Runaway Wives and Widows

It occurred to me today that constant European warfare would have created stax of widows. There must have been villages and towns whose populations were be 60%—70% female. In the middle ages and during the Renaissance, there were relatively few old men (due to poor diet, lack of healthcare, and lack of worker safety), so most men would be of fighting age. Therefore, the majority of people in a village would at times be second-class citizens trying to run their husbands’ businesses and farms. They must have had support networks. They would have been poorly documented, as women were largely illiterate and men largely uninterested.

Then there would be cases of women fleeing abusive marriages. We are talking about a time when 90% of the men would have been AfD members if they could. The problem for a runaway wife would have to do with personhood. A married woman was not a person, in the legal sense. Leaving her husband would deprive her of any means of support without regaining her personhood. She would be unable to enter into contracts or have recourse to the courts.

Here worth the mentioning are the unwed teen mothers who would have brought shame to their families were they to stay at home. They would need somewhere to go; an elderly widow might have well received one as an able bodied ally. There would be no shame for the widow.

These women would have to live together and work together in order to survive. Specifically, runaway wives and daughters would have to pair up with widows — who were persons — in order to do any business. This means there must have been a shadow matriarchy running inside the patriarchy of preindustrial Europe.

And behold, if you search for widowhood instead of matriarchy, you finally find evidence of matriarchy.

https://www.elfrethsalley.org/podcast/2020/7/1/episode-2-spinsters-runaway-wives-and-widows