During the Middle Ages in Europe, lifelong spinsters came from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds, though elite women were less likely to be single than peasants or townswomen. The category of single women does not include widows or divorcees, which are terms used to describe women who were married at one point in their lives.
Definition
Before 1800, the term "single women" (or "singlewomen", a 14th-century compound) is defined as women who lived without having married, which includes women who would eventually marry in their lifetime and women who never would. The term "life-cycle single women" describes women who were single for the years between childhood and marriage. Women who were single for life fell under the category of lifelong single women.
It is important to distinguish single women from virginal nuns, another group of husbandless women. Although unmarried, not all single women were celibate virgins and virginal nuns practiced very different lives than everyday single women. Widows also differed from single women, as they often had greater economic security and occupational opportunity. While widows and single women both lived without a spouse at some point in their lives, their lifestyles were very different and widows were often awarded more freedoms and opportunities.
Demographics
Demographers have much more information about the demographic history of single women during the early modern and modern period than in the Middle Ages. In fact, there are no sources that offer explicit information on the demographics of single women before the fourteenth century."Urban residence, poverty, and migration all raised the age at which women married and prompted higher proportions of single women. Great wealth, high social status, and immobility tended to lower the age of marriage and depress the number of single women."
Late Medieval Europe In medieval Europe, there was a geographic contrast in the proportions of single women. In England in 1377, about one-third of adult women were single women. In Florence city of Italy, in 1427, about one-fifth of adult women were single.
In northern Europe, women often married in their mid-twenties. However, "singleness was more common, marriage occurred relatively late, and husbands and wives tended to be of roughly similar ages".
Historians describe this marriage trend in northern Europe as the northwestern European marriage pattern, the trend involving "young, single people work[ing] as laborers or servants for a number of years, saving up money to establish a separate household, and thereby delaying marriage into their early or even mid-twenties".
Women in southern Europe, specifically the Mediterranean regions of southern France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, usually married in their teens and early twenties. In the Mediterranean regions, the large majority of people married, and wives were often much younger than their husbands.
The early marriage pattern did not appear only in southern Europe, nor was it even most notable there. Among Hungarians, Greeks, Slavs, and Albanians marriage occurred earlier than anywhere west of the Hajnal line.
If a woman living in southern Europe did not marry in her teens, she was often expected to join a nunnery.
Sex ratios While geographic location influenced the proportions of single women, climatic differences, cultural differences, sex ratios, economic fluctuations, social status, and religion also played a role. In terms of climatic differences, there may have been fewer single women and earlier marriage in southern Europe due to the "high infant and child mortality in southern Europe where summer-related diseases have a noticeable virulent effect".
Economics In regards to economic fluctuations, there tended to be more single women in areas where there were more options for paid work. If a woman was suffering financially, she often resorted to early marriage, or remarriage if widowed. "Female prosperity inhibited marriage whereas general prosperity promoted it". Another factor that influenced the proportions of single women was an individual's wealth and social status. Women from poorer classes often married later than women from wealthier classes, as they had to accumulate sufficient dowries. Generally, noblewomen married at the youngest ages.
Urban versus rural While there tended to be more single women in northern Europe than in southern Europe, there were also more single women in towns and cities than in the countryside. This phenomenon is likely due to the fact that there were more opportunities for female employment in urban areas. Single women may have been much more prevalent in cities because sex ratios were more equal in rural areas. As there tended to be more women than men in urban areas, lifelong single women were often more abundant in urban areas.
Culture and religion Cultural differences also influenced the number of single women in a particular region. For example, in Mediterranean communities, there was an emphasis on the "sexual purity of women as a reflection of family honor" that may have led to early and near-universal marriage.
Religion also played a role in the marriage patterns of women. Jewish women often married in their teens, which was generally earlier than the age at which Christian women got married. Furthermore, lifelong single women were very rare in Jewish communities. In Islamic religions, women often married at a very young age, as they did not need to provide a sufficient dowry.
Reasons for women being single in the Middle Ages
Migration Towns and cities were particularly attractive to young women in the Middle Ages who hoped to discover greater financial opportunities or escape customs that gave preference to men. As such, the number of women within the migrant community exceeded that of men and towns began to experience skewed populations in favor of women. Migrant women were usually poorer than town natives and often had to work for many years to earn a dowry. Even still, marriage was not always guaranteed and non-natives tended to experience longer periods of poverty and singlehood than women born in urban areas.
