A Small Sound of the Trumpet by Margaret Wade

Women have one peachy talent which men do not share, and that is the qualification to tolerate children: "In a society where life was short and state growth essential for settlement and bear children was highly colonisation, women's ability to bear children was highly prized" (1).

Although a female was viewed as coadjutor to her father or her husband, and her property was theoretic on the wholey not below her control, she was not left defenseless at the male's mercy. The Church recognise separation in instances of extreme cruelty, fornication, and apostasy. The law accepted a char s right to hold land, to make a will or a contract, to sue and to appear as her own or her husband's attorney, and, if widowed, to be the guardian of her children. She could also challenge against her husband to her family when in great need of assistance. Concerning poorer women, manorial system would usually make allowances for her if she were having a baby; and her obligations to the lord of the manor could be waived for awhile. Actually, the lord might send the pregnant woman a present in recognition of her function in providing the estate with fresh laborers.

Childbirth was not an easy business office for women in the Middle Ages. As Labarge points out: "If girls survived infancy and widowed, to be the appeal against her childhood the next great hazard was childbirt

The world's oldest profession was also represented in the Middle Ages: "Prostitutes, for example, were considered as practising a trade that strictly oral presentation should have no place in Christian society. Nevertheless, they were tolerated as a necessary evil and could be reintegrated into the general confederacy when they gave up their way of life" (195). Needless to say, with prostitution came all the social diseases attached to that institution. In those days, there was no remediation for such afflictions, and many males were terminally infected with the dread disease.

royal line was sometimes bestowed upon women. There were some famous queens second in the Middle Ages.

As Labarge states: "The best-known of all knightly queens is unquestionably Eleanor of Aquitaine, the headstrong heiress to the rich, powerful, and extensive duchy of Aquitaine, who was successively queen of France and of England" (50). She was the mother of Richard I and King John. Because she was the heiress of Aquitaine (about half of Southern France), England claimed possession of the region. This brought forth 400 eld of war between France and England. She supported the rebellion of her sons against Henry II, for which she was imprisoned. later Richard ascended the throne, he released his mother. When Richard went on his crusade, Eleanor protected his interests against John. Later, she reconciled the brothers and continued to be politically important during John's reign.

h. Many women died in childbirth or from its after-effects, though it is, as always, difficult to provide statistics" (23).

"Their lives remind us that noble society in the Middle Ages was not completely masculine, though most married women could only display their honest abilities when they were widowed and thus free from male domination" (96-97
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