By Ronda Jerrard
Edited by Todd Ballantine-Morris and Mark Potter
Medieval widowhood has traditionally been interpreted as a positive experience for women,
often regarded as a ‘Golden Age’. However, this is not wholly accurate. Although widowed
women had more legal and economic independence, the general experience of widowhood
cannot be generalised and condensed. Whilst it remains true that medieval widows had more
freedoms than married women or single maidens, a new set of difficulties faced widows in a
time of great stress and sadness. Widows were left virtually on their own, without the support
of a husband, in a strict patriarchal, male-dominated hierarchal society. Despite some legal and economic advances, widows faced many difficulties, having to fight for their rights in courts, solve problems regarding estate management and deal with economic hardships whilst facing the emotional side of loss, stress, and obligation. Medieval widow stereotypes could be harsh and satirical, and the figure of the widow across Europe was a suspicious one since she was a single woman, autonomous, independently making her own decisions, free to do as she wished without the control or direction of a husband. The medieval widow was a visible figure in society, a part of the public working sphere and the private domestic sphere, partaking in most of the male dominated spaces, which could have been threatening to male-ordered society, and possibly the reason for the new set of challenges placed against all females in the sixteenth century. Social networks were of great importance to the survival of the widow, offering emotional support, advice and aid. The supposed freedoms and positive aspects of widowhood will be explored considering the disparity of experiences caused by the socioeconomic standing of women; how these freedoms were not always respected or could create more difficulties and the relative options available to widows and their emotional wellbeing.
The legal and economic freedoms of widowhood were unlike any independence women had
experienced in their lives before which may have led some historians to name it the ‘Golden
Age’.[1] It must be understood, however, that these freedoms were dependant on the
socioeconomic position of the widow. Whether she belonged to the landed elite, or the
peasantry determined the experience of widowhood. After the death of a husband, a woman
gained legal status and rights which were unavailable to married women since a widow was no longer the legal ward of a man.[2] A widow could control her property, endowed to her through her dower (the widow’s share of her late husband’s estate), could own and run land, deal with tenants, and create and engage with wills and testaments. Married women lost their legal personality to their husbands, but when he died, the widow was no longer subsumed within the husband’s persona as ‘one flesh’ or ‘femmes couvertes’.[3] During the female lifecycle in medieval England, a woman was always under care or control of a man – as an unmarried maiden, she remained under guardianship and wives were part of their husband’s legal status, but as widows, a woman was independent and self-governing. English Common Law considered the widow as autonomous, without the need of a guardian, having technical legal competence in all matters of business, fully empowered to buy, sell, rent, or acquire property.[4] A widow could ‘sue in court... and send feudal levies to the king’.[5] The Magna Carta, written in 1215, reissued several times up to the fourteenth century, solidified the independence of the widow and importance of the dower, so that the wife could access her share to the husbands lands.[6]
The experience of widowhood varied from town to town, and even within the same village
could the diverse experience of widowhood be explored and understood. London widows were better off than more rural widows, having greater legal rights. The widow was entitled to dower in two parts, the first through ‘free bench’ – the share of the house they had lived in. In London, the widow could occupy this space until she remarried or her own death, contrary to common law which dictated only a forty-day occupancy of the ‘principal mansion’. Widows had between one-third to one-half (depending on whether they had children) of the share of her husband’s lands and tenements belonging to him during their marriage. The second part was that widows were entitled to a share of one-third to one-half of the husbands’ goods and chattels through the custom of legitim. The widow had the right to decide to sell or keep the late husband’s moveable wealth, which wives were not able to. All English widows had the right to a dower, if these rights were ignored by heirs or interested parties, city customs provided processes initiated by a writ of dower for the widow to claim land rights which were withheld.[7] The legal process worked with widows rather than against them in the Middle Ages. This does not mean that widows did not face opposition. Court records can be used as evidence of the difficulties widows engaged and fought against. Barbra Hanawalt dictates that widows suing for dower in London’s Hustling Court of Common Pleas in the early 1300s made only five to ten percent of cases heard there.[8] Despite this being a small percentage, this is only one court and gives the overall picture that a widow’s legal rights were not always respected socially, by tenants, or within families.
