In the two chapters that make up Part I the argument operates with a double time-focus. The first chapter ranges over the medieval period at large, discussing selectively views held about women, largely negative but sometimes positive. Given its importance for clerical views we start with authoritative biblical evidence, but also consider ways in which it was developed throughout the Middle Ages, and include occasional significant qualifications or divergences from its implications. This theological testimony is then supplemented by what light the practices of feudal society may throw on secular attitudes towards women and their position in the world, sometimes in agreement with ecclesiastical views, sometimes deviating from them.

In Chapter 2 we narrow our range down to the twelfth century in considering what I term ‘feminisation’ in this restricted period. The justification for this closer focus is the important changes in the relationship between the sexes which have been registered for this century, but also because this sets the scene for Part II with its treatment of vernacular romances dating from before and just after 1200.

Both chapters provide a background for the works discussed in Part II and are meant to contextualise them. They cover a broad range of social and ecclesiastical issues relating to women, deliberately broader than those treated in Part II, in order to illustrate the extent of the debate into which vernacular authors then insert their literary contributions.