Monastic Women and Secular Economy in Later Medieval Europe, ca. 1200 to 1500

This book aims to rewrite the narrative of women and power in medieval society. Based on a rich corpus of sources – systematically collected for the first time – it reveals female monasteries as central and economically able agents in feudal society. With a chronological focus on the late Middle Ages, this book focuses on four powerful convents located in modern-day France, Germany, and Switzerland. Three of these institutions were aristocratic convents founded in the early Middle Ages. They wer