Mediaeval Women

There are a number of stereotypes out there about life in the Middle Ages. Some of them are true, or rather, true some of the time. Of course, we all know that women had no rights back during the Dark Ages (even though there were no Dark Ages) and were merely prizes to be handed over from one family to another, however the men of the clan saw fit.

Yet we read in the late seventh century formulary of Maraulf (a book with model paragraphs to be plugged into suitable documents - in other words, boilerplate) of an example where a father states that the custom of preferring sons to daughters as heirs is "impious" since all of his children are God-given and he loves them all equally. He therefore wishes to divide his property among them equally, thus making his daughter the equal and legitimate co-heir of her brothers.

No telling how often this happened, but at least some fathers obviously felt this way or the formula wouldn't be in the book. And the late seventh century would be the heart of what is supposed to be the Dark Ages.