The Texture of Society

This volume, which aims to bring to the attention of a wider academic audience studies by Dutch and other European scholars, presents nine essays that examine the role of medieval women in the urban, politically fragmented world of the southern Low Countries. Although society for many women was constricted, sometimes in Beguine communities, these studies show that some were able to move about and enjoy a certain level of freedom. The contributors discuss the different treatment that Flemish justice meted out to men and women, examples of female travellers, heiresses, Beguine literature, artists and Margaret of Austria's role as patron.