1st Edition

Status and Social Roles of Women in Central Europe in the Middle Ages

194 Pages 9 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

194 Pages 9 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book presents a comprehensive overview of women's activities in various spheres of life in medieval Poland and its neighbouring countries, seeking to move beyond the commonly accepted perspective of queens and higher nobility from the social elite to rural women, townswomen and poor noblewomen. The authors provide the broadest possible overview of these women's activities, encompassing... Read more

Introduction
Beata Możejko, Aneta Pieniądz, and Magdalena Biniaś-Szkopek

1. Biblical Models of Women and Femininity in the Oldest Polish Chronicles as a Hermeneutical Problem
Aneta Pieniądz

2. Sophia of Halshany, the Fourth Wife of Władysław Jagiełło, as a Mother
Bożena Czwojdrak

3. Women, Asceticism and Control over the Body in the High Middle Ages: The Case of Thirteenth-Century Polish Saint-Duchesses
Grzegorz Pac

4. Women in Action: The City as a Space of Female Devotion (Four Case Studies from Kraków)
Piotr Okniński

5. Clausura, Visuality and Materiality: Spiritual Life and Visual Culture of Women’s Quasi-Monastic Communities in Late Medieval Bohemia
Daniela Rywiková

6. The Role of Women in Polish Medieval Cities: Prospects and Needs of Research
Agnieszka Bartoszewicz

7. Widows and Widowhood in the Thoughts of Late Medieval Theologians
Martin Nodl

8. A Noblewoman’s Social Identity in Late Medieval Poland
Witold Brzeziński

9. The Peasant Woman in Late Medieval Poland: One Estate of Realm – Different Quality of Life
Małgorzata Kołacz-Chmiel

10. Women of Different States Appearing in Medieval Church Courts in Poland
Magdalena Biniaś-Szkopek

Biography

Beata Możejko is a full Professor at the Faculty of History of the University of Gdańsk. She is the author of over 150 articles and publications and six monographs, including Peter von Danzig: The Story of Great Caravel 1462–1475 (2020) and Studies on Late Medieval Gdańsk (2025).

Aneta Pieniądz is Associate Professor in Medieval History at the University of Warsaw. She is the author of Fraternal Bonds in the Early Middle Ages (2023) among other publications and is currently working on a project devoted to the history of the relationship between bees, forests, and beekeepers in medieval and early modern Poland. 

Magdalena Biniaś-Szkopek is Professor at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, heads the Department of Archivistics, Faculty of History and serves as Director of the Polish Academy of Sciences Kórnik Library. Her publications include Marriage in Medieval Poland (2024) and over 30 scholarly studies on medieval and nineteenth-century Poland.