Women in the Middle Ages
The Middle Ages, also known as the “Dark Ages” lasted throughout the 5th to the 15th century. And when we think about the Dark Ages we think about the men and their battles, and their savagery. What we don’t know much about is the women during that period. Women held the positions of wife, mother, peasant, artisan, and nun. As well as some important leadership roles, such as Abbess, which is the head of an abbey of nuns. The very concept of women changed in number of ways and several forces influenced women’s role during the Middle Ages.
The role of women depended on the estate they came from. There were three types of estates which were the first, second, and third. The First Estate,which were those who prayed and worked for the church, were considered the high class of society. Following it came the Second Estate, nobility, which was those who fought like the knight or lived in royalty. The Third Estate, peasants and townsmen, were considered the lowest class of society. Usually women were born in the Second and Third Estate and eventually became
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Church taught them them that they should be meek and obedient to their fathers and husbands(“Women in the Middle Ages.”). Marriage was obligatory for some women. Most medieval women had to marry the men their families chose for them or peacefully accepted the matrimony. Unmarried women equal rights to men; she could make a will and sign documents with her own seal. However, married women had to forfeit all her land and rights to her husband. There was five religious alternatives for them to choose from which were nuns, hermitesses, beguines, tertiaries, anchoresses. However, women in the Roman Catholic Church were only able to become nuns or best case, an abbesses. In fact, the image of women improved after the emergence of the Virgin Mary and Mary Magalene cults during the 12th and 13th