Table Of Content
COMMON WOMEN
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF SEXUALITY
Judith Brown and Guido Ruggiero, General Editors
Immodest Acts
The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy
JUDITH BROWN
The Evolution of Women's Asylums Since 1500
From Refuges for Ex-Prostitutes to Shelters for Battered Women
SHERRILL COHEN
Sexuality in the Confessional
A Sacrament Profaned
STEPHEN HALICZER
Common Women
Prostitution and Sexuality in Medieval England
RUTH MAZO KARRAS
Masculinity and Male Codes of Honor in Modern France
ROBERT A. NYE
The Boundaries of Eros
Sex Crime and Sexuality in Renaissance Venice
GUIDO RUGGIERO
The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers
Sex and Culture in Nineteenth-Century New York
AMY GILMAN SREBNICK
Further volumes are in preparation
Common Women
Prostitution and Sexuality
in Medieval England
RUTH MAZO KARRAS
Oxford University Press
New York Oxford
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York
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and associated companies in
Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 1996 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
First published in 1996 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback, 1998
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Karras, Ruth Mazo, 1957—
Common women : prostitution and sexuality in Medieval England/
Ruth Mazo Karras.
p. cm. — (Studies in the history of sexuality)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-506242-6
ISBN 0-19-512498-7 |pbk.|
1. Prostitution—England—History. 2. Prostitutes—England—
Social conditions. 3. England—Social conditions—1066-1485.
I. Title. II. Series.
HQ186.A5K37 1996
306.74'0942—dc20 96-19801
Printing (last digit): 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 42
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For C.G.K.
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Acknowledgments
During the years this work took to complete, I have enjoyed both practical
and intangible support from a plethora of institutions and people—and have
incurred many debts. It is my pleasure to thank the staffs of the libraries and
archives whose collections I consulted. In Britain: The Bodleian Library;
Borthwick Institute for Historical Research; British Library, Manuscript
Students' Room,- Canterbury Cathedral, City, and Diocesan Record Office;
Corporation of London Records Office; Devon Record Office; Essex Record
Office; Greater London Record Office, Guildhall Library Department of
Manuscripts; Kent Archives Office; King's Lynn Borough Archives; Lin-
colnshire Archives Office; Public Record Office; Lambeth Palace Library;
Norfolk Record Office; Nottingham Record Office; Southampton City Re-
cords Office; Suffolk Record Office; Westminster Abbey Muniments Room
;
Warburg Institute,- York Minster Library. In the United States: Family His-
tory Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Broomall,
Pa. Free Library of Philadelphia, Rare Book Department; Huntington Li-
;
brary; Index of Christian Art, Princeton University; Van Pelt Library, Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania, Rare Book Room.
Financial support for research visits to Britain was provided by grants
from the American Philosophical Society, the National Endowment for the
Humanities Travel to Collections program, and the Research Foundation of
the University of Pennsylvania. During the trips I enjoyed the generous
hospitality of Iain Phillips and of Jeff Mazo and Georgina Clark-Mazo.
The year during which the writing of the book was completed was funded
by a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities (Grant
no. FA—31489-93), and spent as a Member of the School of Historical Stud-
ies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. I owe special thanks to James
Hilty, then chair of the Department of History, and Carolyn Adams, dean of
the School of Arts and Sciences, Temple University, for making this leave
possible.
Some of the material in the second chapter originally appeared in my
article "The Regulation of Brothels in Later Medieval England" (Signs: Jour-
nal of Women in Culture and Society 14, no. 2 [1989] © 1989 by The
University of Chicago). Some of the material in the sixth chapter originally
appeared in "Holy Harlots: Prostitute Saints in Medieval Legend" (Journal
of the History of Sexuality 1, no. 1 [1990] © 1990 by The University of
Chicago). Permission to reprint this material is gratefully acknowledged.
My initial interest in this subject was kindled by John Boswell, who
Viii / ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
continued to be a mentor and an inspiration for nearly two decades. This
book makes no pretensions to either the broad scope or the direct contem-
porary impact of his work, but I hope that it follows in his scholarly tradi-
tion. I wish he had lived to read it.
Many other individuals also provided intellectual support and counsel.
Those who have given advice or shared their own unpublished work in-
clude: Caroline Barron, Judith Bennett, Martha Carlin, Jeremy Goldberg,
Monica Green, Jeffrey Hamburger, Richard Helmholz, Derek Keene, Mary-
anne Kowaleski, Sheila Lindenbaum, Marjorie Mclntosh, Mavis Mate, John
Post, Robert Stacey, and John Van Engen. A number of people read chapters
in their areas of expertise and saved me from many errors (although those
that remain are, of course, my own): David Boyd, Richard Helmholz, Janet
Senderowitz Loengard, Mavis Mate, Dan Sherman, Paul Strohm, Heather
Swanson, Robert Swanson, and Siegfried Wenzel (who was also generous
with loans of microfilm). Judith Bennett, Judith Brown, Richard Dunn, Bar-
bara Hanawalt, Paul Hyams, Christopher Karras, Joel Kaye, Lynn Hollen
Lees, E. Ann Matter, Edward M. Peters, Guido Ruggiero, Hugh Thomas, and
John Van Engen all read drafts of the entire manuscript and provided very
helpful comments. In particular, Judith Bennett, Ann Matter, and Ed Peters
have supported this project at every stage and in many ways, for which they
have my deep gratitude.
As is customary, my family comes last but not least. Nicola Karras cheer-
fully accompanied me on several research trips and tolerated my absence on
others; Elena Karras was a latecomer to this project but cooperated in allow-
ing me the time to finish it; and Christopher Karras admirably fulfilled the
roles of editor, computer consultant, traveling companion, temporarily sin-
gle parent, and much more.
Contents
Introduction: Common Women, Prostitutes, and Whores, 3
1 Prostitution and the Law, 13
2 Brothels, Licit and Illicit, 32
3 Becoming a Prostitute, 48
4 The Sex Trade in Practice, 65
5 Marriage, Sexuality, and Marginality, 84
6 Saints and Sinners, 102
Conclusion: Sexuality, Money, and the Whore, 131
Notes, 143
Bibliography, 189
Index, 215
