The Franks And The Lais: A Literary Analysis

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In The History of The Franks and The Lais, both Gregory and Marie de France focus a lot on the stories that are related to women. Also, according to them women’s status in the 12th centuries seems to elevate compared with the previous centuries. On one hand, women tend to have power, either regarding to economic or family, in their hands. Women in The History of The Franks own their own control over economic power in the family, and they can even become an inheritor or a superviosr on the behalves of their husbands. In Le Fresne, the rich men’s wife decideds everyting by herself without even telling her husband-- to abandon one of her twin daughters and to arrange her daughter’s marriage. On the other hand, they are free to love, which means …show more content…

As Gregory states that, “the Lady Brunhild is recognized to have inherited the cities of Bordeaux…, that is as a morninggift”( The History of The Franks IX: p.505). The Lady Brunhild is given a thing called morninggift and according to the same book a morninggift can be referred to as various forms of property, for example, male servants, cities, lands and tax revenue. At the same time, it is acknowledged by the King in the Treaty that Brunhild owns the absolute right to these properties-- she can manipulate them according to her own will. Meanwhile, Brunhild is also legal to inherit the properties of her husband once her husband dies. Therefore, women in that time period start to gain economic power, and this economic power indicates that these women’s position at home becomes increasingly significant. A similar example that exemplify women’s economic power it that Duke Amalo’s wife is sent away “to one of his other estates to look after his(husband’s) affairs.”( The History of The Franks IX: p.513) The lady is given the right to take charge over part of husband’s territories here, and she is like a helper of her husband. However, before that time period, women seldom have the right on their own, not to say intervening in family affairs. Nevertheless, Gregory brought in with these example to show that women begin to possess the right of property and the management of the home, …show more content…

When King Sigibert find that almost all his brothers’ wives are from lower social classes and cannot match them perfectly, he decides to “ask for the hand of Brunhild” because she is a princess and is “elgant in all that she did… chaste and decorous in her behaviour”( The History of The Franks IV: p.221) Undoubtly, King Sigibert expresses his understanding of marriage, which is a man should take a wife who can match him. In other words, he thinks that it is necessary to take the family backgrounds into account since people from higher social status seem to behave themselves more decently. It is true that Sigibert tends to care about this aspect, but in the whole book the more commom examples provided by Gregory are that poor women marry to the aristocrats, for instance, Marcovef, Merofled and Theudechild all get married to the King etc. The numerous examples at least demonstrates that this phenomenon is becoming prevelant in those days. And the prevalence of flexible marriage policy gives women, especially those with a humble beginning, a chance to love and marry with

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