Memory and Gender in Medieval Europe, 900-1200

Medieval Culture and Society

by Elisabeth van Houts

Tracing the oral and written memories of families and monastic communities through chronicles, saints' lives, and material objects such as jewellery and memorial stones, Elisabeth van Houts argues that in the Middle Ages, as now, the knowledge of the past was shaped by men as well as women. Men may have dominated the pages of literature but many of the stories they wrote were told to them by women. The Norman Conquest of England in 1066 provides a case study to illustrate the ways in which one memorable event reverberated through the generations. In England and Normandy, men and women remembered their ancestors' experiences: the worst were kept alive orally for a long time before they were written down, the best were put on paper straight away.

Genres: Medieval History, History, Medieval, Academic

256 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1999

About the author

Elisabeth Maria Cornelia van Houts (born 1952) is a historian specializing in medieval European history. She is an Honorary Professor of Medieval European History in the Faculty of History and a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

Van Houts was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1983. She has published and lectured on Anglo-Norman history, medieval historiography and literature and the history of gender in the Middle Ages. She has been an expert panelist on In Our Time for "The 12th Century Renaissance" and "The Domesday Book".