A further source of importance when looking at agriculture is Anthony Fitzherbert’s The Boke of Husbandry. As mentioned in chapter two, The Boke of Husbandry outlines basic expectations of a wife inside and outside of the home, amongst other things. Fitzherbert outlines how ‘it is a wife’s occupation to winnow all kinds of grain, to make malt…to make hay… reap corn…and to go or ride to the market’. This directly supports the point above where women can be seen in coroner’s rolls due to accidents on trips to local markets to sell their goods. The majority of the time it would be women from the countryside taking their goods into local towns to sell; however there would have been exceptions to this. This illustration of women from rural areas taking produce into the urban areas shows the difference between the rural and the urban.
There were occasions where women can be seen to have been acting illegally when it came to markets and the buying and selling of goods. Agnes, wife to William Sandelere of Louth is an example of one of these women. She was called to the peace sessions of 1375 in Lincolnshire for being ‘a common forestaller of both salt and fresh fish at Louth’. This can be used to argue that women would do things outside of their legal allowances to ensure that they made an extra income to support their family.
Women can be seen in court rolls on numerous occasions both before and after the Black Death. In the manor of Ingoldmells women were often called to court for agricultural issues. One of these occasions is where Alan Polber complained that Agnes, the wife of Thomas Herward had stolen his crops. This illustrates that women were participating in agricultural work on the land, and can also be used to illustrate the notion that women did more agricultural work during the harvest. Another example here is of Beatrice Herward. She brings the issue to court that Alan Polber had beaten her and ‘struck her beasts’. In this case Beatrice is found to be making a false claim. This not only shows that she was involved in agricultural work, but can also be used to suggest that she was a widow as she was the one to initiate the claim into the courts.
The Black Death was a significant event in the middle ages, particularly for agriculture. From the time it first hit in 1347 until it eventually died out in 1351 the lives of both upper classes and lower classes were affected greatly. Perhaps a rather explicit change was the effect it had on the labour force in England. The Black Death caused more deaths in England than any previous famines had done. This meant that women could demand higher payment for goods and services as they were able to carry out more work, due to a lower number of people in the workforce. Before Black Death there had been a vast amount of people wanting work but this changed dramatically afterwards. Women were quick to fill in gaps in the workforce, carrying out a wide range of jobs. Goldberg refers to these women as a ‘reserve army’. These women were able to demand a higher rate of pay than they had done previously due to the lack of labour. It is important to note however that women were the first to lose out when the demand for labour returned to normal.
It can therefore be seen that women were involved to quite a large extent in work on the land and in selling goods at local markets. Contemporary sources such as Walter of Henley’s The Husbandry and Anthony Fitzherbert’s The Boke of Husbandry outline what was expected from a wife in regards to her work on the land. Court rolls help us to understand to an extent what women were doing in order to gain more of an income for her family. When looking at farming it appears that women added a great deal to this, especially during and in the short period after the Black Death. However, it is important not to forget that these women may have been small in number and also that as soon as labour supplies returned to their normal levels women were once again left out.
iii. Domestic Service
Throughout the Middle Ages a large section of urban society was made up of male and female servants. This number was significantly lower in rural areas due to the lower class status of the majority of the people who lived there. It is arguable that such a large proportion of women were engaged in domestic service because it was something which was almost identical to the work which they would have been doing in the home. Examples of female servants can be seen throughout the Middle Ages, along with the comparison of female servants to male servants. It is important to look at male as well as female servants here as they not only impacted on a woman’s home life but they also affected which jobs the women were able to be employed in. If there were a significant number of male servants it is arguable that not such a large number of female servants would be required. As well as this there were areas where male servants could be found employed and female servants not, for example elite households. This will be discussed later.
Firstly, it is key to note that references made to female servants are not common. Ward has gone as far as to argue that it was more likely that a large number of women were slaves as opposed to servants. However, women servants can still be found in sources, even if it is to a lesser extent than their male counterparts. Arguably, female servants were less likely to be found in elite households than men. This could perhaps be pinned on the idea that male servants entered elite households to be apprenticed to a particular trade or skill, whereas women rarely entered for apprenticeships. This links back to the idea of women learning their key skills from their mothers in the home.
