Communal Discord, Child Abduction, and Rape in the Later Middle Ages

Download or read book Communal Discord, Child Abduction, and Rape in the Later Middle Ages written by P. J. P. Goldberg and published by Palgrave MacMillan. This book was released on 2008-12-12 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Did medieval women have the power to choose? This is a question at the heart of this book which explores three court cases from Yorkshire in the decades after the Black Death. Alice de Rouclif was a child heiress made to marry the illegitimate son of the local abbot and then abducted by her feudal superior. Agnes Grantham was a successful businesswoman ambushed and assaulted in a forest whilst on her way to dine with the Master of St Leonard’s Hospital. Alice Brathwell was a respectable widow who attracted the attentions of a supposedly aristocratic conman. These are their stories.