Young medieval women

This study is based on the premise that the category of "woman" is too broad and needs to be broken down.

It is only when other variables are introduced, refining the field of enquiry, that the historian is able to gain a real insight into the lives and experiences of medieval people.This is a collection of interdisciplinary essays, each of which takes an individual approach to young women or the notion of "youth" as a stage of women's lives in late medieval Europe.

Topics covered include prostitution, Joan of Arc, a new interpretation of the representation of young women in the Malterer Embroidery, rape in medieval literature, queenmaking during the Wars of the Roses, female wardship, virgin martyrs and maidenhood as the "perfect age" of a women's life.