Pinnable

Narratives about the Middle Ages are dominated by men. Male authors recorded history and wrote great works of literature, male rulers commanded kingdoms and fought wars, male authorities controlled religion. In traditional histories, medieval women’s roles have often been sidelined and limited to a few stereotypes and generalizations. The exhibition Medieval Women: In Their Own Words at the British Library in London counters this narrative by revealing women’s contributions right across medieval society. On display until 2 March 2025, the exhibition focuses on Europe from roughly 1100 to 1500, a period in which there was a strong cultural interconnection across the continent. While most material was written by and about men, women’s surviving testimonies offer remarkable insight into their contributions to social & economic life, culture & politics, their skilful management of households & convents, and the vibrancy of female religious culture.

Highlights include the beautifully illuminated Queen’s Manuscript by Christine de Pizan, one of Europe’s earliest female professional authors, and The Book of Margery Kempe, a memoir that is widely believed to be the first autobiography written in English. (The sole existing copy, which is now on display, was found in a Derbyshire manor house in 1934 when the residents were searching for ping-pong balls.) There is a 1424 petition to King Henry VI from his wet nurse, asking her 2-year-old employer for a £20 raise. Manorial records from Essex show that the 1483 gender pay gap was 25% — sixteen women were paid 3d a day to bring in the harvest, while the rate for their twenty-seven male co-workers was 4d. Also on display is the earliest surviving Valentine’s letter, dating from 1477, in which Margery Brews addresses her soon-to-be husband as her ‘ryght welebeloued Voluntyne’, as well as a 595-year-old letter to the citizens of the French city of Riom, sent by Joan of Arc in 1429, requesting gunpowder & other military supplies — not an appeal one would typically expect from an average medieval lady.

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