ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on four interrelated themes: marriage; courtly love; gender options; and violence. It draws on textual examples from Anglo-Norman England as well as France and Occitania within linguistic rather than territorial or political boundaries. The chronological focus is primarily that of the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, when the new ideals of chivalry and courtly love are taking hold. The singular invention of Courtly Love might seem to represent the opposite of misogyny. Constructions of gender through laws, marriage customs, names, linguistic categories, restrictive work practices, scientific and religious theories and practices, architecture, art and literature serve, among other purposes, to ground power hierarchies and contain perceived threats of unruliness. The entertaining, subtle and educated elaboration of the Genesis creation stories by an Anglo-Norman cleric for the edification of a lay congregation exemplifies issues of considerable interest to the history of gender in the central Middle Ages.
