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Landholding, Inheritance, and the Seasons: Reading Women and Space in Fourteenth-Century Manorial Court Rolls
- Parergon
- Australian and New Zealand Association of Medieval and Early Modern Studies (Inc.)
- Volume 27, Number 2, 2010
- pp. 133-156
- 10.1353/pgn.2010.a409015
- Article
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Fourteenth-century court rolls for the two manors of Walsham-le-Willows, Suffolk (Walsham and High Hall), can shed light on how rural working women used and negotiated space in the course of their daily lives. Examples from the rolls illustrate how women encountered both the land and fields of Walsham and the manor court, and how women's uses of these spaces shifted at certain times. Patterns of landholding and inheritance are documented in the rolls, as is the seasonal cycle of rural life. Disruptions to this cycle are also recorded. Although women did not hold positions of public authority at the manor courts, examples of women's agency are evident in these rolls. Considering these court rolls within the context of women and space reveals fluidities in constructions of historical space and gendered roles of work and social interaction.