Talk: Love and Marriage in the Late Middle Ages with Jane Clayton

Love and marriage, for medieval women, as revealed in the letters of the Paston family of Norfolk, were very different experiences from those of women today.  An upwardly-mobile gentry family, the Pastons educated their sons for careers in the law, but expected their daughters to augment the family’s status through advantageous arranged marriages.  The Paston Letters tell of daughters being incarcerated, beaten, separated from the men they loved, obliged to undertake secret weddings and then being ostracized by the family for doing so.  The Letters paint a picture of the sexual double standard of the time.  The men, while principally seeking women with money to marry, were free to take mistresses and beget bastard children.

For complete listings, follow the links below...

Cinema Theatre Event Cinema Live Music Classical Music
[View all listings]