A key point to make here is that women who were employed as servants were not always treated well. Although they were often given food and lodgings in return for their work, they still often received wages lower than male servants did. There were many cases of people being brought to court for mistreating their servants. John Catour of Reading, Berkshire went to court to complain against the way his daughter was being treated in her apprenticeship to Elis Mympe of London. It has been suggested that the apprenticeships of young girls to a trade or to be a servant were often periods of time much longer than necessary. This gives the impression that they may have been exploited as it can be argued that rather than spending all of the years learning the trade, they were in fact simply providing their master with cheap labour. A further example of servants being exploited can be seen when Margaret la Garnystere ‘brought action of trespass against Agnes, widow of Thomas Bagge…for detaining their servant who was lent on March 23 to embroider until 13 April’. In both of the above cases the courts reported that the females had been recovered. However, it is likely that a large proportion of these women would have been exploited for a considerable amount of time as the time of their apprenticeship may have been considered normal.
It is however important to note that not all female servants would have been treated badly. There are numerous cases where servants were left goods in the wills of their masters. The three women serving Ellen Holgrate by her death in 1403 each received a cow as a thank you for helping her with her illness. This shows that whilst there were women who were being mistreated, there were also those who were valued in their occupation. It is also key to remember that whilst these women were working within a household they were gaining valuable skills which they could take back and utilise in their own homes. This is important when you consider that some servants were young, single women, but some servants were married women who lived apart from their families during service but eventually returned home.
Therefore, whilst there were women engaged in domestic service it is difficult to tell exactly how many there were. There is evidence to suggest that women, both single and married, worked in the homes of others in order to gain an extra income for their family. There is also evidence to suggest that these women may have sometimes been mistreated, although this was not always the case and again, there is no suggestion as to how many women would have received poor treatment. All in all women did provide a good service as domestic servants, but it is important to remember that males also provided this service and women were consequently excluded from some aspects of it.
Women’s Work Outside Of The Home 女性在家庭之外的工作
As we have seen previously, women could be found contributing to the economy in various ways from inside their homes. Women could often be found engaging in textile related activities as well as helping their husbands with any land they may have and selling produce at local markets. Women were expected to help their husbands in the running of their business so that they may take over in their absence or on their death. As well as this work women could also be seen participating in further occupations outside of household work and expectations.
i. Brewing
Brewing was an occupation which women could often be seen in. This was due to the fact that they could run their household as expected, but also take on a new type of work. At one stage women brewed the majority of the ale on sale in England. It is arguable that women were able to participate in brewing as ale was part of the staple diet in the Middle Ages and much of it was needed to sustain the population. Any ale a woman brewed was first provided to her family, and any surplus may have been sold after this. Surplus had to be sold soon after it was brewed as it took only a short period of time for ale to turn sour. It is because of the need for ale for everyday consumption that women who were brewing it were widespread across not only the rural areas but the urban too. Ward argues that before 1350 the brewing of ale gave women a higher social status and more profit than any other occupation at the time. However, historians such as Goldberg have argued that men as well as women were brewing at this time, therefore increasing competition between different brewers in an area. It is perhaps due to this that we find a large number of cases in the court rolls of places which show numerous occasions where both women and men have brewed contrary to the Assize of that manor. There was also a distinct change in the brewing industry over time which will be discussed.
There is evidence for both types of women who brewed continuously throughout the Middle Ages, but also for those women who brewed only when times were hard and their family needed an extra income. These women can be clearly identified in court rolls of the manor as arguably those women who brewed continuously appear more often than those who did not. Examples here are of Alice Pye from Walsham le Willows who appears numerous times and Joan Tup from Wakefield who appears just once. It is arguable that the majority of women who brewed ale for sale did it only in times of hardship and therefore only brewed a small amount. It can be seen that brewing was the most common reason for women appearing in court, with the references to brewing far exceeding the references to any other trade of the time.
