- The Oxford Handbook of Women and Gender in Medieval Europe
- Acknowledgments
- List of Illustrations
- List of Contributors
- Women, Gender, and Medieval Historians
- Gender and The Christian Traditions
- Jewish Traditions About Women and Gender Roles: From Rabbinic Teachings to Medieval Practice
- Women and Gender in Islamic Traditions
- The Political Traditions of Female Rulership in Medieval Europe
- Medicine and Natural Philosophy: Naturalistic Traditions
- Women and Laws in Early Medieval Europe
- Conflicts Over Gender in Civic Courts
- Later Medieval Law in Community Context
- Brideprice, Dowry, and other Marital Assigns
- Women and Gender in Canon Law
- Gendering Demographic Change in the Middle Ages
- Genders and Material Culture
- Gender and Daily Life in Jewish Communities
- Carolingian Domesticities
- Public and Private Space and Gender in Medieval Europe
- Pious Domesticities
- Slavery
- Urban Economies
- Rural Economies
- Aristocratic Economies: Women and Family
- Caring for Gendered Bodies
- The Byzantine Body
- Same-sex Possibilities
- Performing Courtliness
- Gender and the Initial Christianization of Northern Europe (to 1000 CE)
- The Gender of the Religious: Wo/Men and the Invention of Monasticism
- Women and Reform in the Central Middle Ages
- Devoted Holiness in the Lay World
- Cults of Saints
- Heresy and Gender in the Middle Ages
- Cultures of Devotion
- The Bride of Christ, the “Male Woman,” and the Female Reader in Late Antiquity
- Gender at the Medieval Millennium
- Gender in the Transition to Merchant Capitalism
- Toward the Witch Craze
- Towards Feminism: Christine De Pizan, Female Advocacy, and Women’s Textual Communities in the Late Middle Ages and Beyond
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
Civic court records are a rare source for medieval social experience and attitudes, including low-status people who do not appear in most records. Because the requirements for proof in Roman law included fama, reputation, and status, witnesses in court discussed and at times differed over which aspects of a person’s behavior determined their honesty and respectability. This could become an implicit debate over gender expectations. Can a concubine be considered an honest woman? The article explores a 1295 case in which a wealthy politician was charged with the rape of a woman who lived as a concubine. The case hinged on the complex medieval legal understandings of rape. It is also a vivid example of a power struggle waged in and out of the court, involving both bribery and judicial torture. Ultimately, it reveals how class and gender expectations for men and women influenced the court process.
Keywords: rape, fama, reputation, concubines, torture, Roman law
Carol Lansing, Professor of History, University of California, Santa Barbara.
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- The Oxford Handbook of Women and Gender in Medieval Europe
- Acknowledgments
- List of Illustrations
- List of Contributors
- Women, Gender, and Medieval Historians
- Gender and The Christian Traditions
- Jewish Traditions About Women and Gender Roles: From Rabbinic Teachings to Medieval Practice
- Women and Gender in Islamic Traditions
- The Political Traditions of Female Rulership in Medieval Europe
- Medicine and Natural Philosophy: Naturalistic Traditions
- Women and Laws in Early Medieval Europe
- Conflicts Over Gender in Civic Courts
- Later Medieval Law in Community Context
- Brideprice, Dowry, and other Marital Assigns
- Women and Gender in Canon Law
- Gendering Demographic Change in the Middle Ages
- Genders and Material Culture
- Gender and Daily Life in Jewish Communities
- Carolingian Domesticities
- Public and Private Space and Gender in Medieval Europe
- Pious Domesticities
- Slavery
- Urban Economies
- Rural Economies
- Aristocratic Economies: Women and Family
- Caring for Gendered Bodies
- The Byzantine Body
- Same-sex Possibilities
- Performing Courtliness
- Gender and the Initial Christianization of Northern Europe (to 1000 CE)
- The Gender of the Religious: Wo/Men and the Invention of Monasticism
- Women and Reform in the Central Middle Ages
- Devoted Holiness in the Lay World
- Cults of Saints
- Heresy and Gender in the Middle Ages
- Cultures of Devotion
- The Bride of Christ, the “Male Woman,” and the Female Reader in Late Antiquity
- Gender at the Medieval Millennium
- Gender in the Transition to Merchant Capitalism
- Toward the Witch Craze
- Towards Feminism: Christine De Pizan, Female Advocacy, and Women’s Textual Communities in the Late Middle Ages and Beyond
- Index