Piety, patronage and property-holding: women in Medieval Canterbury and its hinterland, c.1150-c.1300

Abstract

This thesis examines the agency employed by women of the higher and lesser nobility, and those of the upper free peasantry with whom they were associated, in Canterbury and its hinterland in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It uses a case study approach to explore their engagement in three essential aspects of their lives: their religious patronage, their landholding and management of their estates, and their contributions to the local economy, both spiritual and temporal. These spheres of activity were conducted in the context both of the city – dominated by the great Benedictine houses of Christ Church priory and St Augustine’s abbey – and of the rural environment beyond. The choices made by the subjects of the case studies are considered in the circumstances of their family connections, their lordship, their geographical environment and their social networks, at a time when inheritance was vital to the merging of families and lands, and thus to the perpetuation of lineages. The study both supports and extends the historiography by offering new insights into female religious patronage and cultural ideas, beliefs and practices, in addition to demonstrating similarities in the practices of women across the ranks of the nobility and the lesser landholders. In particular, it shows that there are clear parallels in this respect at each life cycle stage, as women sought to achieve family security and continuity in an uncertain environment. This was the case not least for widows, for whom the changes evident in Magna Carta of 1215 and its later versions did not resolve issues regarding remarriage and dower, but also for daughters, wives and mothers all too aware of the precariousness of the continuity of landholding across generations, and thus of the need to engage the support and protection a key religious house could offer.

Date of Award	2024
Original language	English