Overview

Although Alys Montfort is fictional, the life she describes was typical of that of a well-to-do lady of the 1300's. Officially, women in England during the 1300's had few rights in the modern sense. They were always supposed to be under the authority of a man, could not hold office or participate in government, and had limited rights to own property. Despite such legal drawbacks, however, many women held a great deal of power. A woman like Alys Montfort often began supervising a large, self-sufficient household in her early teens. The ideal woman was not a pampered, idle, and vain lady of society, but a clever manager of money and people. This held true for all classes. Middle-class women often ran the family business or trade alongside their husbands, and peasant women were as important as farmers as were peasant men.