The Lady In Medieval England 1000-1500

This excellent book is best read as a pair with his previous, equally good _The Knight in Medieval England_ (1996). A knight must have a lady, but while many books have been written about medieval women, few have focused on the knight's female counterpart in society. Again, emphasis is on the aristocracy, since that's where the records are, though Coss depends heavily on surviving letters and contemporary literature as well as household accounts, and he even employs such sources as monumental effigies and brasses. Both books are stimulating studies with many examples drawn from noble families of the period.