Gender and Matrimonal Litigation

Question 1

What is commonly asserted?

Answer 1

Medieval church = patriarchal institution
Medieval Catholicism = misogynistic ideology
Both factors in the marginalisation and oppression of women in this era

Question 2

Why is the common assertion to simplistic?

Answer 2

Assumes the church was more powerful in influencing people’s lives than it was and ignores other factors that suppressed women

Question 3

How did the church attempt to police peoples lives?

Answer 3

Enforcing canon law in regards to personal belief, sexual conduct and marriage

Question 4

What has Charles Donahue Jr argued?

Answer 4

English courts were systematically prejudiced against female litigants

Question 5

Were church courts important as a form of judicial control?

Answer 5

Yes - worked in conjunction or in competition with secular jurisdictions

Question 6

What sanctions could church courts enforce?

Answer 6

Only ecclesiastical - penance or excommunication

Question 7

What fell into the jurisdiction of church courts?

Answer 7

Heresy
Disputes of the validity of a marriage as it was a sacrament of the church
Sexual immorality

Question 8

What does ex offico mean and give an example?

Answer 8

Courts levying charges themselves as part of a policing role
Church courts done this in regard to charges of fornication or adultery

Question 9

Were court marriage disputes ex officio?

Answer 9

No - initiated by private petition (called instance actions)

Question 10

How did instance cases work?

Answer 10

Each party made a statement setting out their case and their witnesses then responded to a set of questions derived from the original statements
Defendant would make their case again by questioning the accounts given or the reliability of the witness
The presiding officer would use transcripts of witnesses responses against canon law to decide

Question 11

What sourses are used in this field?

Answer 11

Depositions in court cases

Survival rare before the early modern period apart form in York

Question 12

What can we find out form depositions?

Answer 12

Issues relating to gender
Local disputes
Disputes within or between families

Question 13

Were marriage cases initiated more by women or by men?

Answer 13

Significantly more by women

Question 14

Why did the number of female litigants decrease throughout the 14th and 15th centuries?

Answer 14

Decline in numbers of urban than rural cases

Women brought cases 4:1 in urban areas and 4:3 in rural areas

Question 15

Why does does Donahue emphasise the fact that the lowest number of female litigants was in the period 1460-90?

Answer 15

After the Black Death - conditions not suitable for women (squeezed by high prices and inability to be self sustaining due to physical inability and social barriers preventing some kinds of work e.g. trades)

Question 16

What evidence can be used to counter Donahue’s Black Death argument?

Answer 16

Late 14th century poll tax show women engaged in most jobs
High death rate means more jobs available and needed to be filled by women
Arguments of physical weakness disproved by female wool porters
Bad economic conditions of late 15th century worsened all conditions and female plaintiff decrease a result

Question 17

What does the number of deponents (witnesses giving a written response) tell us about a person?

Answer 17

Each deponent indicates additional expense - the more deponents used the higher the social rank of the litigant

Question 18

What can we draw form the fact that the average amount of deponents for female litigants was 4.5?

Answer 18

Women were well supported by their families in court cases

Question 19

Were deponents more likely to be male or female?

Answer 19

Male - prejudice about women giving testimony
Outside marriage and defamation cases - hardly any
Disputed tithes - just men
Marriage cases - men outnumber women 3:1

Question 20

Were deponents more likely to be used for the same sex?

Answer 20

Yes - female deponent more likely or be for female litigants
E.g. out of 12 urban causes there were 35 male deponent and 26 female (23 of which appeared for female litigants)

Question 21

What were the conditions in relation to male deponents?

Answer 21

Preferred by litigants of either sex in rural areas and urban male litigants
Urban female litigants seemed to have preferred female deponents (three quarters of female deponents in urban cases)

Question 22

Why were there less female deponents?

Answer 22

Belief that female testimony would carry less weight then that of men

Question 23

Give an example of female deponents not being used when they could have due to the belief their testimony would carry less weight.

Answer 23

6 male deponents called to testify to the presence of Margaret More as queen of the summer game at Wistow in 1470 but no women were called despite testimony suggesting they were present in equal numbers

Question 24

What other reasons are there for the lack of female litigants?

Answer 24

The cultural factors that women were encouraged to stay in the home
In marriage cases according to canon law a male and female litigant must be present to contest a marriage contract as the marriage depends on both their consent but in practise close kin would be involved in making a marriage so perhaps they were also president in a marriages unmaking

Question 25

Was marriage litigation common and what can we learn form this?

