Based on the author's doctoral dissertation (Ph. D. : University of Cardiff).
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents
Power and portrayal -- Patronage and power -- Countesses -- Witnessing -- Countergifts and affidation -- Seals -- Women of the lesser nobility -- Royal inquests and the power of noblewomen : the Rotuli de Dominabus et Pueris et Puellis de XII Comitatibus of 1185.
Summary
This is a study of noblewomen in 12th-century England and Normandy, and of the ways in which they exercised power. It offers a reconceptualization of women's role in aristocratic society, and in doing so suggests original ways of looking at lordship and the ruling elite in the high Middle Ages.