Insufficient dowry The dowry practice in the Middle Ages, which involved the exchange of wealth and gifts among families at the time of marriage, was incredibly important to the economic success of the new couple. Medieval families understood that such resources were necessary for the couple, namely the husband, to establish a home and pursue a career, trade or business opportunity. Even the poorest families were expected to provide a dowry on behalf of their daughter and if they could not, their daughter was not usually wed. This class of unwed women often performed years of contract labor to earn an eventual dowry, marrying much later in life, or served as a domestic servant without the option to ever do so.
Forced Monasticism Securing advantageous marriages was essential for elite women in the Middle Ages. But for elite women who did not marry, monasticism became the only viable option. Even among elites, large families who had to provide multiple dowries may have also chosen to send a daughter to a convent as a way to lessen the financial burden. Though singlehood was a part of being a nun, their experiences are not representative of the majority of unmarried women living in the Middle Ages.
Sex, sexuality and spinsterhood
"Simple fornication" and personal choice Unlike men, single women risked ruining their family's reputation if they wanted to engage in sexual activity outside the contexts of marriage. By the mid-late Middle Ages, the prospect of an independent woman came under increased scrutiny. The prevailing belief was that sex between two unmarried individuals was sinful. While many lifelong single women were sexually active, it is unclear as to what percentage of the population this entailed. Medieval historians were also more likely to classify voluntary sex as prostitution, regardless of whether or not money was exchanged."In medieval Europe with its strict classification of women as virgins, wives, and widows, any woman who did not fit into one of three categories risked being equated with member of the only identifiable, demarcated group that did not fit: prostitutes." Reasons why women would choose spinsterhood over marriage: Preferred a temporary or vague union Little to no economic incentives Familial and socioeconomic pressure
By the latter half of the Middle Ages, the pressure to marry (as described in canon law) grew. As a result, the choice to remain single became increasingly less and less attractive. An independent woman, both symbolically and financially, threatened the established patriarchy. This marked a shift in the perception of single women that followed them into the early modern era. "Strong and healthy single women under the age of fifty were forbidden to rent houses or rooms, but to go into service; women with a bad reputation were to be evicted by their landlords. Such regulations were a further pointer to women's worsening employment prospects in the early modern period."
Same-sex relationships Throughout history, homosexual relationships have occurred between women. While lesbianism was not a definitive characteristic of lifelong spinsters, there were women who fit into this category.
Li livres de jostice et de plet(z) ("The Book of Justice and of Pleas") is an Old French legal treatise compiled in 1260. It is known as one of the first books on record that equates lesbianism with male homosexuality. As such, the Middle Ages marked a change in the way the church viewed and punished female same-sex relationships.
Prostitution Single women who couldn't make ends meet would often resort to prostitution if they could not find other means of work. But it is hard to distinguish how prostitution was defined in medieval Europe, namely because it can be found referenced in regard to both commercial and casual sex. However, surviving documents indicate an awareness of the economic circumstances that led women to sell themselves by those in positions of power."That canon lawyers and theological writers found no difference between a prostitute and a sexually active woman morally does not mean that they did not recognize that the sex trade was a business. They wrote about under what circumstances it was legitimate for a prostitute to take money. The twelfth-century Parisian scholar Peter the Chanter and his associates Stephen Langton, Robert Courson, and Thomas of Chobham said that a prostitute did not have to make restitution of her ill-gotten gains. Chobham even argues that the prostitute was entitled to a reasonable wage for her sexual services." While prostitution was considered lewd and sinful by the church, it is possible that the average person didn't stigmatize prostitutes in the same way. Trial records provide the most concrete examples, with prostitutes being called upon to provide crucial testimony in cases of impotence.
By the late medieval period, prostitution became regulated in ways it had never been before, relegating working women to particular districts and manners of dress. "Prostitution waxed and waned in the Middle Ages for reasons never satisfactorily explained. Moral fashions notwithstanding, the major impetus for dramatic increases in prostitution at certain periods in particular countries may have depended upon economic competition with men."
Economic opportunities
Peasant women