Date of Award

8-2024

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Medieval Studies

First Advisor

Robert Berkhofer III, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Sally E. Hadden, Ph.D.

Third Advisor

Anise K. Strong, Ph.D.

Keywords

Agency, common law, crime, England, Middle Ages, women

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

Medieval women who were on the wrong side of the law expressed agency in a specific and unusual manner. Criminal agency, as it were, was a way for them to express their wants and desires in a way that is no less valid a subject of study than actions that were legally permissible. However, this agency was constrained by medieval notions of women’s capability. This thesis examines women and their crimes found in an early fourteenth-century Norfolk gaol delivery roll to further understand how the men who ran gaol delivery “allowed” women to be criminal. As gaol delivery rolls were written from a legal perspective that largely denied women’s involvement, they can be used to understand how women’s criminal misbehavior at this time was understood and defined. By working within these biased sources, we can attempt to recreate the ways in which women’s possible criminal actions were shaped (or restricted) by the type of accusations that were often levied against them, as while they could act outside the law, acting outside of gendered expectations was much more difficult. Accused women, especially those in provincial courts, were and remain a marginalized group that has been overlooked in scholarship, but one that demonstrates the complexities of women’s agency in the Middle Ages as individuals who functioned both within and outside English law.

Download

Share

COinS