Gwen Seabourne is Professor of Legal History in the School of Law, University of Bristol, UK. She specialises in medieval legal history, and has written on medieval crime, economic regulation and medieval women.

• Introduction: women, the common law and the legal historians 1PART IUnions and divisions: women and the common law 111 ‘Their position is inferior to that of men’: differentiation, inclusion, omission 142 Unstable constructions: unity, disunity, property and favour in common law thought on women 34PART IIAudible and inaudible; credible and not credible: women in thelegal process 533 ‘By the mouth of man’: women as non-party actors in litigation 55PART IIIWomen’s complaints and complaints of women 794 Voice, agency and ‘playing the victim’ 845 Limits and accommodation 936 Responsible and irresponsible women: the female defendant 121Conclusion: the future of women’s legal past 158