What did a medieval lady do in a day?

Answer 1

1st Answer:

Women had no rights and were not treated very well. The peasant woman would take care of the children, cook the meals, help plant the crops, help reap the crops, carry the water, make the tallow candles, feed the animals, try to stay warm and dry. Some became nuns and spent their lives in a nunnery. Many women were abused and mistreated.

2nd Answer:

it depends on the class. if they where noble-women then they would basically sit around like a trophy wife.but if they were serfs then they would work along side the family "making clothes, milking cows" cooking meals... all though not hunting so much...(not only was it a mans thing, but it was a nodelmans thing)

3rd Answer:

Medieval women did many of the same things medieval men did, though they did spend more time than the men working in their homes and with their children. Of course, since most people were peasants, most medieval women worked on farms.

Other medieval women worked in textile, clothing, service, and food industries, as we would imagine. But women did many things we would not so easily guess. I recently read a paper on the construction of a church in France where the majority of the workers, including carpenters and masons, were women. Some of these were masters of their trades.

In the essay, "Women in the Medieval Guilds," Saunders lists the following professions women were known to have worked in: "brewer, laundress, barrel and crate maker, soap boiler, candle maker, book binder, doll painter, butcher, keeper of town keys, tax collector, shepherd, musician, rope maker, banker, money lender, inn keeper, spice seller, pie seller, woad trader, wine merchant, steel merchant, copper importer, currency exchanger, pawn shop owner, lake and river fisherwoman, baker, oil presser, builder, mason, plasterer, cartwright, wood turner, clay and lime worker, glazier, ore miner, silver miner, book illuminator, scribe, teacher, office manager, clerk, court assessor, customs officer, porter, tower guard, prison caretaker, surgeon and midwife." According to the Wikipedia article, "Horses in the Middel Ages," women also worked as farriers and saddle makers. (links below)

There were a number of women who were musicians. There was even a medieval word, trobairitz, which meant female troubadour. The list of women we know of who were troubadours is fairly long, and many of their lives were documented to some extent.

A surprising number of women were soldiers. This was true throughout the Middle Ages. In the Early Middle Ages, there were nations, such as the Saxons, in which it was common for women to go into combat. Fastrada, a Saxon soldier in a war against Charlemagne, later married him, and they had two daughters. But there were many others.

Of course, most women married. The laws pertaining to marriage varied widely from place to place and from time to time. While the Church concerned itself with sins and morality, including the sin of adultery, it seems not to have concerned itself with the actual marriage, and medieval marriages only included Church ceremonies for wealthy people, nobility, and royalty. Arranged marriages, which were common where there was a lot of money or power involved, were different for the common people. They were probably common family functions in some place, but were clearly unheard of for most of the people in others. Poorer medieval women usually married after they had saved money for dowries, to establish their households, and this was usually when they were 25 or older in many places, according to what records we have. In many places, women were allowed to choose their own partners if they had achieve majority.

The property laws pertaining to married couples were also highly varied. Some medieval women clearly were allowed to retain their own property, and others were not. Eleanor of Aquitaine retained her titles and lands when she married and was divorced from King Louis VII, and when she married Henry II, she remained in control, actually to the point of using her income from Aquitaine to support the rebellions of her sons against her husband. In England, women lost their property when they married in the 13th century, but regained title, though not necessarily use, of the land in the 14th century.

It was a pattern in medieval life that married couples worked together. Men did not want their families to suffer poverty when they died, so guilds often had provisions for women members. This way, widows and daughters of members could continue family businesses and pass them to their children. In some cases, women could join guilds on their own, independently. And although many guilds were closed to women, there were also guilds that were closed to men; the silk and textile guilds of Paris and Cologne were for women only.

Interesting medieval women included the following:

