Table Of ContentTHE NEW MIDDLE AGES
BONNIE WHEELER, Series Editor
The New Middle Ages is a series dedicated to pluridisciplinary studies of medieval cul-
tures, with particular emphasis on recuperating women’s history and on feminist and
gender analyses. This peer-reviewed series includes both scholarly monographs and essay
collections.
PUBLISHED BY PALGRAVE:
Women in the Medieval Islamic World: Power, Crossing the Bridge: Comparative Essays
Patronage, and Piety on Medieval European and Heian Japanese
edited by Gavin R. G. Hambly Women Writers
edited by Barbara Stevenson and
The Ethics of Nature in the Middle Ages: On
Cynthia Ho
Boccaccio’s Poetaphysics
by Gregory B. Stone Engaging Words: The Culture of Reading in
the Later Middle Ages
Presence and Presentation: Women in the by Laurel Amtower
Chinese Literati Tradition
edited by Sherry J. Mou Robes and Honor: The Medieval World of
Investiture
The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard: edited by Stewart Gordon
Perceptions of Dialogue in Twelfth-Century
France Representing Rape in Medieval and Early
by Constant J. Mews Modern Literature
edited by Elizabeth Robertson and
Understanding Scholastic Thought with Christine M. Rose
Foucault
by Philipp W. Rosemann Same Sex Love and Desire among Women in
the Middle Ages
For Her Good Estate: The Life of Elizabeth edited by Francesca Canadé Sautman
de Burgh and Pamela Sheingorn
by Frances A. Underhill
Sight and Embodiment in the Middle Ages:
Constructions of Widowhood and Virginity in Ocular Desires
the Middle Ages by Suzannah Biernoff
edited by Cindy L. Carlson and Angela
Jane Weisl Listen, Daughter: The Speculum Virginum and the
Formation of Religious Women in the Middle Ages
Motherhood and Mothering in Anglo-Saxon edited by Constant J. Mews
England
by Mary Dockray-Miller Science, the Singular, and the Question of
Theology
Listening to Heloise: The Voice of a Twelfth- by Richard A. Lee, Jr.
Century Woman
edited by Bonnie Wheeler Gender in Debate from the Early Middle Ages
to the Renaissance
The Postcolonial Middle Ages edited by Thelma S. Fenster and
edited by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen Clare A. Lees
Chaucer’s Pardoner and Gender Theory: Malory’s Morte D’Arthur: Remaking
Bodies of Discourse Arthurian Tradition
by Robert S. Sturges by Catherine Batt
The Vernacular Spirit: Essays on Medieval The Texture of Society: Medieval Women in
Religious Literature the Southern Low Countries
edited by Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, edited by Ellen E. Kittell and Mary A.
Duncan Robertson, and Nancy Warren Suydam
Popular Piety and Art in the Late Middle Charlemagne’s Mustache: And Other Cultural
Ages: Image Worship and Idolatry in England Clusters of a Dark Age
1350–1500 by Paul Edward Dutton
by Kathleen Kamerick
Troubled Vision: Gender, Sexuality, and Sight
Absent Narratives, Manuscript Textuality, and in Medieval Text and Image
Literary Structure in Late Medieval England edited by Emma Campbell and Robert
by Elizabeth Scala Mills
Creating Community with Food and Drink in Queering Medieval Genres
Merovingian Gaul by Tison Pugh
by Bonnie Effros
Sacred Place in Early Medieval Neoplatonism
Representations of Early Byzantine Empresses: by L. Michael Harrington
Image and Empire
by Anne McClanan The Middle Ages at Work
edited by Kellie Robertson and
Encountering Medieval Textiles and Dress: Michael Uebel
Objects, Texts, Images
edited by Désirée G. Koslin and Janet Chaucer’s Jobs
Snyder by David R. Carlson
Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady Medievalism and Orientalism: Three Essays on
edited by Bonnie Wheeler and John Literature, Architecture and Cultural Identity
Carmi Parsons by John M. Ganim
Isabel La Católica, Queen of Castile: Queer Love in the Middle Ages
Critical Essays by Anna Klosowska
edited by David A. Boruchoff
Performing Women in the Middle Ages:
Homoeroticism and Chivalry: Discourses of Male Sex, Gender, and the Iberian Lyric
Same-Sex Desire in the Fourteenth Century by Denise K. Filios
by Richard E. Zeikowitz
Necessary Conjunctions: The Social Self in
Portraits of Medieval Women: Family, Medieval England
Marriage, and Politics in England 1225–1350 by David Gary Shaw
by Linda E. Mitchell
Visual Culture and the German Middle Ages
Eloquent Virgins: From Thecla to Joan of Arc edited by Kathryn Starkey and Horst Wenzel
by Maud Burnett McInerney
Medieval Paradigms: Essays in Honor of
The Persistence of Medievalism: Narrative Jeremy duQuesnay Adams, Volumes 1 and 2
Adventures in Contemporary Culture edited by Stephanie Hayes-Healy