There are numerous mentions of women in court rolls as brewing contrary to the assize set by the Lord of the Manor; similarly there are numerous mentions of men brewing ale contrary to the assize of the Manor. This is significant as it was often found that men would take responsibility of their wife's fine. This was mainly because of the fact that men were seen as the head of the household and therefore held authority over their wife. They were consequently responsible and answerable to the actions of their wife. However, this makes it difficult when looking at sources to establish just how many of these mentions were in fact referring to women. In many sources you find that a large amount of people have been taken to the manor court for the same crime and so rather than list the names of every individual, the court rolls refer to ‘Gilbert Nevill, Walter Grinn (and eighteen others) are in mercy for breaking the assize of ale'. The fact that women are not always listed illustrates that their husbands were taking responsibility for their crime on occasion, but it does make it difficult to establish just how many of these were fines being taken for women, or fines received by the males themselves.
The manor of Walsham le Willows shows numerous women being fined for breaking the assize of ale set by the manor court. In theory, the manor court at Walsham le Willows should have been held every three weeks, but it was in fact held only twice a year on average, although it has been suggested by Historians such as Lock that a manor could realistically hold around three courts a year. For a manor as small as Walsham le Willows this seems plenty as it is likely that there would have been a smaller population and in theory less crimes to report. The amount of courts held a year is significant as again it makes it difficult to establish whether or not there were more women committing crimes between the court periods, and whether crimes did not go to court simply due to the amount of time before the next one took place. Also within these court records it is possible to recognise certain individuals who appear on numerous occasions. An example of this in Walsham le Willows is Alice Pye. She appears on a number of occasions for brewing and selling ale in breach of the assize, for example in the court of 4 July 1339, where she appears twice in the same court, and the court of 1 May 1360. This can be used to illustrate that there were a number of women in medieval England who brewed and sold ale consistently, and not just in smaller amounts when times were hard.
The Wakefield court rolls are a useful source in looking at the role of women within the brewing industry. There are a large number of mentions of women brewing contrary to the assize of the manor. Interestingly the women who do get brought to court for their crime are rarely referred to by their full name, simply by their first name and their relationship to a male, for example ‘Wife of Hugh de Seyvill and Alice daughter of John Richardson', who are both brought to court for brewing ‘at a penny'. As argued earlier, women who were household heads would be referred to by their occupation, but those women who had husbands or fathers would be referred to by them. Similarly to the example of Alice Pye in the Walsham le Willows court rolls, it can be seen here that women did brew ale and they did brew more than was necessary, presumably due to economic hardship within the family, or even simply as an extra amount of income.
Unfortunately, on occasion these women brewers could be involved in accidents due to their work. It is these women we can see in coroners' rolls. In the coroners' rolls from Bedfordshire, 1270, we can see the example of Amice Belamy and Sibyl Bonchevaler. The coroners' roll outlines how Amice and Sibyl were working for Lady Juliana de Beauchamp when Amice fell into the vat they were using to brew. Amice died the next day. This shows how women were directly involved in the brewing process.
Throughout the Middle Ages there were various changes in the brewing industry. Perhaps the key one of these was the Black Death. Prior to the Black Death the majority of women brewers had been married but after the Black Death the number of married women brewing were very few. This is likely to have been because the married women returned to their households to continue their necessary work there, but also that some of them would have lost their husbands due to Black Death and so had a higher quantity of agricultural work to also complete. Single women did not have the family commitments of married women and so were freer to continue their occupation. By the beginning of the sixteenth century women had almost completely stopped brewing. This was due to the increase in popularity of beer, something which kept for longer after it had been brewed. As well as this continuous malt shortages pushed up the price of ale and people could be found saving their money for bread as opposed to ale. The servants which were then employed in the brewing industry were mainly males as the industry was on a much larger scale than when women had been running it from the home.
Therefore, the contribution of women to the medieval economy through the means of brewing was one which changed throughout the period. Prior to the Black Death married women were commonly seen brewing and selling for profit, whereas after the Black Death it is mainly single women who are brewing. The topic of brewing itself has caused a large amount of speculation amongst historians but it is certain that brewing is the main reason for women appearing in court rolls, and therefore it can be assumed that brewing was one of the main occupations of women at this time and consequently a significant contribution to the economy.
ii. Prostitution
Though not always recognised as an economic activity prostitution was an important source of income for some women. Prostitution was an aspect of society which was frowned upon by many. It was widespread across towns in particular, leaving many towns with designated areas for prostitutes to work in. Some towns adopted policies against prostitution but these were rarely enforced as the town could make money from prostitutes. It is not generally difficult to find evidence for prostitution, but these examples are mainly urban, with very few references to prostitution in the rural environment.