Answer 25

No - probably a last resort following community involvement
Possibility of judicial resolution decreases if family involved and financial terms negotiated
Evidence suggests many couples simply abandoned contact

Question 26

What do a key difference in marriage litigation between urban and rural cases?

Answer 26

Urban - many cases involved a litigant associated with multiple marriage contracts with multiple people (suggests high degree of autonomy for young people)
Rural - many cases involved wealthy peasants alleging marriage contracts were the result of force or fear (suggest high degree of family control)

Question 27

Why were many families involved in the creation of marriage contracts and how did they do it?

Answer 27

Too important to be left to the whims of children

Emotional or physical contour of child was uncooperative or marriage was especially advantageous

Question 28

When female deponent were used, what reasons are there for their involvement?

Answer 28

Testimony relates to the both of their children - the implication being that these women would be able to locate past events with precision by reference to the birth order of their children (not available to fathers as they were culturally excluded from childbirth)

Question 29

What makes women’s childbirth testimony more significant?

Answer 29

Parallel procedure of proof of age under feudal law only open to males - so it was they who had to recall births

Question 30

What other cases were female litigants used?

Answer 30

Annulment cases based on the husbands sexual impotence - man examined by jury of 7 women who test his virility by exposing their breasts or fondling his penis (many were professional or semi-professional sex workers)

Question 31

What is significant about female deponents only used in relation to childbirth and sexual acts?

Answer 31

Both extensions of the role of women as wives and mothers (only thing they are experts in)

Question 32

Give an example of a man remembering a past event based on childbirth.

Answer 32

John Tailor of Scarborough remembered a past event based on the fact that after his son was born he went straight to William Rasyn’s house to ask him to be the naming godparent

Question 33

What other events have been points of time reference for men?

Answer 33

Buying certain products
Departure abroad
Completing an apprenticeship
Setting up a workshop
Financial transactions e.g. collecting a debt
Law and politics e.g. executions or sessions of royal justices
Sports

Question 34

How did men present themselves in court?

Answer 34

Played into male stereotypes e.g. confess to using threats or actual violence and admit to having sex with a woman but give alibi as to why they couldn’t have been married

Question 35

Give an examples of an alibi given to show marriage couldn’t have been contracted.

Answer 35

John Herford of York attempted to prove he was accompanying an employer to Pontefract for a horse fair at the time he was allegedly promised to marry Agnes Brignall

Question 36

How was the credibility of female witnesses attacked?

Answer 36

They were accused of sexual immorality e.g. deponents of Margaret Goldsmyth calling a rival woman a ‘sempster’ which hints at low economic status and therefore prostitution

Question 37

How were women portrayed in court cases?

Answer 37

As victims - Cecily Wyvell having her eye dislodged to annul a marriage based on fear
As strong willed - only when what they were doing was considered righteous e.g. Agnes Frankissh denying a contract attempting to be forced on her by her father through force

Question 38

Does Donahue believe courts were biased against women?

Answer 38

Yes for the 14th century- female litigant successful in three quarters of their cases whereas men in most of theirs

No for the 15th century as all litigants successful three quarters of the time regardless of gender

Question 39

What were the typical judgements of the court?

Answer 39

Tended to enforce an alleged marriage however informally contracted as opposed to rejecting it
Unwilling to grant wives legal separation gains abusive husbands unless evidence is compelling

Question 40

What does Goldberg believe of you look at cases individually as opposed to statistics based on them?

Answer 40

The argument that the courts were institutionally sexist doesn’t hold up - applied canon law as rigorously and impartially as could be expected

Question 41

Give an example of a case not being sexist in nature.

Answer 41

Beatrice Tarte petitioning for the annulment of her marriage as he was already pre-contracted to a Margaret Wright - Tarte produced 2 female witnesses testifying to the existence of the contract made in one of their houses (standard of two witnesses for a contract met and Tarte granted an annulment)

Question 42

What did the church seem to have more reservations about in regards to witnesses as opposed to gender?

Answer 42

The testimony of those in servile status of close kin

Question 43

What is Goldberg implying despite the fact he believes church courts weren’t biased against women?

Answer 43

That church courts were institutionally impartial,that court personnel didn’t harbour their own prejudices or that the law was gender blind (e.g. evidence not available for victims of domestic violence)