The Fourth Estate: A History of Women in the Middle Ages

In this wide-ranging study Shulamith Shahar considers the whole question of the varying attitudes to women and their status in western Europe between the twelfth and the fifteenth centuries. She draws a cohesive picture of women in a range of situations: nuns, married women, peasants and noblewomen, townswomen and women involved in heretical movements and witchcraft. The Fourth Estate has become a classic in the study of women in the Middle Ages, and with a new introduction including new developments, this revised edition will keep its status as an invaluable student resource.