Why We Should Be Celebrating the Treatment of Women in Anglo-Saxon England

Lynda Telford is currently Events and Project s Officer for the Yorkshire Branch of the Richard III society. She writes historical articles and gives national talks. She is a keen amateur archaeologist. She is the author of two books including, Women in Medieval England, published in May 2018 by Amberley Publishing.

What was the way of life for most ordinary women during the early Middle Ages in England? The answer is surprising. In Anglo-Saxon England – before the Norman Conquest in 1066 – men and women enjoyed relatively equal rights and social, cultural and religious conditions. They held their money and properties equally, both had rights in law, and abuse of women was not tolerated. If a marriage proved to be unhappy, the woman was free to leave it, yet still retained her Dower Rights. Any children belonged to the parents equally, and there was no automatic right for the man to take control of them if the couple separated. Nor would the family of the father automatically take them if the father died. The Anglo-Saxon woman was considered perfectly capable of bringing up her children herself, and if she wished to remarry she was free to do so, but there was no compulsion for her to give up her widowhood.

Compare that situation with the changes brought by the Norman Conquest – a woman became a possession. She was described in law as an “infant” and was considered to be of value only as a mother, even though in the case of marital dispute all children were the property of the father. Likewise, any property she held when she married became the property of her husband, and she had no say in what happened to it or how it was used.

Apart from those women who went into convents, she would be expected to marry, particularly if she was an heiress to any property. If she was widowed, her Overlord could force her to remarry a man of his choice. This was his right to ensure his land was not wasted, as if she had no adult sons to work the land for her she would become a liability. A woman would have to pay a fine to the lord in order to have a little time to try and find a suitable husband of her own choice, and even then he would need to be approved by the Overlord.

Divorce was not possible, except in very rare circumstances. The “Marriage Debt” meant each partner was entitled to expect a sex life (as a way of limiting fornication) and to be able to have children. Only if the husband proved incapable of providing the essentials of the “Marriage Debt” – a sex life and children – could a woman hope to be free of the marriage. However, their impotence would have to be proved in a public court of law, which required a substantial down payment. Here the husband submitted to the humiliating procedure of being “tested” by a panel of respectable women, with one woman assigned to try to arouse him. These were often local prostitutes, such as CherryLips of York. If the man showed no response to the woman’s caresses he was declared to be legally “useless” as a husband and the marriage would be annulled.

If a woman left her husband of her own volition, she could be pursued and brought back, and would be guilty of stealing her husband’s property – that is, herself and the clothes she was wearing, which technically belonged to him!

Violence against women was accepted, with the law condoning a stick no thicker than a man’s thumb. But in the heat of an argument there were no witnesses. One husband was found guilty only because he had caused his wife to lose an eye. On the other hand, if a woman killed her husband, even in self-defense, she would be guilty of Petty Treason – killing the person God had put in authority over you – and would be burned alive.

Marriage, sex and childbirth were a dangerous occupation for women, with low life expectancy, regular death in childbirth and high infant mortality rates. There was also no reliable contraception, which would in any case be considered a sin, as marriage was primarily for the procreation of children, not personal pleasure.



https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/168948

Very interesting article and more to read on the link

Fascinating.