Prostitutes were viewed cautiously and this is reflected by the way that certain towns forbid the women to work inside of the city walls. Not all cities strictly enforced this rule as many levied a fine upon prostitutes, which in turn brought money to the city and in a way gave them a license to continue. Some cities however, such as Leicester in 1467, the city of London in 1266 and York in 1301, expelled women from the city who were found to be prostitutes. The dislike towards prostitutes can also be seen through the Borough ordinance of the city of London from 1382 where all prostitutes ‘use hoods of striped cloth only'. This made the women stand out to a greater extent than other women and so warned passers by of their occupation.
There were very few organised brothels in Medieval England but where they did exist they were often popular, especially with priests when the brothels were in local parishes. There are a number of mentions of women in court rolls where they were being fined for fornicating with priests. An example here is of Alice Cheyney and Isabel Cobham of London who were labelled ‘common whores' after being fined and shamed at the manor court. There were also very strict rules surrounding brothels which in theory meant that the women were well looked after. These rules included that no married woman may be a prostitute and that no servants may be a prostitute of their master. Although these rules were made not only to lower prostitution in a town but to also protect the women who were working there, there were still numerous cases of women who died as a result of their job. An example of this can be seen in the coroners' rolls of Oxford 1299 report the death of Margery de Hereford. Margery was killed in a house in Oxford when she asked for her fee to be paid to her. This was a common recording of prostitutes on coroners' rolls with various other mentions in different places.
Consequently, although prostitutes were viewed by many with great caution they did also contribute to the economy of the local area. For the most part the women who were engaged in prostitution would return to legitimate jobs once they had earned enough money to assist their family. It is important to remember however that although there are sources on prostitutes it is not apparent as to how typical they were of everyday life in either urban or rural centres. One thing which can be concluded from this is that prostitution, like other work women participated in outside of the home, did contribute to the economy.
Conclusion
Throughout the Middle Ages there are examples of women within various types of employment. Women can be seen in numerous types of sources, including court rolls, coroners' rolls and weavers' ordinances. In these sources women are consistently underrepresented, arguably because sources were written by and for males and so they would only have included those things most relevant to them. Also, the vast majority of the sources were kept by the upper classes and so it is difficult to find a large amount of information on the lower classes. Clearly due to the amount of time which has passed the likelihood of a large amount of sources surviving is smaller. Despite this however, there is a significant amount of evidence for women's work during the Middle Ages.
在整个中世纪,有许多妇女从事各种职业的例子。女性可以在各种来源中看到,包括法庭记录、验尸官记录和织工条例。在这些资料中,女性一直被低估,这可能是因为资料是由男性撰写的,而且是为男性写的,所以它们只会包括那些与她们最相关的东西。而且,绝大多数的资料来源都是由上层阶级保存的,因此很难找到关于下层阶级的大量信息。很明显,由于时间的流逝,大量资源存活的可能性变小了。尽管如此,仍有大量证据表明中世纪妇女的工作。
It was often assumed that women simply worked in the home looking after and providing for the family. It is important to consider the role of the woman inside of the household as any time spent here would have impacted to an extent on any paid work she was able to participate in. The role of women as wives and mothers is a significant one as they played a central role in bringing up any children which her and her husband may have had. When women did work they often used skills taught to them by their mothers in the household and so the women's role in the home was vital one. The role of a woman who had been widowed is also an interesting one. It has been argued that widows held a greater amount of social standing within society, however on closer inspection it appears that widows were only well off within society if they remained single.
