ABSTRACT
The work of modern historians has emphasised the presence in medieval thought of different ideas of sex categorisation, and the presence in medieval life of some degree of fluidity as to gender roles and expectations. In statements on medieval common law and the arguments of common lawyers, ‘women’ is generally assumed to be a relevant and self-explanatory category and the language of differentiation of women and men is that of sex. No evidence of common law cases in which a court was confronted with an individual challenging apparent biological sex has, thus far, emerged, though there are a number of areas in which one might have imagined possible disputes as to whether an individual was male or female: above all in relation to succession to land. Medieval common lawyers seem to have been able to hold conflicting views about women, some more negative than others.
