Fell, Christine. Women in Anglo-

Fell, Christine. Women in Anglo- Saxon England and the Impact of 1066. Bloomington,

1066 was a seismic year, perhaps the seismic year in England's early history. It was the year that the Norman William the Conqueror took control of Saxon England. Anglo-Saxon England was never to be the same, nor was the life of England's daughters, wives, and mothers. While before different kings held feudal sway over their territories, now the Norman code of conduct, custom, and law ruled the land with absolute authority. In her book Women in Anglo- Saxon England and the Impact of 1066 medieval scholar Catherine Fell suggests that Anglo-Saxon women after the conquest did not simply lose many of the rights, legal, and social respect they had enjoyed as Englishwomen, but simply as women in general.

Fell admits that it is difficult to generalize about life for women during the Anglo-Saxon era, because the English nation was far from unified. Different kings and provinces had different laws regarding sex, marriage, and relations between the genders. Some kings, such as Alfred the Great, were more sympathetic than other kings. Fell also notes that gender-specific laws evolved (or devolved) over time, often giving women fewer rights than they had previously enjoyed. Fell suggests there is a discernable difference between early and late Anglo-Saxon law, even before 1066. Regardless, Fell argues that one can make generalization that the unifying influence of the Norman Conquest solidified women's secondary status in a way that had not existed beforehand. She calls life for women in Anglo-Saxon England both more attractive and assertive, from a modern woman's perspective (Fell 23).

The first sections of Christine Fell's scholarly work are filled with exact details of life during the era to substantiate her point. She draws from contemporary accounts and existing records to examine the law and custom regarding marriage and women's legal status. For example, Anglo-Saxon marriage contracts between families were considerably more equitable than the types of relationships contracted under Norman feudalism and were celebrated in the Norman literary tradition of chivalric romance. Although marriages were contracted between the relatives of the wife and husband neither the prospective bride nor groom had more influence in the matter because of gender.

Rather than bringing a dowry to her husband's family, one of the stipulations of the Anglo-Saxon marriage contract defined the morgengifu, or morning gift that a husband must pay to his new wife, not her relatives. This showed the value of the woman and upheld the idea that a husband was not taking a burden upon himself. This morning-gift was to be the wife's security should she face a potentially unsuitable arrangement after marriage, and a disincentive for her husband to treat her poorly. These gifts might include both land and money (Fell 57-58).

The morning gift would be returned to the sole control of the wife if the couple divorced, the man could only withhold it from his estranged if the wife had married him under false pretenses, such as if she was pregnant by another man or committed adultery for instance. After the Norman Conquest, however, women did not own any property after marriage, which made it more common for women to be given away to the richest, not the best husbands, as their families would keep their gifts.

Also, in contrast to the Norman ideal that a new bride became part of her husband's household and fell solely under his control, an Anglo-Saxon woman remained under the protection of her kin even after marriage if she was wronged, and women and men could both begin divorce proceedings. During the Norman era, women had no property rights after they were married, and everything they owned passed into their husband's authority, as did any independence they had previously enjoyed as legal persons. This was confirmed in ecclesiastical doctrine as well as the law of the land, giving a moral authority to the subjugation of women. Even the language referring to people changed after the Norman Conquest. Before, the word mann was a generic term that referred to both men and women. Under the French-speaking Normans, a gender neutral sense of personhood did not exist.

Even during the pre-Norman era, laws had become progressively more punitive against women. During the 7th century, a woman who separated from her husband because he treated her unkindly was entitled to half his estate, to care for his children if she took them under her care. Widows had to remain unmarried for twelve months after the death of their husbands although they were free to marry after their mourning period. During the Anglo-Saxon period they could not forced to join a nunnery after their husbands died. Yet after the Norman Conquest, it was considered spiritually dangerous for a woman to be 'free' even women who did wish to join nunneries were locked in far more patriarchal relationships with Church authorities than women who had lived previously. The tone of priests addressing nuns takes on a much more punitive tone, regarding women's inherently sinful nature.