Sex and Marriage

Family structures after c. 1000

Primogeniture – first born male inherits the bulk of his father’s land and property

R.I. Moore – shift from ‘a society of plunder to a society of property.’

More than 1/3 of all nunneries in France and England during the middle ages were founded between 1126 and 1175.

Church restrictions on incestuous marriages. Redefines consanguinity. Lateran Councils of 1059 and 1215.

Marriage

Gratian (canon lawyer, author of the Decretum) Peter Lombard (author of the theological textbook the

Sentences) Declaration of present consent Solemnization of marriage Banns Problems: abduction, marriage against will, unclear

promises

Attitudes to marriage

Benedictine account of life of Countess Ida of Boulogne (written in 1130s)

Benedictine account of life of St Godelive (written in 1084). Her husband is Bertulf.

Chaucer’s characters. Custance in ‘The Man of Law’s Tale’. Emily from ‘The Knight’s Tale’.

Guibert of Nogent’s mother.

Childbirth

Midwives Need for baptism. Limbo. Power of the family: the importance of

godparents. Foundling hospitals.

Love

French historian, Georges Duby Count Baldwin VI of Guînes

Attitudes to women

Based on letters of St Paul Medical theorists: Aristotle and Galen Restriction of freedom of movement Problem of gossip

Some famous medieval women

Heloise. Hildegard of Bingen. Christine de Pizan. St Bridget.