Jill Bannink  

Bullough, Vern and Cameron Campbell. “Female Longevity and Diet in the Middle Ages.” Speculum 55 (1980): 317-25.        

In the early Middle Ages, females lived shorter lives than men, but, because of a change in diet, this situation reversed in the late Medieval Ages.  This thesis is proven by various primary sources, artifacts, and scientific reasoning.  Some thought this shift in longevity of the female was brought on because “menstruation purifies women, and sexual intercourse takes less from them…women work less than men” (318). In reality, it was a change in medieval diet that increased iron content. Early medieval diet centered around grains and a broth that had various food items tossed in. A lack of iron rich food such as meat and lack of other sources of protein such as cheese caused women to develop anemia.  Females, because of blood loss through menstruation and pregnancy, needed a lot more iron than males.  In fact, since the female was taking in so little iron, “by the age of twenty-three the early medieval woman would have been severely anemic.” Her body would have no iron stored. If a woman became pregnant she would need even more iron; the leading cause of death by anemia was through childbirth. This situation changed with new methods of farming (crop rotation, plowing) and a new diet in the late Middle Ages. People of all classes started eating more meats, especially pork, and more fishes. Also, some iron pots and utensils were found from the late Middle Ages that indicate increased iron content.  

I found this article somewhat helpful in describing the health problems women faced in the medieval world. Yet, I think it was unnecessarily long and got to the basic point in a roundabout way. For example, at least four paragraphs were devoted to calculating the average woman’s monthly blood loss and comparing it to the average medieval woman’s iron intake. One example of this nature would have been enough. Also, there are over forty footnotes for a nine page article which distracts the reader. Despite this, the article had little technical or scientific jargon and was easy to read. The authors focused on diet changes, but there were also other changes occurring that could have altered female lifespan. One sentence in the article briefly downplayed the other changes (rise in standard of living, growth of cities, etc.)  as having little influence on longevity. I disagree with the authors on this point; I believe various factors, not just diet specifically, allowed women to live longer lives.

Green, Richard Firth. “Women in Chaucer’s Audience.” The Chaucer Review 18 (1983): 146-53.  

 The author sets out to prove that Chaucer’s audience included few, if any, women. Chaucer’s audience is important since “most of Chaucer’s works were intended for oral presentation” (146).  It is thought that his poems were “first performed before a fairly small group of courtiers” (146). According to Green, most of this group consisted of men. Green cites a multitude of sources from various royal courts to prove the lack of women present in court circles. There were very few female servants in each royal household. For example, Margaret of Anjou had just fourteen female servants and a hundred male servants. The king would be surrounded by male servants that would do everything from washing his hands to doing his laundry. The queen would have a few female servants, and the two sets of servants rarely interacted. There must have been a few women present occasionally since some of Chaucer’s works address women. In Canterbury Tales, for example, the Physician addresses “maistresses” and the Clerk “archewyves” (151).           

The author uses reader-response criticism. He is using the work to interpret the kind of audience he believed Chaucer had. Also, he may be using historical criticism since he is using historical documents to decipher the type of audience. Green looks at the social and cultural aspects of the time of Chaucer’s work to help him decide the role of women. Green seems unable to choose a side, women present in the audience or not present in the audience, throughout this article. First, he explains how women couldn’t be present, and then says that some women were present. He has evidence for both positions so he can back up either side of the debate, though he never chooses a definite side. Unfortunately, he cites many sources in French or Middle English. He has an entire paragraph in Middle English and offers no translations or explanations for either the French or the Middle English. The article often strays away from the issue of Chaucer’s audience and instead focuses specifically on issues surrounding female servants. I believe the title of the article is misleading and doesn’t properly convey its true content.  I don’t think that this article is useful for further study on Chaucer, but may be useful for further study on the role of women, including servants, in the Medieval Ages. The sources he cites explaining the small number of females servants lead me to agree that not many women were present at the “oral presentations” (146) of Chaucer’s work.

Puhvel, Martin. “The Wife of Bath’s ‘Remedies of Love’.” The Chaucer Review  20 (1986): 307-12.  

Alisoun, the wife of Bath , may have used various homemade “love aids” on all of her men and possibly poisoned her fourth husband. Puhvel defends his thesis by pointing out certain lines in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales that would lead one to think this. For example, the Wife of Bath’s prologue ends with “of remedies of love she knew par chaunce” (307). This statement can be interpreted to mean she created erotic potions to keep her husbands interested. After all, she was only getting older, and she did prefer young men that were “fresh abedde” (310). Also, her fourth husband kept a mistress, and this made Alisoun very jealous. She may have felt the need to try and win him back by using these love aids. When this fails, she resorted to poisoning him, possibly with the help of her (future) fifth husband Jankyn. She becomes enraged when Jankyn is reading from a book about deadly wives.  In this book, coincidently, three out of the five examples of these wives include death by poison. Chaucer may have done this to discreetly lead the reader to question the death of Alisoun’s fourth husband. She could have become so upset because the subject matter at hand was a little too familiar for her comfort level. Alsioun even comes out in her tale and states that she hopes he is rotting in Hell.  She couldn’t explicitly state that she had murdered him because she, as one of the pilgrims, was in the presence of many witnesses which could cause her trouble with the law.  