人们通常认为,妇女只是在家里工作,照顾和供养家庭。重要的是要考虑到女性在家庭中的角色,因为在这里度过的任何时间都会在一定程度上影响到她能够参与的任何有偿工作。女性作为妻子和母亲的角色是重要的,因为她们在抚养她和她丈夫可能拥有的任何孩子中都扮演着核心角色。当妇女工作时,她们经常使用母亲在家庭中教给她们的技能,因此妇女在家庭中的角色是至关重要的。寡妇的角色也很有趣。有人认为,寡妇在社会中拥有较高的社会地位,然而,仔细观察就会发现,寡妇只有在保持单身的情况下,才会在社会中过得很好。
The work of women inside of the home is imperative to the contributions which they may have been making to the economy. This is due to the fact that whilst a woman was expected to provide for the family, she could take part in a further job, so long as it came second to anything which was considered necessary for the family. On top of this the work which women were doing in the home was very similar to the household chores they were expected to complete. This is significant as it shows how women were able to turn their necessary family and household work into something which provided an extra income for their family. Within the textile industry it has been argued that women simply made clothes for their families and this was all that they were expected to provide. Anthony Fitzherbert's
The Boke of Husbandry can be seen to explore basic expectations of a wife, and here he outlines that she may make clothes for her family. However, there are sources such as wills show that women were receiving goods from their husbands which would have aided their business, for example a weaver's loom. This meant that women were able to continue a craft after their husband's death. In total here it is possibly to suggest that while women do not appear in the sources on a large amount of occasion in reference to the textiles trade, there would have been a significant number of women engaged in it. This is supported by the weavers' ordinances which limit the amount of time a woman can weave for without her husband.
A further point within women's work in the household is agricultural activity and markets. Although strictly not an activity undertaken within the home it is possible argue that it was part of a job within the home as many people farmed the land around their house. Women can be seen quite frequently in terms of agriculture, appearing most in court rolls when selling their goods at the local market. As well as this there are numerous contemporary sources, such as Walter of Henley's Boke of Husbandry which outline the role of a women in regards to the land and the markets. These source together show how women were involved to a large extent in the agricultural activities of the land and the selling of the produce at local markets.
Finally within women and their work within the household is the case of domestic service. It has often been thought that women formed a large majority of the servant workforce in England in the Middle Ages. However, from looking at the sources it is apparent that whilst women did make up a significant number of servants employed in England, there were also a significant number of male servants. It is important to note that there are not a large amount of sources for servants, and that the ones which can be utilised are mainly about the urban area and not the rural. It is therefore signicant that women were involved in domestic service, although it is difficult to predict the exact amount. It is also significant that males also worked in domestic service and therefore arguable that they excluded women from certain aspects of domestic service.
A further key aspect of the contribution of women to the economy is their work outside of the home. Brewing is one part of this. The contribution made by women to the brewing industry was a large one. It is the main reason for women appearing in court rolls and the industry most often seen in coroners' rolls. This together illustrates that within the brewing industry, until the late sixteenth century, women were dominant and contributed a huge amount to the economy.
Finally the area of prostitution is a key one. Although not traditionally thought of as an industry which contributed to the economy, from looking at primary and secondary sources together we can see that it did make a contribution. Prostitution is not particularly difficult to see in urban areas but more so in rural areas. The levying of fines against prostitutes meant that they were not only providing a source of income to the town but they were also to an extent being given a license to continue working there. As well as this it has been argued that the majority of women working within prostitution would return to legitimate jobs as they only worked in prostitution when it was difficult to find employment anywhere else. In all, although initially not regarded as an economic contribution, it is possible to argue that it was in fact quite an important one.
So we can see that women did play a significant role in the economy of medieval England. However, it is important to recognise that women do not appear in sources as frequently as men and there are cases where women fail to receive a mention, when in fact they may have been doing the majority of the work. In all it is fair to say that women did play a role in the economy and that it is to an extent undervalued by history. This is because it is difficult to estimate just how many women were involved in employment, but it is key to remember that the women who were involved did contribute to a seemingly large extent.
所以我们可以看到女性在中世纪英格兰的经济中扮演了重要的角色。然而,重要的是要认识到,女性不像男性那样频繁地出现在资料来源中,在有些情况下,女性没有得到提及,而实际上,她们可能一直在做大部分工作。总之,公平地说,女性确实在经济中发挥了作用,但历史在一定程度上低估了女性的作用。这是因为很难估计有多少女性参与了工作,但关键是要记住,参与工作的女性确实在很大程度上做出了贡献。
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