Marriage, Adultery and Divorce in the Middle Ages with Bridget Wells-Furby
Marriage was an important part of many medieval women’s lives, but not all marriages followed the neat path that the church had laid out for them. This week on The Medieval Podcast, Danièle speaks with Dr. Bridget Wells-Furby about fourteenth-century heiress Lucy de Thweng and what her story can tell us about medieval marriage, adultery, and even annulment.
Gilote and Johane: Promiscuous Preachers
In a lighthearted poem called Gilote and Johane, two women argue both for and against virginity.
Sex in the Not-City: Bad Behavior in the Medieval English Village
Why was the policing of sexual relationships in these medieval communities thought to be necessary in the first place?
The Story of the Dog whose Eyes led to Adultery
Once upon a time, there was a knight who was called away on business, and in what might be the heaviest bit of foreshadowing ever, said…
Getting Away with Adultery in the Middle Ages
Although adultery wasn’t sanctioned by the church, it made for some of medieval Europe’s most beloved stories, from romance to fabliaux.
Five Medieval Tricks to Make You Luckier in Love
The Distaff Gospels is a fifteenth-century collection of pseudo-serious advice given by fictional women, and it covers a wide range of the topics we can’t seem to get enough of, love and lust included.
Fragment of medieval erotic poetry discovered
Medieval historians have uncovered part of an erotic poem known as The Rose Thorn.
Medieval Sexuality with Eleanor Janega
This week, Danièle speaks with Dr. Eleanor Janega about getting medieval in the bedroom.
Love Sex Magic in Medieval Europe: The archaeological evidence
Love magic was used for a variety of purposes connected to love, sex and reproduction in the Middle Ages. It was most often used to arouse love or sexual desire, or to impede it by causing hatred or impotence.
‘I wanted to make them a little book’: The knight and the book for his daughters
I wanted to make them a little book to read so they might learn and study and understand the good and evil that has already happened, in order to keep them from that which is yet to come.
How to be a Medieval Romance Hero in Five Easy Steps
If you follow these simple steps, you can be a hero straight out of a medieval romance in no time at all.
Medieval Marriage with Ruth Mazo Karras
Episode 7 of The Medieval Podcast – What was marriage in the Middle Ages really like? Danièle is joined by Ruth Mazo Karras to discuss love, weddings and partnerships in medieval society.
Gwerful Mechain and the Joy of (Medieval) Sex
For medieval Europeans, talking openly about sex in what we might think of now as explicit detail was a very normal part of life.
Love and Eroticism in Medieval Norwegian Runic Inscriptions
Although other emotions are obvious in various inscriptions, clearly the one most often and most explicitly expressed is love, at times more specifically erotic interest.
Episcopal Virginity in Medieval England
The literature on medieval sainthood is substantial, rich and varied, but on one point it is almost unanimous: sexuality, and in particular virginity, was of far greater significance to female saints than to their male counterparts.
The Medieval Magazine: (Volume 4: No. 3): Issue 105: Valentine’s Day
The Valentine’s Issue!: Love in the Middle Ages, Teutonic Knights, Tudor medicine, and much, much more!
The Medieval Magazine (Volume 3, Issue 8) : Mother’s Day Issue
In our latest issue: Celebrating Mother’s Day. Mothers Who Weren’t: Wet Nurses in the Late Medieval Mediterranean
Motherly advice from the ninth century, Sex in the Roman Empire: In Bed with the Romans! Feast, Famine, and Food in Medieval Russia, Books: A trip through Welsh past in Mysterious Wales and much, much more!
Queenship in England: 1308-1485 Gender and Power in the Late Middle Ages: Book Tour and Giveaway!
Medieval Readers! Today, we’re hosting day 3 of Conor Byrne’s Book Tour and running an international contest to give away a copy of his latest novel: Queenship in England: 1308-1485 Gender and Power in the Late Middle Ages Want a chance to win it?
Habere rem: Concubinage and references to sexual life in Catalan pastoral visitations from the 14th century
The paper I will be presenting is a small selection of the results of my doctoral thesis, in which I studied a 14th-century pastoral visitation to the Urgell diocese in the northwest of Catalonia.
The Scapegoat: Impotence and Witchcraft in the Middle Ages
This essay investigates the question of how women were used as scapegoats for male impotence during the Witch Craze.
Telling the Truth about Sex in Late Medieval Paris
Court records that record witness testimony are a rich source for attitudes if not for actual behavior; they provide first-person accounts from people who are otherwise silent in the medieval record.
How to Cheat on a Virginity Test
During the Middle Ages a woman’s virginity was highly prized. A lady was expected not to have sex until she was married, and that her wedding night would be a kind of test to show that she had remained ‘pure’. However, if she did have sex before, was there a way she could cheat on this test?
Infertility in the Middle Ages
For medieval people, success meant succession. Heredity was at the centre of law and order, from the king down through the ranks of society. As a result, the moment children reached marriageable age – and sometimes even before that – everyone’s focus was on their fertility.
Chastity belts and birthing girdles
Chastity belts have been the subject of schoolroom and music hall humour for as long as most of us can remember. But did they really exist and for the purpose suggested?