Puhvel approaches this article with a reader-response criticism.  This criticism means that different readers will have different interpretations of the text. The author points out that some editors of Canterbury Tales make no interpretation of the line “of remedies of love she knew per chaunce” (307). Some may interpret this superficially: Alisoun, due to experience, knew about love, while others, like Puhvel, view this as proof that Alisoun dabbled in the creation of erotic potions.  This article is excellent for one studying either the role of women or Chaucer. Puhvel makes a point of mentioning what Chaucer may have been thinking while he wrote this. He also carefully selects many lines from Canterbury Tales that clearly support his thesis. This article convinced me that Alisoun indeed did contribute to the death of her husband. I believe Chaucer made her a strong and independent woman who would not hesitate in killing her fourth husband. As the article points out, the fact that Chaucer wrotethree stories about wives poisoning their husbands also helped sway my opinion. The Middle English quotes from Canterbury Tales were sometimes hard to understand, but, overall, this article was easy to comprehend. It makes one think about the other tales by the pilgrims in a different light; it would seem Chaucer left his work open to various interpretations.

Ratcliffe, Marjorie. “Adulteresses, Mistresses and Prostitutes: Extramarital Relationships in Medieval Castile .” Hispania 67 (1984): 346-50.  

Despite the relative freedom held by medieval women in Castile , some women were forced into unsavory roles such as adulteress, mistress, and prostitute.  Laws then dictated various aspects of these roles.  The point of most medieval marriages was to guard legitimate bloodlines. Thus, many women were thrust into loveless marriages, and escaped this confinement by becoming adulteresses. This crime was legally punishable by death; the husband could decide what to do with the wife and her lover. Having mistresses was a common practice. It was so frequent, in fact, that laws stated rules for choosing a mistress, such as the fact that she couldn’t be a virgin or under twelve years old. Finally, there was the last resort of prostitution. Women who were widows, poor, single mothers, or unskilled in a craft often resorted to this. Punishment for this crime included 300 lashes. Yet, this practice was also commonplace; prostitutes were given a certain place in the city to do their business. Unfortunately, these women had little chance at ever gaining a better life.  

This article was beneficial for various reasons. Radcliffe does an excellent job clearly stating facts and quoting different sources to prove her point. The majority of the article, which was in English, was helpful in explaining an average medieval woman’s path in life. She was concise and organized in explaining each relationship. For example, after each relationship Radcliffe would state the laws regarding the issue. However, the major flaw I found in this article was the multitude of Spanish words. In fact, a portion of her sources she cited were entirely in Spanish, and she offered no translations or explanations after these. Since I was unable to translate, I may have missed a few essential points.  I agree with Radcliffe that due to the social attitude of the time that these women really had no other choice in their life but to become adulteresses, mistresses, or prostitutes, though others may interpret her article as showing that women have the option to better their lives. This could be proven by the fact that the introductory paragraph explains the various freedoms, such as running businesses or being teachers, Castilian women enjoyed.

Vollendorf, Lisa.  “ ‘How Am I to Blame?’ Women and Authority in Spain .” The Center & Clark Newsletter 37 (2001): 4-5.  

Women in Spain had to adapt in order to try and survive the authorities of the Inquisition.  Vollendorf proves this thesis through an example of a woman, Bernarda, put on trial for Judaizing.  Like anyone accused by the Inquisition, she didn’t know who her accuser was, though she believed it was her husband. She was allowed to provide a list of enemies who couldn’t testify against her and could give an oral defense. Bernarda was a unique woman because, for her testimony, she gave a “twelve-page autobiographical statement” (4). In this statement she pointed out her Christian devotion, but most of the twelve pages were about her husband and his questionable mental health. She talked about how she lived isolated, raising five children alone with a husband who was paranoid, had crazy spells, and was abusive. She even goes as far as to say it was in her husband’s imagination that she was fasting for Jewish holidays.  The fact that she attacks her husband this way leads one to believe she knew that he accused her. Ultimately, she was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Her trial is significant because it shows how male authorities at the time dismissed claims of spousal abuse as unimportant. It reflects on the view of women during that era.  

I agree with Vollendorf that Bernarda had to devise a strategy in order to try to clear her name because she really had no other choice, either way she was still going to be put on trial. I found this article helpful for research about women in early modern Spain because it shows on a more personal level the mindset of women at that time. Since only one example was given, it provides a springboard for research about other women who tried to defend themselves while on trial. Also, it brings up another topic for further study: domestic violence. This article was easy to comprehend because it used almost no confusing technical terms and was quite clear. A few Spanish words were sprinkled throughout the article but a translation in parentheses always followed. It’s important to note that since the whole article was about a single woman, it makes it difficult to make generalizations about females on trial by the Inquisition just based on this one study.