HIST 312

Research Project

Yuan Wang

230125424

Dr.Wessell Lightfoot

June.14.2022

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From ancient times until now, women have always been controversial with how they were treated unequally compared to men, and women tend to have lower status in a family compared to men. However, women in the mediaeval period have proved to themselves that they can have different roles in different areas as they can handle a lot of things even without men. Marriage has always been an issue relating to the properties and belongings that people have. How these can be divided becomes an issue as, most of the time, men are in total control of the properties and other belongings. As in a family, men always tend to have more power or control than women since they are physically stronger, and they are the ones that go out to earn money to make this family survive. Women are most likely to become housewives to deal with anything that’s happening inside the family, as men are the ones dealing with things outside the family, and because of the physical appearances of men, they decide everything inside the family and they want women to stay at home rather than letting them to go out since  they are known to have a higher status at home compared to women and they think women should just support them. Things have changed quite a bit as women’s role in the mediaeval period is not like what women are viewed as before since there are lots of them that are educated and they have the ability to think and have their own minds, so they don’t just follow their husbands’ orders; they can either help their husbands or they can just handle their husbands’ businesses by themselves, and they can operate the business well since they are educated. They understand what they need and want to do to change their situation. And in the Medieval period, women could be leaders in particular places, and more importantly, they had the ability and right to manage the family since they were educated, and they had the right to talk and act on behalf of or even beyond their husbands. Especially when a woman is in charge of the family when the husband is away on business or has passed away, they have dominating control and have the authority to decide everything they want, especially when they are passing a will of how the properties and heritage will be divided among all the relatives, and they don’t need to listen to other people’s opinions or orders since they are in charge, which is quite different compared to women in ancient times.

It has been a tradition that men are the ones to be in charge of everything and they have the right to decide everything within the family. Women are forced to become housewives and do things inside the family, even they are allowed to leave the family, there are not that many jobs they can do other than just assisting their husbands. In ancient times, women tended to become the accessories of men in ancient times since women were not treated equally. And during marriage, women are always the ones that are on the disadvantage side as they don’t have the right to choose their husband. Women are forced to get married to men they don’t like. And women must go to live with the men’s families if they cannot afford other new properties. Women cannot choose where they live as they will follow their husbands to their properties to live. Even if they don’t like the place they are at, they are still required to live in that place. Although women’s rights and status have been increased a lot during the mediaeval period, their living conditions are still poor. as “However, the fact that couples felt it necessary to include conditions like these in near Eastern ketubot suggests that, without contractual intervention, some families might live in multigenerational households. For one thing, not all families can afford to purchase or rent multiple apartments. Living with in-laws might be a necessary evil, financially speaking, in lower-income families.” (Kirshner, 2015)A lot of women and their newly constructed families are not able to afford to have new homes to live in, so they must stay with the elderly and relatives. They are forced to stay with the husband’s families even if they don’t want to because they don’t have money to buy another place to live in. And as a tradition, women are forced to leave their families and must stay with their husbands’ families after they get married. However, during the mediaeval times, there was a thing called “marriage contracts” from the Jewish families that came out, and it made the women’s status much higher compared to before, as they could finally have some actions against it. So, for the “marriage contract”, women can decide who they want to live with and if there is anyone that they don’t want to stay close with, once the contract is signed between women and men, they can be married. So, it is a much higher improvement in women’s status compared to before because they have the right to decide and pick someone rather than being forced to stay with the husbands’ families that they don’t want to stay with. If the bride hates someone within the family, she can simply just stay away from them as she doesn’t need to follow the traditions of the bride leaving her family to live with the husband’s family. And within the contract, there are also agreements that do not limit women to staying at home as housewives only; they can do whatever they want to do; and a policy on children, since the women are not forced to be housewives to stay at home to deal with children. There are agreements made within the contract that children can be taken care of by either the husbands’ families or the brides’ families as per the agreement. Because of living separately and away from the people that women don’t want to stay with and without the limitations of being housewives, women can use their knowledge to either help their husbands or contribute to the area they are interested in. This is the main reason why Jewish families were wealthy during the mediaeval period; since all parts of the families were functioning other than just the men going out to earn money, the rise of the status of women contributed a lot to it.

