Document Type
Article
Peer Reviewed
1
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Abstract
Coercion often exploits power imbalances, enabling the privileged to abuse the underprivileged. This article examines how relationships with a status imbalance are formed and imagined in the French chanson de geste of Ami et Amile, the Middle English adaptations of Guy of Warwick, and the Middle English Sir Degrevant. These works share a common pattern in which a relationship between a higher-status woman and a lower-status man is at first refused, but subsequently progresses through either consensual or coercive means. However, they also share a second pattern, in which the lower-status man in the first relationship becomes desirable to a servant woman. While the first half of this article highlights these romances’ detailed consideration of status negotiations, the second half reveals that they pay less careful attention to the impact of status upon servant women’s consent, projecting such women as desiring figures who primarily serve the interests of higher-status characters.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Lucia Akard and Alice Raw for their editorial feedback and helpful suggestions on this article, as well as the anonymous reviewer for their insights and useful questions.
Keywords
servants, service, status, class, consent, coercion, desire, medieval romance
Recommended Citation
Piercy, Hannah "Status, Servants, and Sexual Availability: Consent and Coercion in "Ami et Amile," "Guy of Warwick," and "Sir Degrevant"." Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality 61, No. 1 (2026)
