Medieval women are so much the butt of modern misconceptions that a realistic appreciation of their experience requires us to scrub off a thick patina of prejudice.

The generalised view that women were oppressed, exploited, ignored, abused and undervalued seems unarguable. On the other hand, the assumption that women lacked what modern critiques call ‘agency’ – opportunities to act, influence, engage and express themselves through a variety of media – or that they are entirely invisible in the historical record, is not sustainable. Poor, unfree women still stand close to or beyond the limits of our ability to reach them; but, as the centuries passed, even their experiences began to be recorded by the state – for good or ill. Women in professions; widows; those married to decent, thoughtful men and some of those who rebelled against all convention left evidence of lives full of interest.