Susan M. Johns

Noblewomen, Aristocracy and Power in the Twelfth-Century Anglo-Norman Realm

Manchester University Press 2003

Stron XII+276, format: 14x22 cm

Contents

TABLES  AND  FIGURES page VIII

PREFACE             IX

ABBREVIATIONS              XI

1             INTRODUCTION               1

PART i    Literary sources

2             Power and portrayal      13

3             Patronage and power   30

PART ii    Noblewomen and power: the charter evidence

4             Countesses        53

5             Witnessing         81

6             Countergifts and affidation        107

7             Seals     122

8             Women of the lesser nobility    152

9             Royal inquests and the power of noblewomen: the Rotuli

de Dominabus et Pueris et Puellis de XII Comitatibus of 1185    165

1O   CONCLUSION           195

APPENDIX i    Catalogue of seals from the twelfth and

early thirteenth centuries           203

APPENDIX 2    Noblewomen in the Rotuli de Dominabus             231

BIBLIOGRAPHY 247

INDEX   269

THIS is the first study of noblewomen in twelfth-century England and Normandy, and of the ways in which they exercised power. It draws on a rich mix of evidence to offer an important reconceptualisation of women's role in aristocratic society, and in doing so suggests new ways of looking at lordship and the ruling elite in the high middle ages.

The book considers a wide range of literary sources such as chronicles, charters, seals and governmental records to draw out a detailed picture of noblewomen in the twelfth-century Anglo-Norman realm. It asserts the importance of the life-cycle in determining the power of these aristocratic women, thereby demonstrat¬ing that the influence of gender on lordship was profound, complex and varied.

This work will be of importance to specialists in history and medieval studies, as well as those interested in the experience of women and those working on lordship and feudalism.