and women – had to take orders from them. Widows had to manage alone. Most widows were poor, and many must have starved. But rich merchants' widows were well off. And craftsmen's widows got help from the guilds.

Many rich men's daughters became nuns. (Their fathers had to make a gift of money when they entered the convent.) The abbess was often the daughter of a lord. Nuns' main work was to teach the daughters of good families how to behave like ladies, and how to read and write. The only men allowed in convents were the priests who came to say Mass.

Men were supposed to be the bosses. This did not stop some women from getting their own way. And in the songs and stories of the Middle Ages, women had a very high place. Knights were supposed to fight for their ladies, and defend them from all dangers, such as dragons!

Walter Robson: Medieval Britain; Oxford University Press, 1991/2000, page 87