Stolen Women in Medieval England Rape, Abduction, and Adultery, 1100–1500

Description

This study of illicit sexuality in medieval England explores links between marriage and sex, law and disorder, and property and power. Some medieval Englishwomen endured rape or were kidnapped for forced marriages, yet most ravished women were married, and many ‘wife-thefts’ were not forced kidnappings but cases of adultery i ctitiously framed as abduction by abandoned husbands. In pursuing the themes of illicit sexuality and non-normative marital practices, this work analyses the nuances of the key Latin term raptus and the three overlapping of ences that it could denote: rape, abduction, and adultery. This investigation broadens our understanding of the role of women in the legal system; provides a means for analysing male control over female bodies, sexuality, and access to the courts; and reveals ways in which female agency could, on occasion, manoeuvre around such controls. List of tables and i gure page vi Preface vii List of abbreviations x Introduction 1 1 Laws and legal definitions 18 2 Rape 52 3 Abduction and forced marriage 82 4 Elopement 98 5 Adultery 120 6 Retaliatory abductions and malicious legal proceedings 161 Conclusion 192 Appendix I: Ravishment legislation 196 Appendix II: Sources of ravishment cases 204 Bibliography 231 Index 254