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The Early Abbesses, Nuns and Female Tenants of the Abbey of Holy Trinity, Caen
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 February 2009
Extract
A major problem for the student of a relatively new discipline or sub-discipline is the construction of a framework within which to operate. In the case of the economic, social and legal position of women in the Middle Ages the only clear thing is that the lines are slowly being redrawn, although more perhaps with respect to the central Middle Ages than to the earlier period. In fact, despite the paucity of evidence there has always been a surprising degree of agreement about the early Middle Ages. A wide range of authors from Lina Eckenstein to Eileen Power, Lady Stenton and Suzanne Wemple have regarded the period, from roughly the sixth to the ninth centuries, as one of ‘rough equality’ (to use Stenton's words) between men and women in general, and as a period of veneration, even elevation, of female religious. As for the later period, there is a much wider range of opinion, much of it conflicting. Speaking of the eleventh to thirteenth centuries, Brian Tierney and Sidney Painter, in a popular general work, conclude that: ‘Evidence of the general improvement in the status of women is fairly extensive.’ The elevation of marriage to sacrament status in the twelfth century is undoubtedly seen by some as part of this process: ‘C'est dans la réforme du mariage qu'il faut chercher les germes les plus vigoureux de l'amélioration dont bénéficie la condition féminine à partir du XIIe siècle, même si cette amélioration n'est ni continue ni générate.’ By contrast, other works suggest that an earlier golden age for women came to an end in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, as an even more male-dominated feudal society reached its zenith in terms of order and definition.
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References
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9 That is not to say that the values of upper-class women did not have repercussions further down the social scale. Indeed, it will be argued that this is an area in which Norman society appears to have differed greatly from other parts of France and England: see below p. 440.
10 The main printed sources for this period of the abbey's history are Les actes de Guillaume; Charters and custumals I; Charters and custumals II.
11 The two abbeys were established about 1.5 km apart, St Stephen's to the south-west and Holy Trinity to the east of the recently constructed (i.e. c. 1060) ducal castle.
12 Compare the dispositive sections of their dedication charters in Les actes de Guillaume, 54, 60. In the charter of Holy Trinity William appears in the opening line, Matilda seventeen lines later in the context of the church building.
13 Les actes de Guillaume, 43, 49, tables of concordance of deeds in favour of Holy Trinity and St Stephen's.
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18 Rouleaux des morts. The original roll, now lost, was 20.5 metres long and consisted of many entries, called tituli, some in verse, acknowledging receipt of the roll and expressing appreciation of the deceased's contribution to religious life.
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25 William's successor as duke of Normandy, Robert Curthose, relaxed these limits by allowing Holy Trinity the remaining three houses and fishing rights on the Orne, which were formerly reserved for the duke: Charters and custumals II, 123–4.
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29 Les actes de Guillaume, no. 12, p. 97.
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35 Charters and custumals II, 131–2.
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37 Ibid. 55. There were two mines to one sester.
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51 Cf. Charters and custumals II, 12, 22.
52 Les actes de Guillaume, no. 22, of c. 1080–5 (?).
53 Ibid. 48. Abbess Matilda's mortuary roll lists 31 deceased nuns, of whom only 6 are identifiable from other sources: Rouleaux des marts, 181–2. My figures differ slightly from Musset's.
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