• Sabina von Steinbach was a stonemason and sculptor. She was the daughter of an architect. I have seen no suggestion she was ever married. Some people have said she took over her father's contract when he died, and completed Strasbourg Cathedral.
• Margery Kempe spent her later life going on one pilgrimage after another, becoming one of the greatest travellers of her age. She was the author of, The Book of Margery Kempe, which is said to be the first autobiography ever written in English. She was the daughter of a struggling merchant, wife of an ordinary man, and mother a number of children. Though she was clearly literate, she referred to herself as "unlettered." I wonder how many other medieval women were similarly "unlettered."
• Ethelfleda was a daughter of King Alfred the Great. She was highly literate and considered an expert in military affairs. She married a king of Mercia and seems to have run the country for him. When he died, she maintained her control of the throne, ruling from 911 to 918 AD. She enlarged Mercia by taking lands from the Vikings, and was a formidable military leader other areas of England wanted to join forces with.
• Christine de Pizan was a professional writer, who supported her mother, her niece, and her three children by writing poetry. She also wrote essays criticising the portrayal of women in literature and commentaries on the position of women in society. She gave revealing advice that aristocratic women: "know the laws of arms and all things pertaining to warfare, [and be] ever prepared to command her men if there is need of it."
• Eleanor of Aquitaine was a duchess, and controlled about a third of France. She went on a crusade as the head of a company of women warriors. She also married two kings, Louis VII of France and Henry II of England. She ruled England as regent for a number of years, while her son, Richard I, was on crusade.
• Margaret I of Denmark was a monarch who ruled Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland. She did this despite the fact that Denmark had a law against female monarchs. The thing that made this possible was that the nobility recognized her outstanding abilities and gave her their support. When the "rightful" heir sent an army to take her off the throne, her own army defeated it soundly.
• Joan of Arc, a peasant girl, was given control of the French army when she was seventeen years old. During the course of a very short time, she turned the tide of a war France had been losing badly.
• The women of Tortosa, a city in Aragon, fought in a battle there when an enemy army beseiged the city while their men were off fighting elsewhere. They dressed in mens' clothes, armed themselves with hatchets and any other weapons they could find, and attacked their enemy under cover of darkness, driving it away. The knightly Order of the Hatchet, open only to women, was created because of this, and the women were all made knights, with all the rights and honor that entailed.
• Many women were involved in health and health care. There were many midwives. One woman who stands above the rest, however (and I am including men here), was Trotula of Salerno, who wrote the most important books of her time on women's health. She also wrote a book on cosmetics.
• Katarina Vilioni travelled to China. It seems she was involved in trade on the Silk Road. She died in China and was buried there.
• It is recorded that continental Saxon women of the Early Middle Ages fought in battle barebreasted. After Charlemagne defeated the Saxons and made them part of his empire, he married a Saxon woman named Fastrada, who had been a soldier and fought against him.
• And yes, a fair number of women became nuns. Hildegard of Bingen was a nun who wrote important books on medicine and medicinal herbs, composed music we can still perform, because it is in notation we can still read, wrote treatises on religion, and corresponded with kings and emperors.

It is probably worth noting that of the ten famous medieval women mentioned above, six were of common rank.

There are links below for more information.
Women in mediveal times they work pretty hard. The great marjority of them were peasants. Some of these stayed on the farm got married raised there children cooked and open fires in the middle of the dirt floor of their cottages. so of them worked with their husband on the fields.others worked for themseleves or for bussinesses, operating looms and spinning wheels, finishing fabrics and sewing.others took in laundary. these are just a few ideas of what some of the women do in mediveal times.

Answer 2

Most medieval women worked pretty hard. The great majority of them were peasants. Some of these stayed on the farm, got married, raised children, cooked over open fires in the middle of the dirt floor of their cottages, because they had no fireplaces or chimneys, and worked with their husbands in the fields. They had few options.

One option was to become a servant. They did not usually choose to do this themselves, but were sent off at an early age by their parents. If they did well, they could save enough money to have a small dowry and get married to a man who lived in the village. But a large number never married and just remained house maids, kitchen maids, and so on, through their lives.

Many women who lived in villages were in trade, and they were often in trade with their husbands, selling merchandise. Others worked for themselves, or for businesses, operating looms and spinning wheels, finishing fabrics, and sewing. Others took in laundry. Some ran food stalls. Some made cheese or beer. There were a few guilds that permitted women to be members, but very few.

A fairly large number of women became nuns. Many of these were back to agricultural work, raising food for the convent, or washing, cooking, and so on. Their status as a nun freed them from some of the responsibilities of secular life, provided a greater measure of security, an allowed them a different sort of devotion than what they would have pursued with a family.

Some women, whether secular or clerical, were involved in medicine, nursing, raising medicinal herbs, preparing treatments and administering them.

Women who were wealthy did not have it easy. They had to be prepared to take over when their husbands were away or incapacitated, or when they died. The alternative was to depend on the goodness of others without a husband to protect them. Women of the nobility had to be able to defend the claims of their children. Some ruled in their own rights, and though countries like France and the Holy Roman Empire did not allow female monarchs, they did allow women to rule duchies as duchesses, and similarly allowed women to function as lesser heads of noble estates and manors. There were some women who ruled as queens regnant, especially in Spanish kingdoms and the Byzantine Empire, but also less commonly in many other countries.

Answer 3

• worked the fields and helped with the crops
• raised and bore children
• cooked meals
• did the laundry
• carried the water to the house
• chopped wood for fires
• kept the fireplace buring
• went to mass
• feed the animals
• made candles
• generally took care of the family
• did what was needed to stay alive

Answer 4

They worked on farms, took care of medicine, the making of clothes, the household and children.

Answer 5

Wash, cook, have & care for babies, grow the kitchen garden, make and repair all the clothing, clean the home, keep the fires burning, and care for any elders.

Answer 6

During the day medieval ladies raised their children and did things such as weave tapestries and embroider.