When a woman gets married with another man, she does not only go to live with him but also takes all her belongings to where the husband is. And when a woman is getting married, both the husband and bride will bring dowry to each other, and the dowry is considered property of the husband in most cases. Even if a woman was divorced, she could not take her dowry back; she could not take anything away from the husband; and even if she could take back the dowry, the husband was not required to cover the dowry’s damage. However, things have changed during the mediaeval period as women became more educated and they gained more rights, so it is different now as “the husband’s ownership of the dowry ceased upon termination of the marriage.” Except in the case where the wife divorced her husband without justifiable cause, he or his heirs were compelled to restore total properties or their equivalent value if that had been fixed.” The husband has the responsibility to protect and administrate the properties and dowry. Although the dowry is considered the husband’s property, it also belongs to the bride, which means the bride has the power to decide the dowry. And if the husband creates any cause to damage the dowry or make the value of the dowry come down, the husband must recover the damages as man and woman are equal on this part. It’s considered a joint property between the husband and wife. If the husband doesn’t want to pay the damages and is not covering the full loss of the bride, during the mediaeval period, a woman could file a case against her husband for damages, and there is a big chance for them to win the case and get the compensation they deserved.

When making wills, men tend to be in dominant control over women as they are considered the leaders of the home and they are the ones that decide everything. However, as women are gaining more rights and getting more respect from other people, they are also being respected and having more power, especially when passing wills, as they have the right to do so, especially when their husbands have passed away. They are the ones that decide the will on how the properties can be separated. “Several studies have already pointed out that female wills are more crowded than male wills. “(Gravela, 2022_When men pass wills, they tend to focus on the main people within the family. However, when it comes to women, they tend to make it more “crowded” where they will separate and divide it into different amounts and they will forward it to all the specific people either within the family or working for the family, so everyone that contributes to the family that should get the part from the will is going to get what they deserved to get and also what are the correct amount that people should get. In “Excerpts from the Will of Marchesina, widow of Nicolaus Hebramo”, Marchesina is a widow from Candia, the island of Crete, who lost her husband, Nicolaus Hebramo a long time ago. And following passage is a detailed speech on how Marchesina is trying to pass the wills to the family members and the workers for her money. In this passage, Marchesina claims she feels uncomfortable, and therefore she has gathered all the people from the households and even the workers for the house to come to listen to the will. Marchesina is extremely careful when she talks about the different amounts of hyperpera that are sent to everyone. When she is passing the will, she understands everything that is happening within each other, and she knows what the right amount is to give to different people. “Marchesina next arranges for her late son Antonius’ son Petrus to get 50 hyperpera and no more”—that had been her late husband’s and then her late son’s, with the stipulation that younger Petrus should not hand over any of it to his paternal uncle Petrus, Marchesina’s son. She also orders her husband’s executors to do their job with loyalty, purity, and legality, and notes that she does not owe them anything. ” (Lauer, 1998) This part clearly showed that Marchesina had the knowledge and understood all the relationships between the families and knew who should get more hyperpera and who should not get more hyperpera. This speech clearly demonstrated how a woman with knowledge during the mediaeval period would have been dominant because she could control such a large family, and all family members could only listen and obey her orders until the decision was made. It also showed women’s status is getting higher as people are respecting them.

From all these facts stated above, from how the family relationship has been constructed to women’s ability to choose where and who they want to stay with, to women’s having the authority and power to decide the dowry, and lastly, women can have dominant power in passing wills as they don’t need men’s help for a lot of different things and people must listen to their orders without a doubt. It has shown women are treated better during the mediaeval period as they have gained rights equal to men in a lot of different ways and they have proven, based on the knowledge they have, that they can handle a lot of different things and they can do them better compared to what men do, and people are starting to respect women and follow their orders if they are in charge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

1, Kirshner, Julius. Marriage, Dowry, and Citizenship in Late Medieval and Renaissance Italy. University of Toronto Press, 2015

2, Gravela, Marta, “Against the tide. Female property and political shift in Late Medieval Turin” Openedition Journal, https://journals.openedition.org/mefrm/4047?lang=en#article-4047

3, Decker, Sarah, “Family, childbirth, and childrearing” Jewish Women in the medieval world, Routledge,2022

4, Lauer, Rena “Excerpts from the Will of Marchesina, widow of Nicolaus Hebramo”. Jan. 15.1339/40 Edited in Sally McKee, ed., Wills from Late Medieval Venetian Crete, 1312-1420 (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 1998), vol. 1, no. 144. https://medievalslavery.org/byzantium-and-the-aegean/source-slave-women-and-their-children-in-venetian-crete/

 

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