Imprisoning Medieval Women: The Non-judicial Confinement and Abduction of Women in England, C.1170-1509This study of the confinement of women highlights the disparity in regulation concerning male and female imprisonment in the middle ages, and gives a useful perspective on the nature of medieval law, its scope and limitations, and its interaction with royal power and prerogative. It examines situations in which women might be imprisoned without formal accusation of trial; how social status, national allegiance and stage of life affected the chances of imprisonment; the relevant legal rules and norms; the extent to which legal and constitutional developments in medieval England affected women's amenability to confinement; and how women were involved in situations of non-judicial imprisonment, aside from themselves being prisoners. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
By Royal Power and Command Maidens and Other Women in Towers | 13 |
Confinement of Women in War and Armed Conflict | 15 |
Other Species of Garde Royal Wardship and Idiocy Guardianship | 55 |
A Dreary and Solitary Place or Honourable Captivity? | 61 |
Wrongful Imprisonment and Abduction Legal Responses and their Limits | 87 |
Countless Ravishments of Women? Legislation and Other Royal Initiatives | 89 |
Common Law | 105 |
Escaping the Confines of the Common Law | 129 |
Not Averse to the Arrangement? Allegations of Collusion and Consent | 145 |
Agency and Contagion Further Aspects of Womens Participation | 165 |
Conclusion | 187 |
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Common terms and phrases
abductor actions Alice alleged Bruce Cambridge captivity Castle Chronicle common law complaint Complete Peerage confinement of women consent countess courts custody Cynthia Neville Dafydd daughter Despenser Edward II Eleanor of Aquitaine Eleanor of Brittany Eleanor of Provence Elizabeth English example Eyre female fifteenth century Fourteenth Century Gender Gilbert of Sempringham girls heiress Henry III hostages husband imprisonment Isabel Joan John king king's land Later Middle Ages legislation London Magna Carta male Margaret Margaret of Anjou marriage married Medieval England Medieval Women Michael Prestwich Michaelmas Mortimer MPCM Neville noblewomen non-judicial confinement nunneries nuns ODNB offence petition Pipe Roll prisoners provision ransom rape raptus reign of Edward reign of Henry Richard Robert royal Scotland Scots Seabourne Seipp servants Sheridan Walker statute of Westminster suggest Thirteenth Century Thomas treason Walsingham ward wardship Welsh widow wife William wives woman Woodbridge