Ladies in the Age of Chivalry by Rosemary Morris

 

To find out more about Rosemary's work click on the cover above.

Ladies in the Age of Chivalry

My novel, Grace, Lady of Cassio, begins in 1331 during the reign of Edward III. It will be published in August 2022.

At heart I am a historian. My novels are rich in historical detail that requires intensive research, some of which I am sharing in this blog.

 

Chivalry, Ladies and Literature, Courtly Love and Reality

The ideal upper-class lady in romantic medieval literature is the beloved who inspires chivalry and is worshipped. In fiction her slightest command is obeyed without question and heroic deeds by a knight errant are performed in her name, even if his love is not reciprocated. Reinmar von Hagenau ‘s lyric captures the nature of courtly love.

 

       I wish to be known my entire life as a master of one thing and one thing only.

       I seek the world’s praise for this one skill,

      That no man can bear his suffering as beautifully as I.

      If a woman causes me pain to such an extent that I cannot remain silent day or night,

      I have so gentle a spirit that I’ll accept her hate as a source of joy.

     And yet, alas, how deeply that discomforts me.

 

In reality, and in accordance with medieval law and society, a lady wielded authority as a wife and mother in domestic affairs and took charge while her husband was away.

 

Maidens, Wives, Spinsters, Widows and Nuns

During the medieval era men classified women as maidens, wives, widows, or nuns. During childhood maidens were subject to their fathers, stepfathers or guardians who maintained them. Married women were controlled by their husbands and were denied the right to refuse intercourse. Without their husbands’ agreement, they were not permitted to borrow money, sell property, or make a will. Noblewomen received as much respect as noblemen. Yet because Eve persuaded Adam to taste the forbidden fruit and they were cast out of paradise, men considered females physically, intellectually, and morally inferior. Nuns, the brides of Christ, depended on the Church. Only spinsters, a rarity, and widows enjoyed some independence.

 

Education, Betrothal, Marriage and Motherhood.

 

Nobly born children were taught to read and write French, the language of educated people, to figure, embroider, dance, sing and play musical instruments. They were trained to be dignified, meek and modest and not to laugh loudly. Many girls were betrothed in their infancy and wedded when they were twelve. Most marriages were not consummated until the girls were fourteen. In an age when many people died early, teenage pregnancies were encouraged. Most ladies married by their sixteenth birthday. In their mid-twenties, if they had not died, they had given birth to five or six children, some of whom did not survive.

 

www.rosemarymorris.co.uk

 

http://bookswelove.net/authors/morris-rosemary

Follow us and be automatically entered every month into our drawing to win a copy of one of our new releases

 

Enter to Win

Every month BWL Publishing Inc. will draw one name from our followers and that winner will receive a eBook copy of one of our new releases for that month.  All followers will be included in the drawing every month, so be sure to follow our Blog to be entered to win our eBook prize.  

The winner for February 2021 is:   Pail pearls

Please contact bookswelove@telus.net to claim your prize.  

https://bookswelove.net

Choose one of the following 4 books.

FEBRUARY 2021 NEW RELEASES

 

A Miserly Fellow by Katherine Pym

Buy Here

~*~*~*~
 

London Bridge in its hay-day

Precarious location
but folks could fish from the lower level

This is a notorious story of early London, humorous if not a little sad. I used a portion of this in my novel Highwayman which produced a snicker or two from my readers.

IN the 12th century, John Overs rented ferries that traversed the River Thames. He was as stingy as they came, except he allowed his daughter a fine education which must have drawn heavy coins from his purse. 

 John rivaled the richest Alderman of London/Southwark when it came to his income, yet what he wore and where he lived were deemed quite miserable. He refused to provide a dowry for his daughter when she came of age, even as a handsome fellow wooed her and was successful in gaining her adoration. All this took place behind John Overs’ back. 

 

Southwark Side of London Bridge

 He constructed a unique way to save money, even as his daughter balked at the plan. But being a good daughter, she went along with it.

John Overs’ unique plan devised his own death. He reckoned his servants would fast for 24 hours and pray over him during this time, thus saving food and ale in his larder. 

Unexpectedly, his servants raided his stores and struck up the lute. They partied, gobbled up his food, all the while sang and danced. Only a servant girl—here’s where the story gets muddled. Some say a maid, others a young man—stood near the body, watching for a specter to rise, which she would tend to with an iron wrought skillet. 

More of London Bridge in its prime

John Overs listened to this until he was rigid with anger. “Stirring and struggling in his sheet, like a ghost with a candle in each hand, he rose up to berate them for their boldness, but when the maid saw this, she thought the devil rose in her master’s likeness.” She took the skillet in hand—here’s another anomaly. The below source states a young man grabbed hole of an oar, but why would John Overs have an oar in his bedroom?—and bashed poor John Overs over the head, “actually struck out his brains.”

John Overs fell back onto the bed, dead as a knob, his face showing surprise at the outcome of his own parsimonious.

“The estate then became that of his daughter, and her lover, on hearing of this, hastened up from the country, but on hurrying to lay his hands on the fortune, rode too speedily; his horse stumbled, and he broke his neck on the highway.”

Downtrodden by two successive deaths Mary Overs handed over a goodly sum of money to have her father interred in a nearby church, but being excommunicated from the church for his extortion and usury, the Abbot did not allow this. His body was dug up and flung onto an ass, which “proceeded with a gentle and solemn pace through Kent street and along the highway to the small pond once called Thomas-a-Waterings, at that time the common place of execution, and shook the Ferryman’s body off, directly under the gibbet, where it was put into the ground without any kind of ceremony.”

Mary Overs could not overcome these troubles and went into a nunnery, donating a majority of her father’s wealth to build a church, St. Mary Overy’s. Shortly after this, she died and was buried in the church her father’s penury produced.

 

The end.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~

Many thanks to: The Gruesome History of Old London Bridge by Geoffrey Abbot. Eric Dobby Publishing Ltd, 2008, Kent, UK.