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    Women in the Middle Ages: The Lives of Real Women in a Vibrant Age of Transition
    Unavailable
    Women in the Middle Ages: The Lives of Real Women in a Vibrant Age of Transition
    Unavailable
    Women in the Middle Ages: The Lives of Real Women in a Vibrant Age of Transition
    Ebook356 pages5 hours

    Women in the Middle Ages: The Lives of Real Women in a Vibrant Age of Transition

    By Joseph Gies and Frances Gies

    3.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Reissued for the first time in decades, this ambitious work of Medieval scholarship by bestselling historians Frances and Joseph Gies traces the stories and fates of women in Medieval Europe over the course of a millennium.

    Medieval history is often written as a series of battles and territorial shifts. But the essential contributions of women during this period have been too often relegated to the dustbin of history. In Women in the Middle Ages, Frances and Joseph Gies reclaim this lost history, in a lively historical survey that charts the evolution of women’s roles throughout the period, and profiles eight individual women in depth. We learn of Hildegarde of Bingen, an abbess who was a noted composer and founded two monasteries; of Eleanor de Montfort, a 13th century Princess of Wales who was captured by Edward I and held as a political prisoner for three years; and women of somewhat more modest means, such as the spouse of an Italian merchant, and a peasant’s wife.

    Drawing upon their various stories, talented historians Frances and Joseph Gies—whose books were used by George R.R. Martin in his research for Game of Thrones—offer a kaleidoscopic view of the lives of women throughout this tumultuous period.

    “A wealth of solid information.” –New York Times

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateNov 30, 2010
    ISBN9780062016577
    Unavailable
    Women in the Middle Ages: The Lives of Real Women in a Vibrant Age of Transition
    Author

    Joseph Gies

    Frances (1915–2013) and Joseph (1916–2006) Gies were the world’s bestselling historians of medieval Europe. Together and separately, they wrote more than twenty books, which col-lectively have sold more than a million copies. They lived in Michigan.

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    Reviews for Women in the Middle Ages

    3.5/5

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    • 5/5
      I liked most of the Gies' books I have read- at this is no exception. A fascinating and useful introduction to the source material revealing Medieval Women in every guise. Perhaps it will serve to challenge the misconceptions that they were an universally repressed and downtrodden class with no rights. From noblewomen to Merchants, there was far more to the fairer sex in the Middle Ages than being locked on towers.....also it has proved useful for a number of academic pursuits and assignments.
    • 1/5
      The problem with the brothers Gies is that they drag their 20th Century prejudices back with them through time. They are hindered in this work, for example, by the assumption that women were powerless in early Medieval times, because women were oppressed in more recent history.They do not look openly at the evidence, in my opinion. The power of Fredegund, Ringunth and others evades them. The book is an easy read but misrepresentative and thus a danger to those without a firm understanding of the primary sources from that time.