Upon My Husband's Death

A Castilian proverb advises, "Better to be a widow than a married woman." This unique volume of essays on medieval widowhood puts the proverb to the test--returning to histories and literatures of the period to uncover the realities, as well as the popular cultural perceptions, of widowhood in medieval Europe. The contributors have discovered a gold mine of fascinating, and often surprising, life stories, and have opened a realm of women's experience previously unavailable to present-day readers and scholars. Medieval widows fell into a category outside of or between the gender roles defined and described by their societies, and this ambiguous status makes them an intriguing subject for discovery and for reflection on the societies and the time in which they lived. Drawing on personal letters, legal documents, church records, historical works, and literary texts, the contributors to Upon My Husband's Death examine both the costs and the advantages of widowhood in Europe during the Middle Ages, and provide a thoughtful and thought-provoking discussion of a most extraordinary category of medieval woman. Upon My Husband's Death has much to offer readers in many fields, including marriage and family studies, civil and church law, Jewish studies, women's studies, and European history and literature.