ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the extent of female agency in the English medieval church courts, particularly Canterbury and York, emphasizing the inextricable association of gender, mnemonic discourse and legal authority in ecclesiastical litigation. The authority of women's memory was founded in part on the association of female family members with the safeguarding of family history. The ability to exercise agency through memory in the church courts depended on social status as much as gender, with variations between court systems and types of cases influencing the extent of female authority and participation. The expansion of categories for considering female remembrance to include areas hitherto aligned with male memory emphasizes the gendered relation between speech, authority and customary knowledge. The extent of female agency in contributing reliable memories to defamation suits depended on the treatment of women's speech beyond the ecclesiastical courts. Since female memory was aligned with family remembrance, laywomen exerted authority in memories concerning kin, including customs that informed domestic life.
