Women In The Middle Ages Had It Rough

Women In The Middle Ages Had It Rough

by: Jahannah Saint-Louis

Introduction

Women have been belittled and mentally crushed because they were deemed weak and not equal to men. Although all women throughout history have gone through tragedy this article will be focused on the European women in the medieval period and their hardships. During the medieval period there were various social classes, of these social classes women got treated differently. These classes consisted of the clergy, nobility, and the serfs (the peasants). People were not just placed into these classes they were born into them. Usually people were not allowed to marry outside of their classes but there were only a few rare occasions No matter how much harder you worked or how much smarter you were you could not change the class that you were born into.

The Noble class

The highest and richest class was the noble class. This class consisted of kings, knights, and nobles.

The woman in this social class were called Noblewoman. The Noblewoman had the most freedom compared to all the other women in the social classes. Their role in society was to take care of the land with their husband, father, or eldest son. If the husband or father were at war the women had to protect their estate and if something were to go wrong they were even supposed to fight for it. This was the only time that the women got to take charge of an estate because they could not inherit land unless they were the only kin their father had. Although they had that task the main responsibility the woman had to face was to provide at least six children for her husband. They had no choice in choosing the husband that they wedded. The noblewoman's parents decided who she got to marry because it had to benefit the family rather than to not help at all or ruin it. The law put the husband in complete control over his wife. The husband could do whatever he wanted to his wife and she could not go against anything even if he beat, raped, or etc.

The Clergy class

The next class is the clergy class they were not royalty like the noble class but they were not poor or middle class . This is the class with all of the religious figures during the middle ages. The women in

this class were nuns. Many nuns were born and raised to become women of the church. Some nuns were born as the daughter of a priest or bishop and want them to not fail the family name and send them to convent. Many nuns were taught how to read and write because it would benefit and raise their status when they begin working in the church. The ones that did not learn to read or write still worked in the church but did not have as high of a status. No matter what level of education the nuns had they were all taught to serve god and the country. The nuns did not typically get married because of their beliefs but if they did they did not have children because of the vow of chastity. If a nun decided to have a child and keep it they would no longer be allowed to be a nun. If a nuns did have children and did not want to keep it they gave their babies away in secret to the women of the peasant class.

The Peasant class

The poorest class was the serfs which were the peasants. Serf were peasants that were attached to the land of a noble. The women in this class had many responsibilities. They had to work in the field very

early in the morning to make sure that their crops were growing right. They had to weave, fix, spin all their own clothes because they did not have anyone to make their clothes like the noblewomen and the nuns did. Not only did the serf women have to be responsible for their clothing they made clothes for the men and women in the classes above them for money. The serf woman also had to learn how to make medicine for themselves and their families. They had to learn what herbs reacted to what disease so they can heal themselves since the doctors paid them no attention. The women in this class had the same rules for marriage as the noblewomen, They didn't get to decide who they married because their parents did. Women were not allowed to divorce their husbands. These women had the most responsibilities and had the least amount of rights.

Conclusion

The women of the middle ages experience different things depending on their class. The experiences that each class went through was different but they were all treated as objects and of less importance. No woman should have ever had to be but under there husbands control and get done anything and everything done to without a single word against it. Although the world has changed a lot since the middle ages, it is still a thing for men to treat women as objects or of less importance. While researching it showed a lot more facts on the noblewoman rather than all the other classes. This most likely relates to their level of importance because everyone that was recording information tended to do it to get in closer to the higher class which were the nobles. The peasants did not have much

information because they were put as least important.

Sources

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Zarlengo, Dianne. Living in the Middle Ages. Greenhaven Press, 2004.

Smith, Gwendolyn. “These Love Letters between 12th Century Nuns Are Hauntingly Beautiful.” LGBTQ Nation, LGBTQ Nation, 21 Dec. 2018, www.lgbtqnation.com/2018/12/love-letters-12th-century-nuns-hauntingly-beautiful/.

“Role of Noblewomen.” Life in the Middle Ages- Europe, hananalhamdan9g1.weebly.com/role-of-noblewomen.html.

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