Ladies-in-Waiting in Medieval England

By Caroline Dunn

Ladies-in-Waiting in Medieval England examines female attendants who served queens and aristocratic women during the late medieval period. Using a unique set of primary source based statistics, Caroline Dunn reveals that the lady-in-waiting was far more than a pretty girl sewing in the queen's chamber while seeking to catch the eye of an eligible bachelor. Ladies-in-waiting witnessed major historical events of the era and were sophisticated players who earned significant rewards. They had both family and personal interests to advance - through employment they linked kin and court, and through marriage they built bridges between families. Whether royal or aristocratic, ladies-in-waiting worked within gendered spaces, building female-dominated social networks, while also operating within a masculine milieu that offered courtiers of both sexes access to power. Working from a range of sources wider than the subjective anecdote, Dunn presents the first scholarly treatment of medieval English ladies-in-waiting.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1009457012
• ISBN13: 9781009457019
• Release Date: January 2025
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 362 Pages
• Weight: 1.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"