Despite having recourse in the law, widows could spend months and, in some cases, years
trying to gain control of their rightful property in court.[9] Westminster, an urban multicultural district, was a separate legal entity from London and a place of dispersed widowhood experiences. ‘Of over [one hundred] Chancery cases initiated by Westminster inhabitants between 1450 and 1545, more than a quarter involved widows or problems stemming from widowhood, with most related to inheritance’.[10] This exhibits the legal vulnerability of widows. Around 1485, Johanna, a tailor, innkeeper and widow of William Jurden, was unable to collect some of her late husband debt. She had to go to court to plead her case.[11] Johanna had remarried in her widowhood, and had his support in the case as co-complainant, but this was not always the case for widows dealing with legal disputes.
Another freedom asserted by widowhood’s autonomy was the construction of legal contracts,
namely wills. Will records help to piece together a picture of female concerns and friendships
through the bestowment of land (inherited) and goods. Poor widows rarely left wills or testaments, so most female wills were written by landed widows, who had possessions and
power to pass on. A difference between male and female wills emphasises the different nature and mind-sets of the genders. Female wills were often longer than men’s, mentioning more people with specific details about goods to be bequeathed. Reasoning for detail specific
instruction could be because the widow did not need a husband’s permission, so had more
freedom when disposing of property and moveable goods. Furthermore, it could also indicate
that widows felt they needed more oversight, unless it be cheated or ignored. Law and
legislature were in place to consolidate the legal rights of widows.
Wealthy widows were in a better position to take advantage of the independence widowhood
facilitated, often obtaining more legal and economic prosperity. Contrastingly, poorer widows faced constant economic hardships, having to run their household and land, if the husbands possessed any, with little support and money. Linda Mitchell conveys the noblewomen’s experience of widowhood and supports the thesis that a widow’s experience was based largely on her socioeconomic standing. Widows from a higher class shared in male privileges because of their rank; they were educated and could become heiresses, but their autonomy was limited due to the patriarchal structure of society as males need ‘to control their procreative powers’.[12] It is important to assert that society was patriarchal as well as hierarchal meaning that noblewomen, specifically noble widows, had a ‘greater degree of autonomy and influence than a man who occupied a lower social stratum’.[13] Through marriage, women could wield the power and influence of their new titles related to their husbands, for example, if he was a Lord or Earl. Furthermore, since land equated to wealth in the Middle Ages, widows became powerful forces, able to dictate family dynamics controlling one-third of the heir’s land. This led to much family turmoil and rifts, affecting the emotional wellbeing of many widows. The widowhood of Margaret de Lacy la Marshal provides an example of a wealthy, prosperous and positive widowhood, although it does not consider the emotional wellbeing and trials of her experience.[14] Margaret’s first husband was John de Lacy, a hereditary constable of Chester and significant Lord in the north of England. Margaret inherited the Earldom of Lincoln from her mother Hawise, sister of Ranulf, Earl of Chester, making her an heiress as well as a wealthy powerful widow through marital ties. John died in 1240 and she remarried Walter le Marshal, Earl of Pembroke and Lord of Leinster, who died five years later. Margaret lived out her widowhood for twenty-one years as not only Countess of Lincoln in her own right but also controlling one-third of Lacy family lands and one-third of Marshal estate, receiving whole counties as part of the dower settlement. Margaret’s eldest son died in in 1258, meaning she held control of the estate until her youngest heir was of age. Margaret de Lacy la Marshal is a prime example of the kind of powerful elite noble widows which held influence and sway in society as the financial head of her family.
Rural widows have been somewhat ignored by previous historiography but Peter Franklin and Judith Bennett in the late 1980s began discourse on poorer experiences of widowhood, and how these women did not experience the ‘Golden Age’. Franklin studied Thronbury
widowhood arguing that for poor widows it had been common to claim that remarriage was for the purpose of economic gains, but tenures held a strong influence over a woman’s decision to remarry; ‘of [twelve] widows who inherited holdings wholly or mainly of gavel land during this period only four remarried; of eight widows inheriting holdings wholly or mainly of customary land, six remarried’.[15] Bennett asserted that the experience of widowhood varied drastically even within a given village, all according to the solvency of the household left by the husband.[16] Wealthier widows who had planned for their bereavement had secure prospects but poor widows whose husbands did not have much wealth to leave behind struggled greatly and found it hard to live a basic livelihood.[17] Despite English widowhood having many setbacks and struggles, these women had better experiences of widowhood than other European widows with more legal rights. Italy’s connection to Roman Law made widows a disadvantaged social group who were treated with suspicion and as an outsider in their family by marriage.[18] English law entitled widows to money, management of property, control over moveable goods, but Italian Florentine widows were constantly constrained by the legal and social structures which emphasised spousal control.[19]
There were options widows could take to protect themselves. One option was remarriage,
although not all chose this. Elite aristocratic and merchant widows, who held wealth and
received more rights, did not face the same pressures as poorer widows to remarry.[20] This
indicates that a woman’s economic position heavily impacted remarriage decisions. Since
peasantry widows faced ceaseless economic hardship, many had no other choice but to
remarry. This had to have a large effect on the emotional wellbeing of women. Additionally,
extremely poor and wealthy women were also often pressured into remarriage by families,
society, Lords, and even the King. Another reason for remarriage was for means of security.
