Marriage, Sex, and Civic Culture in Late Medieval London

This book is a study of marriage and sex in social context, looked at through the prism of litigation in the ecclesiastical and (to a lesser extent) civic courts of London in the (mostly late) fifteenth century. The archival sources are extremely rich, the subject is intrinsically interesting, and late medieval London is an increasingly popular area of study. Shannon McSheffrey has more than done justice to this promising raw material. What first strikes the reader is the tone that the author has opted to take. Everything is explained as if the reader is a complete beginner in medieval history, including the workings and terminology of the courts, the jargon of civic government and trade, and the canon law of marriage. This feels odd at first but, if social history written from arcane sources is to be interesting and intelligible to the uninitiated, this is the way to do it

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Context (archaeology · Economic Justice · Fifteenth · Government (linguistics · Jargon · Linguistics · Literature · Middle Ages · Political science · Prism · Sociology · Subject (documents · Terminology · Tone (literature · Classics · History · Law · Medieval Literature and History · Philosophy