Reviewed by:

• Aristocratic Marriage, Adultery and Divorce in the Fourteen Century: The Life of Lucy de Thweng (1279–1347) by Bridget Wells-Furby
• Hilary Jane Locke

The medieval period presents the scholar with challenges simply because of the lack of surviving source materials. Each research project is constructed through threading together thin strands of remaining evidence, usually found in a myriad places. By extension, constructing accounts of the lives of medieval women is even harder. Bridget Wells-Furby, an independent scholar who researches the landed gentry in medieval England, has done a remarkable job in trying to unravel the story of Yorkshire heiress Lucy de Thweng. Thweng, who lived an eventful life of three marriages, divorce, a lengthy widowhood after her second marriage, and an extramarital relationship that resulted in birth of a bastard son. In her recent monograph, Aristocratic Marriage, Adultery and Divorce in the Fourteenth Century: The Life of Lucy de Thweng (1279–1347), Wells-Furby attempts to piece together and understand the life of Lucy (and, by extension, other medieval women who had similar experiences), by exploring stages in her life, such as wardship, marriage(s), divorce, widowhood, and adultery.

The monograph is structured around the concepts of marriage, divorce, and separation, exploring Lucy’s story chronologically. It is meticulously researched, with each chapter revealing a plethora of detailed information. In order to contextualize Lucy’s story, Wells-Furby presents different cases of separation, divorce, remarriage, and adultery that appear in the records. For example, Chapter 3, ‘Separation and Divorce’, provides an extremely detailed survey of numerous cases of why separation and divorces were sought, looking at particular cases where, it should be stressed, a wide variety of reasons were claimed for divorce to be granted. Importantly, these cases show that contemporaries were grappling with issues of divorce and separation, more so than perhaps historians have thought in the past.

Lucy de Thweng, in particular, sought a divorce in 1303 from her first husband William Latimer for unknown reasons, and left the marriage after Latimer went to war in Scotland. Wells-Furby uses Lucy’s case to show that medieval women who wished to seek separation or divorce needed to have alternative sources of support—in Lucy’s case her uncle. Divorce also came with other risks. Medieval women were vulnerable to abduction by their husbands if seeking separation and divorce, but also if they were widows or divorcees and had some personal wealth. Wells-Furby concludes that Lucy was likely abducted after her divorce from Latimer—due to her having land from the divorce settlement—as Lucy was already romantically involved with a man called Nicholas Meinill, to whom she bore a bastard child, but eventually married a man called Robert de Everingham. As such, it is through Lucy’s story that Wells-Furby is able to unpack the very troubling conditions some women were exposed to throughout this period, and the risks that some took in order to leave their marriages. [End Page 255]

The main issue with the monograph stems from gaps in the source material. Due to the lack of surviving records on medieval women, and Lucy in particular, the monograph does devote more space to the details of other cases than to Lucy herself. As Wells-Furby states in her conclusion: ‘medieval historians are never more at the mercy of their source material than when considering personal feeling and trying to deduce them from stray incidental references’ (p. 196). While she is aware of these problems, Wells-Furby chooses to undertake an extremely detailed examination and survey of cases of separation, divorce, adultery, and remarriage on a large scale. It is understandable that this research accompanies Lucy’s story in order to provide adequate context, which Wells-Furby acknowledges is crucial. However, it often means that an exploration of Lucy’s story is relegated to the end of the chapters and often feels supplementary to the monograph. Wells-Furby is able to summarize all of Lucy’s...

审核人：

• 十四世纪的贵族通婚，通奸和离婚：露西·德温（Lucy de Thweng）（1279–1347）的生活，布里奇特·威尔斯·富比（ Bridget Wells-Furby）
• 希拉里·简·洛克（Hilary Jane Locke）

中世纪时期仅仅由于缺乏尚存的原始资料，给学者带来了挑战。每个研究项目都是通过将通常在无数地方发现的剩余证据的细线组合在一起而构建的。通过扩展，对中世纪妇女生活的描述更加困难。独立学者布里奇特·威尔斯·菲比（Bridget Wells-Furby）对中世纪英格兰降落的士绅进行了研究，在试图揭示约克郡女继承人露西·德温的故事方面做得非常出色。Thweng过着一生三婚，离婚，第二次婚姻后丧偶，漫长的婚姻，并导致了一个混蛋儿子的婚外恋。在她最近的专着中，十四世纪的贵族通婚，通奸和离婚：露西·德温（Lucy de Thweng）的生活（1279–1347），威尔斯·菲比（ Wells-Furby）试图拼凑并了解露西的生活（以及其他具有类似经历的中世纪女性） ，探索生活中的各个阶段，例如监护权，婚姻，离婚，丧偶和通奸。

专着围绕婚姻，离婚和分居的概念而组织，按时间顺序探索了露西的故事。对其进行了认真的研究，每一章都揭示了大量的详细信息。为了背景化露西的故事，威尔斯·富比（Wells-Furby）展示了唱片中出现的不同情况下的分居，离婚，再婚和通奸。例如，第3章“分居与离婚”提供了许多详细的调查，说明了许多为何寻求分居和离婚的案例，并着眼于应强调要求离婚的各种原因的特定案例。的确。重要的是，这些案例表明，当代人正在为离婚和分居问题而苦苦挣扎，这比历史学家过去所想的还要重要。

露西·德温（Lucy de Thweng）特别是在1303年以未知原因与第一任丈夫威廉·拉蒂默（William Latimer）离婚，并在拉蒂默（Latimer）在苏格兰开战后离开了婚姻。威尔斯·菲比（Wells-Furby）使用露西（Lucy）的案例表明，希望寻求分居或离婚的中世纪女性需要其他支持来源-露西（Lucy）是她的叔叔。离婚还带来其他风险。中世纪妇女如果寻求分居和离婚，也很容易受到丈夫的绑架，而且如果她们是寡妇或离婚并有一些个人财富，她们也很容易受到丈夫的绑架。威尔斯·富比（Wells-Furby）的结论是，露西（Lucy）与拉蒂默（Latimer）离婚后很可能被绑架了-因为她从离婚协议中获得了土地-露西（Lucy）已经浪漫地与一个名叫尼古拉斯·梅尼尔（Nicholas Meinill）的男人有婚，她生了一个混蛋，但最终嫁给了一个混蛋。那个叫罗伯特·德·埃弗林汉姆的人。[结束页255]

专着的主要问题是源资料中的空白。由于缺乏关于中世纪女性，尤其是露西的尚存记录，该专着确实将更多的空间用在了其他案件的细节上，而不是在露西本人身上。正如威尔斯·富比（Wells-Furby）在其结论中指出的那样：“中世纪历史学家再也不会因为考虑到个人感觉并试图将他们从偶然的偶然引用中推论而受到他们的原始资料的怜悯”（第196页）。当她意识到这些问题时，Wells-Furby选择进行极为详细的检查，并大规模调查分居，离婚，通奸和再婚的情况。可以理解，这项研究伴随着露西的故事以提供适当的背景，韦尔斯·富比（Wells-Furby）承认这一点至关重要。然而，这通常意味着对露西的故事的探索被降级到了本章的结尾，并且常常感觉是对专着的补充。Wells-Furby有能力总结露西的全部...