How did women live in the Middle Ages?

Come in and find out by yourself

The women role in The Middle Ages

The lives of Middle Ages women were dependent on their role and status. All womenwere expected to be subservient to the men in their family.Women were totally dominated by the malemembers of their family. They were expected to instantly obey not only their father, but also their brothers and any other male members of The family. Any unruly girls were beaten intosubmission and disobedience was seen as acrime against religion

The general attitude towards women was that they were inferior to men. Generally, women were taught that they should be meek and obedient to their fathers and husbands, though this did not prevent some women from becoming among the most respected Christian saints and scholars, or in some rare cases, from changing history (like Joan of Arc).

In the day-to-day reality of things, medieval women had a lot of responsibility and were not at all inferior to men in terms of daily effort.

Most worked and did not stay at home, contrary to some modern beliefs. Many toiledalongside their families in the fields, and somewere employed in workshops or were trades-women. Women sometimes had the responsibility of running large estates, due to the death of ahusband (widows were permitted to hold land,and a woman with a lot of land was just as powerful and influential as a man with the sameproperty).They settled local disputes and arranged estatefinances.They even took equal responsibilityin defending castles or manors from invaders.

Noble Lady

The noble lady played an important part in theefficiency of running the stateof her husband. She made sure everythingran smoothly, from the provisioning of thekeep to the defense of the estate while her husband was absent. The management position held by many noble women wasn't a visible one in comparison with the men in her family.

The peasant woman

The peasant woman played an important role

in her household. She worked very hard to

help support the family.

She kept the house, cooked, did the wash, madethe clothes, milked the cows, tended the fire, cared for the children and basically took careof any other task her husband did nothave the time for. She often earned extra income outside of the home. There were numerous opportunities available to the peasant woman to make money, including the making andselling of cheese, butter and ale.

What did people do

for entertainment?

Types of Medieval Entertainment varied according to status but included feasts, banquets, jousts and tournaments, Mystery Plays, fairs, games and sports, hunting, hawking, animal entertainment using dogs, bears and monkeys

The star of Medieval Entertainment was dancing.

The Middle Ages was the great epoch for dancing, especially in France. There were an endless number of dancing festivals. As soon as the two sexes were assembled in sufficient numbers, before or after the feasts, the ball began, and men and women took each other by the hand and commenced the performance in regular steps.

Women's involvement with medieval music took a variety of forms.

They served at times as audience, as participant, as sponsor, and as creator. The evidence for their roles, like that for their male contemporaries, is sporadic at best. Women were also active as menestrelles and jongleuresses. Performers themselves, they travelled as part of small groups of entertainers, and were often wives or daughters to male minstrels.

Perhaps the most famous of the medieval

women composers is Hildegard of Bingen.

(1098-1179).

She wrote major works

of theology and visionary

writings. When few women

were respect, she was

consulted by and advised

bishops, popes, and kings.

She used the curative powers of natural objects for healing, and wrote treatises about natural history and medicinal uses of plants, animals, trees and stones. She is the first composer whose biography is known. She founded a vibrant convent, where her musical plays were performed

Religion in Medieval Ages

The Catholic Church was the only church in Europe during the Middle Ages, and it had its own laws and large coffers. Church leaders such as bishops and archbishops sat on the king's council and played leading roles in government .

Bishops, who were often wealthy and came from noble families, ruled over groups of parishes called "diocese."

Parish priests, on the other hand, came from humbler backgrounds and often had little education.

The village priest tended to the sick and indigent and, if he was able, taught Latin and the Bible to the youth of the village.

Apart from the manor, the church was the main

focus of community life. Church parishes were

usually the manor villages.

The parish priest was appointed

by the lord of the manor and

was given a house.

He was obliged to carry money

for alms with him, keep up the

church, and provide hospitality

to travellers.

The inquisition

The inquisition was a machinery of repression,

whose mission was to match over the purity of

de religious principles, to prevent the spread of

the Protestantism and of the materialistic ideas,

considered harmful to the purity to the

Catholicism.

The history of the Inquisition

marked the beginning of a

mortal pulse between

intolerance and freedom.

The act of a faith was a public manifestation of the Inquisition. If the judgment of the Inquisition was condemnatory, it implied that the condemned had to take part in the ceremony. The acts of a faith could be private or public.

In that epoch there was just one way of thinking, people were religious and if you didn’t agree with their religious points of view you would be condemned.   

Today the Inquisition would be unthinkable because every person is free to think what he/she wants and believe or not in God and the church. We would not be present at an act of faith because it was a way of demonstrating that you agreed with the Inquisition.

From the early 1300's until the late 1700's the Inquisition set about to find and destroy thosethat would not follow the Church blindly and without question. The problem with this is that many of the people tortured and killed for "crimes against the church" were innocent Women.

The healing arts were not to be practiced without cries of "She's a witch!"

Male practitioners of social rank were not as often condemned. They had they excuse of being doctors. Women on the other hand, were guilty of all manner of things before they could even open their mouths to defend themselves

Those were dark years for many people, but particularly for the women. Age and beauty did not matter. Even the richgovernor's wife could be held for questioningand put to death for practicing witchcraft, if there was another woman involved with the husband, or a jealous previous girlfriend. Children were often held and put to death withtheir mothers, as all knew mothers taught theirchildren everything

Nowadays it does not exist such a big lack offreedom as there was at this period although itcontinues existing but is penalized in otherways. The women are getting every day morefreedom and can express freely.

In that epoch there was just one way of thinking,people were religious and if you didn’t agree withtheir religious points of view you would be condemned. 

Today it is not like that any more.

Healer and Medicine

What was medicine like in that period ?

Only graduated people could practice medicine but woman could not access universities. Only a few women could practice medicine and you could find them in convents. Church allowed them to help in some common illness. In the middle ages, men couldn’t examine women when she had an illness. So, they had to do it themselves. Women learned to do many home-made remedies and solutions.

The healer had some advantages.They could take care of another woman and theycould be midwives and use the experience aboutnatural medicine to fix diseases.When people called the widwife to assist the birth, she had to prepare many things. The midwife went to the pregnant woman´s house and she heated up water, took humid rags for the labour and gave solutions to the present. When the baby was born the widwifehad to clean him/her and other routines.

Midwives had knowledge about home-made

remedies to relieve the pain to remedies

women’s illness or even miscarriages.

Midwives were seen like witches and they

were hated and persecuted

Sergio Caro

Adrián Pino

José Luis Gálvez

José Luis Díaz

Alberto Calvo

1º Bachillerato Sociales 1

I.E.S La Rosaleda

Málaga 2009