After the death of a husband, a woman’s comfort and support ended, physically and
emotionally. With their lives drastically changed, some women felt the need for a man’s
support, especially living in a patriarchal society which viewed widowhood quite viciously
with suspicion and mistrust, seen through satirical figures of the ‘merry’, ‘bawdy’ or ‘saintly’
widow. Widows were more inclined to remarry into their late husband’s craft; for example,
merchant and artisan widows who had to run their husband’s business and train his apprentices, so remarried other merchant and artisan men with knowledge of the craft to support her business. If a widow had young children this heavily influenced the decision of remarriage since women wanted economic support for their children and a father figure for them to depend on, with the widow also receiving the amenity to rely on her husband both provisionally and emotionally. Some women opted away from remarriage because it would force them back into female subordination, a life far from the new legal and economic status some wealthy widows received.
Widows could also enter into religious life if they chose not to remain independent or were
against remarriage. Some women entered nunneries, taking religious orders. Other women took vows of chastity, adopting some but not all the constraints of monastic life.[21] Through vows of chastity women could avoid pressures of remarriage and become respected religious pillars of the community. Reasons for women entering religious life, other than avoidance of remarriage by enlisting the support of the Church, could range from their own strong desire to experience a more spiritual life, or could even be influenced by the wishes of her late husband. The stereotypes of widows included the saintly holy widow. Widows could be pressured by Scripture’s higher calling, in the writings of Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine, drawing heavily on St. Paul's declaration in 1 Corinthians 7:9 that the unmarried and widows should remain chaste.[22] Medieval nunneries offered education to girls, connecting young maidens to their faith, playing a major role throughout their lives as maidens, young women, wives, mothers and widows, shaping their lifestyle and decisions even into widowhood. Through interaction with parishes, women created strong networks, providing support during widowhood and times of trial. ‘The church’s “education” of widows redirected their piety, service, and material resources toward ecclesiastical institutions’.[23] Female wills give evidence of the religious servitude widows emphasised and the influence the Church held over widows. Joan Pyel, who made her home at the nunnery of St Helen’s at Bishopsgate, remembered the nuns in her will and chose to be buried close to the Church.[24]
Widows were expected to maintain their husband’s household and continue his business,
completing apprentices training. Caroline Barron who argued that widowhood was a ‘Golden
Age’ for women asserted the many prospects available. ‘City custom secured to her a house,
an income for life and a considerable share of her husband's movable wealth’, a widow could
open a shop, wage her law in city courts, train apprentices, and create a will, ensuring her
wealth and possessions passed down to whomever she wished.[25] Barron, however, does not consider the emotional upheaval of the medieval widow. The emotional experience of
widowhood has not been examined thoroughly by historians, affecting how women chose to
live out the remainder of their lives and impacted their overall experience of widowhood.
Widowhood was not attractive to most artisan women and young women with children because of the economic disadvantages. Social networks and friendships were imperative to the survival of the widow. Despite these friendships being unrecorded, deemed unworthy of attention to medieval records, these complex networks, made up of women from all social backgrounds, ensured the aid of widows in need, often providing advice, emotional support, and an abundance of combined social, economic and legal knowledge. As argued by Katherine French, ‘while medieval widows were indeed legally and economically vulnerable regardless of status, friends were central to their efforts to allay vulnerability and destitution’.[26] Medieval literature was filled with anxieties over the gathering and grouping of women since this was how women were able to assert their power/influence socially and disseminate knowledge widely. Women did more than gossip and slack off their work, which it was believed; they created strong interwoven ties to women from all walks of life, with large arrays of information which could aid them and their families. Therefore, social networks were imperative to the existence and survival of widows providing support in legal difficulties, economic discomfort and emotional turmoil.