by Angela Jane Weisl
False Fables and Exemplary Truth in Later
Capetian Women Middle English Literature
edited by Kathleen D. Nolan by Elizabeth Allen
Joan of Arc and Spirituality Ecstatic Transformation: On the Uses of
edited by Ann W. Astell and Bonnie Alterity in the Middle Ages
Wheeler by Michael Uebel
Sacred and Secular in Medieval and Early Mindful Spirit in Late Medieval Literature:
Modern Cultures: New Essays Essays in Honor of Elizabeth D. Kirk
edited by Lawrence Besserman edited by Bonnie Wheeler
Tolkien’s Modern Middle Ages Medieval Fabrications: Dress, Textiles,
edited by Jane Chance and Clothwork, and Other Cultural Imaginings
Alfred K. Siewers edited by E. Jane Burns
Representing Righteous Heathens in Late Was the Bayeux Tapestry Made in France?:
Medieval England The Case for St. Florent of Saumur
by Frank Grady by George Beech
Byzantine Dress: Representations of Secular Women, Power, and Religious Patronage in the
Dress in Eighth-to-Twelfth Century Painting Middle Ages
by Jennifer L. Ball by Erin L. Jordan
The Laborer’s Two Bodies: Labor and the Hybridity, Identity, and Monstrosity in
“Work” of the Text in Medieval Britain, Medieval Britain: On Difficult Middles
1350–1500 by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen
by Kellie Robertson
Medieval Go-Betweens and Chaucer’s
The Dogaressa of Venice, 1250–1500: Pandarus
Wife and Icon by Gretchen Mieszkowski
by Holly S. Hurlburt
The Surgeon in Medieval English Literature
Logic, Theology, and Poetry in Boethius, by Jeremy J. Citrome
Abelard, and Alan of Lille: Words in the
Absence of Things Temporal Circumstances: Form and History in
by Eileen C. Sweeney the Canterbury Tales
by Lee Patterson
The Theology of Work: Peter Damian and the
Medieval Religious Renewal Movement Erotic Discourse and Early English Religious Writing
by Patricia Ranft by Lara Farina
On the Purification of Women: Churching in Odd Bodies and Visible Ends in
Northern France, 1100–1500 Medieval Literature
by Paula M. Rieder by Sachi Shimomura
Writers of the Reign of Henry II: On Farting: Language and Laughter in the
Twelve Essays Middle Ages
edited by Ruth Kennedy and Simon by Valerie Allen
Meecham-Jones
Women and Medieval Epic: Gender, Genre,
Lonesome Words: The Vocal Poetics of the Old and the Limits of Epic Masculinity
English Lament and the African-American edited by Sara S. Poor and Jana K.
Blues Song Schulman
by M.G. McGeachy
Race, Class, and Gender in “Medieval”
Performing Piety: Musical Culture in Medieval Cinema
English Nunneries edited by Lynn T. Ramey and Tison
by Anne Bagnell Yardley Pugh
The Flight from Desire: Augustine and Ovid Allegory and Sexual Ethics in the High Middle
to Chaucer Ages
by Robert R. Edwards by Noah D. Guynn
England and Iberia in the Middle Ages, Hildegard of Bingen’s Unknown Language:
12th-15th Century: Cultural, Literary, and An Edition, Translation, and Discussion
Political Exchanges by Sarah L. Higley
edited by María Bullón-Fernández
Medieval Romance and the Construction of
The Medieval Chastity Belt: A Myth-Making Heterosexuality
Process by Louise M. Sylvester
by Albrecht Classen
Communal Discord, Child Abduction, and
Claustrophilia: The Erotics of Enclosure in Rape in the Later Middle Ages
Medieval Literature by Jeremy Goldberg
by Cary Howie
Lydgate Matters: Poetry and Material Culture
Cannibalism in High Medieval English in the Fifteenth Century
Literature edited by Lisa H. Cooper and Andrea
by Heather Blurton Denny-Brown
The Drama of Masculinity and Medieval Sexuality and Its Queer Discontents in Middle
English Guild Culture English Literature
by Christina M. Fitzgerald by Tison Pugh
Chaucer’s Visions of Manhood Sex, Scandal, and Sermon in Fourteenth-
by Holly A. Crocker Century Spain: Juan Ruiz’s Libro de
The Literary Subversions of Buen Amor
Medieval Women by Louise M. Haywood
by Jane Chance The Erotics of Consolation: Desire and
Manmade Marvels in Medieval Culture Distance in the Late Middle Ages
and Literature edited by Catherine E. Léglu and
by Scott Lightsey Stephen J. Milner
American Chaucers Battlefronts Real and Imagined:
by Candace Barrington War, Border, and Identity in the Chinese
Middle Period
Representing Others in Medieval Iberian
edited by Don J. Wyatt
Literature
by Michelle M. Hamilton Wisdom and Her Lovers in Medieval and
Early Modern Hispanic Literature
Paradigms and Methods in Early Medieval
by Emily C. Francomano
Studies
edited by Celia Chazelle and Power, Piety, and Patronage in Late Medieval
Felice Lifshitz Queenship: Maria de Luna
by Nuria Silleras-Fernandez
