http://www.millersv.edu/~english/homepage/duncan/medfem/major.htm
Women & Medieval Law
England (13-17 centuries)
By: Carolyn Harmer
This drawing is taken from The Luttrell Village; country life in
the Middle Ages, written and illustrated by Sheila Sancha, William
Collins Sons & Co. Ltd: 1982.
Official Doctrines
There are official doctrines that were written in England during the medieval
period. Most of these doctrines were written by a body of lawmakers, always
consisting of men. For this reason, it is interesting to see where and
for what reasons women pop up in these doctrines. For the most part, with
the exception of marriage laws, women were omitted from these legal doctrines.
By many, women were looked upon as hving no official rights or protection
under the law. To take a look at two of these medieval legal doctrines,
check out the following sites:
Women
in the Glanvill
A
review of the Magna Carta
The
text of the Magna Carta
Women
in the Magna Carta
If there are any words or terms that are used in these doctrines that
you do not understand, you can look them up by clicking here.
Common Law
As you can see, there is not an enormous amount of official laws concerning
women. There existed in England during this time, another type of law known
as common
law. Women received most of their legal prtection through the evolution
of common law. So how did common law come about? It is the result of individual
cases being brought to the attention of either the church or the common
law courts. These institutions would make a ruling on the situation, and
from that point on, that case would be used as precedent and the people
would live their lives according to the ruling, making it become a sort
of "unwritten law". Common law is also the result of the beliefs of the
ruling royal family. Over the generations that a perticular family ruled,
their beliefs were adopted and enforced in their jurisdiction. These laws
normaly stuck, even after a new family came to rule. So as the name states,
common law was created and followed by the common people, so this type
of law was much more representative of the "other" half of the population-
WOMEN.
The following is a compilation of information about common law. You
decide where your intrest lies, and just click away. Many of these sites
will lead you to other sites about women in the Middle Ages. Be sure to
check out the Women writer's homepage- its a goldmine!
The
birth of English Common Law
Recorded
Medieval Common Law
Read
it and Weep!
Law
& Equity
Here are some actual text of recorded medieval common law:
Getting
Caught For Casting Spells
Kissing
Cousins
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