This collection of essays reflects both the broad range of topics Barbara Hanawalt has broached as a medieval historian and also those her graduate students felt empowered to explore when working with her. Offering a wide methodological and disciplinary range, from political history to social history, and a broad range of sources, from public records to chronicles and literature, the contributors cover the identification of "alien" clothworkers to the communal aspects of the mayor of Norwich's "body;" from the self-creation of noble widows to the community creation of "chaste women" collectives. The introduction further provides an overview of the influence of Professor Hanawalt's work on modern-day medieval studies.

Linda E. Mitchell is Martha Jane Phillips Starr / Missouri Distinguished Professor of Women's and Gender Studies, and Professor of History at the University of Missouri - Kansas City, USA; Katherine L. French is Professor in the Department of History, State University of New York at New Paltz, USA; Douglas L. Biggs is Associate Professor in the Department of History, University of Nebraska - Kearney, USA

Contents: Introduction, Linda E. Mitchell, Katherine L. French, and Douglas L. Biggs; The alien clothworkers of London, 1337-1381, Jonathan Good; The bonds of trade: the port of Southampton and the merchants of Winchester and Salisbury, Susan Duxbury; The mayor's body, Benjamin R. McRee; What is a nice (13th century) English woman doing in the king's courts?, Janet Loengard; Even money that your bishop has come and gone: episcopal appointments and translations in 14th- and 15th-century England, Joel Rosenthal; Identifying chaste widows: documenting a religious vocation, Susan Steuer; The anonymous heroine: Aelred of Rievaulx's Rule for his sister, Laura Michele Diener; Maud Marshal and Margaret Marshal: two viragos extraordinaire, Linda E. Mitchell; Patronage, preference and survival: the life of Lady Margaret Sarnesfield, c.1381-c.1444, Douglas L. Biggs; Margery Kempe and the parish, Katherine L. French; The Berenger family's experience of the Peasants' Revolt, Anne Reiber DeWindt; Unbounded affection: the complex intimacies of 'simple' peasants after the Black Death, Madonna J. Hettinger; Index.