Medieval Women and Urban Justice

This book provides a detailed analysis of womens involvement in litigation and other legal actions within their local communities in late-medieval England. It draws upon the rich records of three English towns Nottingham, Chester and Winchester and their courts to bring to life the experiences of hundreds of women within the systems of local justice. Through comparison of the records of three towns, and of womens roles in different types of legal action, the book reveals the complex ways in which individual womens legal status could vary according to their marital status, different types of plea and the town that they lived in. At this lowest level of medieval law, womens status was malleable, making each womans experience of justice unique. -- .