An Examination of Cecilia Penifader of Brigstock - Essay Example

November 23rd, Peasants, Women, and Cecilia Penifader of Brigstock In medieval society the social es are often split into three estates: Those who pray, those who fight, and those who work. Traditionally this idea suggests that the first two estates are the ones with power because they are doing important things. However, those who work—the peasants—are supposedly completely powerless, and at the will of the other two. Another traditional idea of medieval society is the idea that women were even more powerless, and had to do everything men wanted them to for fear of their lives. An examination of Cecilia Penifader of Brigstock, who lived in the early 14th century, suggests that these traditional ideas are not necessarily correct. Instead, Cecilias life shows that women had agency, and that the peasant class—those who work—actually were not completely powerless and in thrall to the other two estates. Traditional medieval wisdom held that there were three different estates, or social classes of people. These were those who pray, those who fight, and those who work. These three parts of society were all needed to keep the whole thing running smoothly. In this model, those who prayed and those who fought were the social classes which had all the power. Those who fought were the ones who kept everybody safe from invaders, and those who prayed kept people spiritually safe and away from Hell, which was a big concern in the medieval period. Because of this, both of these important estates were the ones which took all the money and power for themselves. The third estate was those who worked, which consisted of peasants and farmers and other people who did not pray or fight. This estate was traditionally understood to not have any power at all, and be completely at the mercy of the praying and fighting estates. They usually were the ones who held up the whole society, though, because without their work the richer estate classes could not survive. An example of this is the Manorial system, which was “devised as a profit-making mechanism for its owners,” the noble or royal people (Bennett 30). In this system, the manor owners would earn the money that the workers created through harvesting and processing the grains. The other way in which medieval societies separated people into different types was through gender. It was “a world that clearly and firmly distinguished between female and male” (Bennett 115). Women and men both had distinct roles that they were supposed to carry out, without any overlap. In this model women were meant to deal with children and issues of the home. In this way “even the first moments of life were a gendered experience” which separated women from men (Bennett 115). Women were usually held to be inferior as well, or at least less important than men. They were “barred from a variety of activities, especially pledging and officeholding, that might have enlarged [their] influence in the community” (Bennett 118). Men, on the other hand, were not barred from doing anything and were often the favorite children of parents. They would get land and property from their parents while daughters would not. Men were also “able to get better training and education. Of the few peasants who learned to read and write, all were men” (Bennett 115). The reason for this was because only men were able to learn how to become priests and clerks, so they were more favored because these possessions would enable them to earn more money. Most of these suggestions that men were better than women came from proverbs or “legal traditions that assumed women were less reliable than men” (Bennett 118). Even though these conditions were unfair, it is traditionally assumed to be how men and women lived in the middle ages. Even though these ideas, both about women and men and about the three estates, are traditionally accepted as how things really were, that is probably an oversimplification. Examining the life of one medieval woman, Cecilia Penifader, can show that in reality things were a good deal more complicated. Cecilia was a peasant woman born on the manor of Brigstock, in around 1297 AD (Bennett 14). When interpreted correctly Cecilias story can tell us a lot about how the three estates really functioned in medieval society, and what effect the role of a persons gender had on their lot in life. However, it is important to remember that this cannot necessarily be applied across all places and people any more than the traditional estate and gender patterns. “Not all peasants were like Cecilia, nor were all villages like Brigstock in the early fourteenth century” (Bennett 130). Regardless of this important fact, it is clear that Cecilias life gets rid of the idea that women were completely helpless in medieval England. This is because that idea is an oversimplification. In reality, there were more than just male/female concerns when figuring out whether a person had any sort of social power or not. “In theory, each person also had a position in a household: either a head of household or a dependent” (Bennett 121). The householding idea complicates the issue of gender roles because there were cases, such as widowhood, when a woman would temporarily become head of a household, and thus able to fill more traditional male roles, even if only for a short time. In fact, “widowhood brought an expansion, rather than a contraction, in public responsibilities” because widows “could confound gender-status” as heads of household (Bennett 124). Cecilia was able to keep her power even without marrying at all, as she managed to “retain throughout her life the stature she had attained by her early twenties. She was an independent tenant and householder, but still a woman” (Bennett 123). Another interesting way in which the gender roles are complicated is when two singlewomen lived together. Instead of marrying, they might choose to come together as “a headless household composed of two independent adults” (Bennett 124). Yet another option, which Cecilia definitely did, and which seems to be a bit more unusual, is that of an independent woman living together with her brother instead of marrying. In this way she retained some power and did not become subordinate to him as the head of a household, and she “never fell under the coverture of her brother” (Bennett 124). In other words, Cecilia managed to remain under her own power throughout her life. In addition to making us rethink gender roles, Cecilias life also critiques the idea that peasants were completely powerless. In fact the whole of Brigstock Manor makes us rethink this. The peasants who lived there “were remarkably unencumbered by manorialism” and “were even able, for most of Cecilias life, to manage Brigstock manor on their own” (Bennett 31). They were also not a part of the serf system which forced peasants to “pay a small annual fee … to live legally off the manor” (Bennett 32) and also “had to pay some of their rent in labor” (Bennett 33). Even though these were realities, it is equally true that Cecilias relatively easy life as a free peasant made her “able to emigrate, work, marry and take grievances to the kings court” (Bennett 32). There were many different types of peasant life, and it is unrealistic to believe that all peasants were completely and utterly powerless. Even in those situations where the peasants were officially in thrall to the nobility, they “often came up short in meeting their obligations” or “fulfilled their duties in sullen and minimal ways” (Bennett 37). It is probably that these circumstances were the reflection of small rebelliousness in the peasants which were not worth punishing by the nobles. In addition, peasants had power on the manor of Brigstock. Cecilia, for example, “had access to some powerful local men” like “her father Robert, her brother Robert, and her brother-in-law Henry Kroyl” (Bennett 111). As can be seen by the examination of Cecilia Penifader of Brigstock, it is not always useful to make really broad assumptions about medieval life. Contrary to the popular belief of the three estates, peasants were not always powerful. Sometimes they actually played a role in the administrative tasks of keeping a manor or other feudal system running. Likewise, women were not always powerless creatures who had to get married immediately or face consequences. It was entirely possible for a woman to live on her own or with other single women and not have to bow entirely to male dominance. Again, though, it is important to realize that making assumptions in the other direction is just as bad. Instead, we have to look at each medieval life as a unique circumstance, with its own realities. Ultimately, medieval society and its “experience of community was much like ours: powerful and compelling in conception, fracture and partial in reality” (Bennett 113). Works Cited Bennett, Judith. A Medieval Life: Cecilia Penifader of Brigstock, c.1295-1344. New York: McGraw-Hill Colleg, 1999. Print Read More