The King and the Whore: King Roderick and
La Cava In the Light of Medieval Spain: Islam, the
by Elizabeth Drayson West, and the Relevance of the Past
edited by Simon R. Doubleday and
Langland’s Early Modern Identities
David Coleman, foreword by
by Sarah A. Kelen
Giles Tremlett
Cultural Studies of the Modern
Middle Ages Chaucerian Aesthetics
edited by Eileen A. Joy, by Peggy A. Knapp
Myra J. Seaman, Memory, Images, and the English Corpus
Kimberly K. Bell, and Christi Drama
Mary K. Ramsey by Theodore K. Lerud
Cultural Diversity in the British Middle Ages: Constructing Chaucer: Author and
Archipelago, Island, England Autofiction in the Critical Tradition
edited by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen by Geoffrey W. Gust
Excrement in the Late Middle Ages: Sacred Queens in Stone and Silver: The Creation of a
Filth and Chaucer’s Fecopoetics Visual Imagery of Queenship in
by Susan Signe Morrison Capetian France
Authority and Subjugation in Writing of by Kathleen Nolan
Medieval Wales
Finding Saint Francis in Literature and Art
edited by Ruth Kennedy and Simon
edited by Cynthia Ho, Beth A. Mulvaney,
Meecham-Jones
and John K. Downey
The Medieval Poetics of the Reliquary:
Enshrinement, Inscription, Performance Strange Beauty: Ecocritical Approaches to Early
by Seeta Chaganti Medieval Landscape
by Alfred K. Siewers
The Legend of Charlemagne in the Middle
Ages: Power, Faith, and Crusade Berenguela of Castile (1180–1246) and
edited by Matthew Gabriele and Jace Political Women in the High Middle Ages
Stuckey by Miriam Shadis
The Poems of Oswald von Wolkenstein: An Julian of Norwich’s Legacy: Medieval
English Translation of the Complete Works Mysticism and Post-Medieval Reception
(1376/77–1445) edited by Sarah Salih and Denise N. Baker
by Albrecht Classen
Medievalism, Multilingualism, and Chaucer
Women and Experience in Later Medieval
by Mary Catherine Davidson
Writing: Reading the Book of Life
edited by Anneke B. Mulder-Bakker The Letters of Heloise and Abelard:
and Liz Herbert McAvoy A Translation of Their Collected Correspondence
Ethics and Eventfulness in Middle English and Related Writings
Literature: Singular Fortunes translated and edited by Mary Martin
by J. Allan Mitchell McLaughlin with Bonnie Wheeler
Maintenance, Meed, and Marriage in Women and Wealth in Late Medieval Europe
Medieval English Literature edited by Theresa Earenfi ght
by Kathleen E. Kennedy
Heloise and the Paraclete: A Twelfth-Century
The Post-Historical Middle Ages Quest (forthcoming)
edited by Elizabeth Scala and by Mary Martin McLaughlin with
Sylvia Federico Bonnie Wheeler
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WOMEN AND WEALTH IN
LATE MEDIEVAL EUROPE
Edited by
Theresa Earenfi ght
WOMEN AND WEALTH IN LATE MEDIEVAL EUROPE
Copyright © Theresa Earenfight, 2010.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-1-4039-8432-6
All rights reserved.
First published in 2010 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the
world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers
Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-53987-1 ISBN 978-0-230-10601-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230106017
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Women and wealth in late Medieval Europe / edited by
Theresa Earenfight.
p. cm. — (The new Middle Ages)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Women in politics—Europe—History. 2. Women in public life—
Europe—History. 3. Wealth—Europe—History. I. Earenfight, Theresa,
1954–
HQ1236.5.E8W645 2010
305.48(cid:2)96210940902—dc22 2009024120
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: March 2010
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
Theresa Earenfight
1 Constant du Hamel: Women, Money, and
Power in an Old French Fabliau 13
Daniel M. Murtaugh
2 Take All My Wealth and Let My Body Go 33
M. C. Bodden
3 “Consider, I Beg You, What You Owe Me”:
Heloise and the Economics of Relationship 51
Sally Livingston
4 Money Isn’t Everything: Concubinage, Class, and the Rise
and Fall of Sibil·la de Fortià, Queen of Aragon (1377–87) 67
Núria Silleras-Fernández
5 Merchant Women and the Administrative Glass Ceiling in
Thirteenth-Century Paris 89
Sharon Farmer
6 “Appropriate to Her Sex”? Women’s Participation on the
Construction Site in Medieval and Early Modern Europe 109
Shelley E. Roff
7 The Spending Power of a Crusader Queen:
Melisende of Jerusalem 135
Helen A. Gaudette
8 Exploring the Limits of Female Largesse: The Power of
Female Patrons in Thirteenth-Century Flanders and Hainaut 149
Erin L. Jordan
