Undergraduate Course: Daughters, Wives and Mothers: Women in England, c.1300-1500 (HIST10388)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 40 |
ECTS Credits | 20 |
| Summary | This course will examine the lives of women in late medieval England, from birth to death, by examining a range of primary source material both by and about women such as court records, wills, and letters. Its focus is on those below the ranks of the aristocracy and will look at peasant women, townswomen and women in gentry families. It will consider their upbringing, occupations, literacy, participation in religious activities, and rights at law.
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| Course description |
This course will examine the lives of women in late medieval England, from birth to death, by examining a range of primary source material both by and about women such as court records, wills, and letters. Its focus is on those below the ranks of the aristocracy and will look at peasant women, townswomen and women in gentry families. It will consider their upbringing, occupations, literacy, participation in religious activities, and rights at law. Questions will be asked about the impact of big events during this period such as the Black Death and the rise of England's first popular heresy, Lollardy. This is an opportunity to study the lives of those often said to be 'hidden from history' and thus to learn and critique how historians have creatively used a range of sources for purposes very different than their original intention. The course content is as follows:
A) IDEAS ABOUT WOMEN
1. Introduction
2. Women's legal status: Treatises and court records
3. Religious teachings: Sermons and exempla
4. Scientific ideas: Medical texts
5. Education: Conduct texts
6. Structured learning activity: formative feedback
B) GENDER AND SOCIAL STATUS
7. Peasant women I: coroners rolls
8. Peasant women II: manor court rolls
9. Urban women I: Guild regulations
10. Urban women II: Borough court rolls
11. After the Black Death: Sessions of the peace
12. Gentry: Paston letters
C) GENDER AND LIFECYCLE (using a mixture of sources)
13. Childbirth
14. Life-cycle service
15. Motherhood
16. Marriage
17. Widowhood
18. Structured learning active: formative feedback
D) WOMEN AND RELIGION
19. Book of Margery Kempe
20. Women's wills
21. Women and heresy: Lollard trials
22. Women and the cult of saints
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
Students MUST have passed:
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | A pass or passes in 40 credits of first level historical courses or equivalent and a pass or passes in 40 credits of second level historical courses or equivalent.
Before enrolling students on this course, Personal Tutors are asked to contact the History Honours Admission Adminstrator to ensure that a place is available (Tel: 503780).
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Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- demonstrate competence in core skills in the study of History, including essay-writing, independent reading, and group discussion
- show detailed and critical command of the body of knowledge concerning women in late medieval England
- plan and execute a substantial written analysis concerning women in late medieval England
- demonstrate the ability to reflect critically on a variety of methodological approaches to the study of women in late medieval England
- demonstrate the ability to read, analyse and reflect critically upon a variety of primary source material relating to women in late medieval England.
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Reading List
P.J.P. Goldberg, Women in England c.1275-1525 (Manchester, 1995).
Book of Margery Kempe (various editions).
D. Watt (ed.), Paston Women: Selected Letters (2004).
K.M. Phillips, Medieval Maidens (Manchester, 2003).
Barbara A. Hanawalt, Ties That Bound: Peasant Families in Medieval England (Oxford, 1986).
K.L. French, The good women of the parish: gender and religion after the Black Death (Philadelphia, 2008).
D. Watt, Medieval Women's Writing: Works by and for women in England, 1100-1500 (2007). |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Daughters |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Cordelia Beattie
Tel: (0131 6)50 3778
Email: Cordelia.Beattie@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Rachel Ord
Tel: (0131 6)50 9110
Email: Rachel.Ord@ed.ac.uk |
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