In summation, despite traditional historiography deciphering the female experience of
widowhood as positive, a somewhat ‘Golden Age’, it has been proven that the experience was
far more complex, impacted by many external and internal factors. The social and economic
status of a woman had the most impact on her widowhood. Nobel, elite, learned gentry and
merchant women had more legal and economic rights, enjoying a far more autonomous and
independent lifestyle to peasantry widows. Poor widows, some landed, others not, struggled
immensely economically, at times pressured into remarriage. Options for widows varied from remarriage to taking religious vows. Although some women remained single, able to make independent decisions about their futures, many women felt the need to restructure some kind of male protection through either the Church’s aid or a husband. Despite women receiving a new legal status within themselves, rather than adjoined to a husband, ‘widows still relied on men’s status and social standing to help them overcome the vulnerability associated with widowhood’.[27] Through this it can be seen that widowhood was not always enjoyable because of the legal, economic and social challenges placed against them. The sixteenth century underwent major changes which affected the overall female experience of life, not just for widows. Women were no longer allowed to be employed as apprentices, forcing women into more domestic circles, impacting female employability, wages, and economic rights. This change undoubtedly impacted widows and began a decline of female legal, economic and social rights which carried through into the twentieth century with the woman becoming a more domestic figure rather than powerful public one seen through the example of Margaret de Lacy la Marshal.
Notes
[1] Caroline Barron, “The ‘Golden Age’ of Women in Medieval London”, in Martha Carlin and Joel T.Rosenthal (eds.), Medieval London: Collected Papers of Caroline M (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2017), p. 382 (n. 76).
[2] Katherine L. French, “Loving Friends: Surviving Widowhood in Late Medieval Westminster”, Gender & History, 22/1 (2010), p. 22.
[3] Caroline Barron, “Introduction”, in Caroline Barron and Anne Sutton (eds.), Medieval London Widows, 1300-1500 (UK: Hambledon Press, 1994), p. xiii.
[4] Linda E. Mitchell, "The Lady Is a Lord: Noble Widows and Land in Thirteenth-Century Britain", Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques, 18/1 (1992), p. 80.
[5] Mitchell, "The Lady Is a Lord”, p. 80.
[6] Mitchell, "The Lady Is a Lord”, p. 81.
[7] Barron, Medieval London Widows, p. xxi
[8] French, “Loving Friends”, p. 23.
[9] French, “Loving Friends”, p. 23.
[10] French, “Loving Friends”, p. 23.
[11] French, “Loving Friends”, p. 23.
[12] Mitchell, "The Lady Is a Lord”, p. 72.
[13] Mitchell, "The Lady Is a Lord”, p. 78.
[14] Mitchell, "The Lady Is a Lord”, p. 87.
[15] Peter Franklin, "Peasant Widows' "Liberation" and Remarriage before the Black Death", The Economic History Review, 39/2 (1986), p. 193.
[16] Judith M. Bennett, Women in the Medieval English Countryside: Gender and Household in Brigstock Before the Plague (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), p. 146.
[17] Bennet, Women in the Medieval English Countryside, p. 146.
[18] Mitchell, "The Lady Is a Lord”, p. 82.
[19] Katherine Clark Walter, The Profession of Widowhood: Widows, Pastoral Care, and Medieval Models of Holiness (Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2018), p. 5.
[20] Barron, Medieval London Widows, p. xxv.
[21] Barron, Medieval London Widows, p. xvi
[22] Katherine Clark, "Purgatory, Punishment, and the Discourse of Holy Widowhood in the High and Later Middle Ages", Journal of the History of Sexuality, 16/2 (2007), p. 170.
[23] Walter, The Profession of Widowhood”, p. 12.
[24] Barron, Medieval London Widows, p. xxvii.
[25] Barron, “The ‘Golden Age’ of Women in Medieval London”, p. 372.
[26] French, "Loving Friends", p. 22.
[27] French, "Loving Friends", p. 22.
Bibliography
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Britain". Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques. 18/1, 1992
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the High and Later Middle Ages". Journal of the History of Sexuality. 16/2, 2007
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Medieval Models of Holiness. Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2018
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