Women In Anglo Saxon England And The Impact Of 1066

"A mere chattel, inferior to men, or their social equal -- what was the role of the Anglo-Saxon woman? In this stimulating book, Christine Fell shows how for many women Anglo-Saxon England was a golden age of power and wealth, culture and education. From her analysis of the primary sources -- wills, charters, letters and chronicles -- and drawing on the evidence of place-names and poetry, Professor Fell argues that, in court, convent, or manor house, Anglo-Saxon women exploited to the full the resources and opportunities available to them. Whether we look at Bede's account of St. Hild, the life of Æđelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, or countless other women, this pattern emerges with astonishing fullness and coherence. The picture can only be completed by looking at what came after. The final two chapters by Cecily Clark and Elizabeth Williams show the impact of the Norman Conquest and the Gregorian reform. Within a century the tide had turned : in literature the image of women lost touch with reality, and in reality women lost the status which they had so long enjoyed." -- Provided by publisher

A fresh look at the position of women in the 8th and 9th centuries as defined by the literature of the early church.

The little-known lives of women who ruled, schemed, and made peace and war, between the seventh and eleventh centuries: “Meticulously researched.” —Catherine Hanley, author of Matilda: Empress, Queen, Warrior Many Anglo-Saxon kings are familiar. Æthelred the Unready is one—but less is written about his wife, who was consort of two kings and championed one of her sons over the others, or about his mother, who was an anointed queen and powerful regent, but was also accused of witchcraft and regicide. A royal abbess educated five bishops and was instrumental in deciding the date of Easter; another took on the might of Canterbury and Rome and was accused by the monks of fratricide. Royal mothers wielded power: Eadgifu, wife of Edward the Elder, maintained a position of authority during the reigns of both her sons. Æthelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, was a queen in all but name, while few have heard of Queen Seaxburh, who ruled Wessex, or Queen Cynethryth, who issued her own coinage. She, too, was accused of murder, and was also, like many of the royal women, literate and highly educated. Ranging from seventh-century Northumbria to eleventh-century Wessex and making extensive use of primary sources, Women of Power in Anglo-Saxon England examines the lives of individual women in a way that has often been done for the Anglo-Saxon men but not for their wives, sisters, mothers, and daughters.

Explains how, on the eve of the Norman Conquest, England had become an exceptionally wealthy, highly urbanized kingdom, with a large, well-controlled coinage of high quality.

This is one of a series of bibliographical guides designed to meet the needs of undergraduates, postgraduates and their teachers in universities and colleges of further education. All volumes in the series share a number of common characteristics. They are selective, manageable in size, and include those books and articles which are considered most important and useful. All are editied by practising teachers of the subject in question and are based on their experience of the needs of students. The arrangement combines chronological with thematic divisions. Most of the items listed receive some descriptive comment.

"The study then considers the treatment of rape and ravishment in a range of literary genres: in hagiography, female saints are repeatedly threatened with rape; the stories of Lucretia and Helen underpin legendary history; the acts of rape and ravishment challenge and shape chivalric order in romance; otherworldly rapes result in the conception of romance heroes. The final two chapters examine the ways in which Malory and Chaucer write and rewrite rape and ravishment."--BOOK JACKET.