Women in the Middle Ages led fascinating and often wildly differing everyday lives, depending on their social class and family situation.
Yet their wealth of experience has long been obscured and overshadowed by the experiences of men, with history books often relegating women to a single, catch-all chapter, as if their lives formed a unified story.
While a number of medieval women have claimed biographers’ attention, they tend to be the exceptional figures who broke the mould.
What, then, of the countless others who were not exceptional and who did not blaze a new trail? How did their family lives and the constraints imposed upon them influence the ways in which they lived, worked, rejoiced, grieved and shaped their world?
This book turns the spotlight on these women and examines how the concept of family impacted every aspect of their existence, whatever their social class.
It draws us into bustling towns and rural villages, into courts and castles, to meet secular women of every standing and learn about their lived experiences.
For the first time, the full spectrum of the female familial experience is considered, illuminating the lives of medieval women with the depth, nuance and humanity they have always deserved.
The Family Lives of Medieval Women by Catherine Hanley is published on 9 April, 2026.
Catherine gives us a taste of the range of work women did, and the restraints put upon them, in her related Historia feature.
See more historical books published in 2026 in our round-up of over 130 books out this year.
