TY - BOOK AU - Dunn,Caroline TI - Stolen women in medieval England: rape, abduction and adultery, 1100-1500 T2 - Cambridge studies in medieval life and thought, Fourth series SN - 9781139776530 AV - HV6574 .S765 2013 PY - 2013/// CY - Cambridge, UK PB - Cambridge University Press KW - Abduction KW - England KW - History KW - Rape KW - Adultery KW - Women KW - Sexual behavior KW - Electronic Books N1 - 2; Machine generated contents note: Introduction; 1. Laws and legal definitions; 2. Rape; 3. Abduction and forced marriage; 4. Elopement abductions; 5. Adultery; 6. Retaliatory abductions and malicious legal proceedings; Conclusion; Appendix I: ravishment legislation; Appendix II: sources of ravishment cases; Bibliography; 2; b N2 - "This study of illicit sexuality in medieval England explores links between marriage and sex, law and disorder, and property and power. Some medieval Englishwomen endured rape or were kidnapped for forced marriages, yet most ravished women were married and many 'wife-thefts' were not forced kidnappings but cases of adultery fictitiously framed as abduction by abandoned husbands. In pursuing the themes of illicit sexuality and non-normative marital practices, this work analyses the nuances of the key Latin term raptus and the three overlapping offences that it could denote: rape, abduction and adultery. This investigation broadens our understanding of the role of women in the legal system; provides a means for analysing male control over female bodies, sexuality and access to the courts; and reveals ways in which female agency could, on occasion, manoeuvre around such controls"-- UR - https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=494789&site=eds-live&custid=s3260518 ER -