Prostitutes in the Medieval Era

Picture of Whorehouse

"A 'common woman' in medieval England was one who had many sex partners, often for money. Any woman not under the dominion of one man-husband, father, master-ran the risk that her independent behavior would lead to her being labeled a whore.

Medieval society attempted to control such women by treating them as though they belonged to men in common (though they were not legally property). These women were also 'common' in another sense: they were working women trying to make a living. Yet, though taking money for sex characterised their behavior, what defined their nature in the eyes of their contemporaries was thier indiscriminate sexuality" (Excerpt from Common Women by Ruth Mazo Karras)

Because of their position on the margins of society and their high visibility, prostitutes assumed a significance for medieval culture out of proportion to their numbers. Postitution was central to medieval culture because people believed that it offered a necessary outlet for masculine sex drives which, unrelieved, would undermine the social order, and because it represented in the most extreme and dramatic way tendencies that were characteristic of feminine sexuality.

• The Liber Albus, a 15th century compilation of London's customary laws, stated: "Henceforth no whore shall stay within the walls of the city. And if any henceforth shall be found dwelling within the walls of the city, let her be put in prison for forty days".

• The word "Whore" was used as an insult rather than as an accusation. Being called a whore did not imply that she was a prostitute, only that she engaged in illicit sexual relationships.

• In the 14th century, the city of London tried to segregate whores by prohibiting them from the city except on one street (Cock's Lane), or banishing them to areas where stews or bathhouses were found (outside the city proper).

• In Florence, brothels were controled municipaly (and licensed), claiming that their purpose was to "boost a declining birthrate by turning men away from homosexual practices. By initiating men into the pleasures of heterosexual intercourse, the prostitutes would supposedly inspire in them a desire to marry".

• The town of Dijon allowed for fornication with prostitutes to remedy the "epidemic of rape which threatened the power of the governing elite".

• In Sandwich, the Southwark stewholders were not allowed to beat prostitutes. They were not allowed to keep women in a brothel because of debts, and the bishop's officials were to search regularly for women being kept against their will.

• Brothelkeeping was an important area for female entrepreneurship. However, when women managed a brothel, many men still owned and profited from them.

• Women did not have to move into a full time life of prostitution. It was one of several occupations where a woman could participate on a casual or occasional basis.

• Some prostitutes were in the trade on a long term basis and could be considered professionals.

• Many women charged in court as bawds were accused of procuring girls for what would be considered rape today. Some women were kidnapped, enticed or outright sold into prostitution.

• A transient prostitute was the most independent, where the woman found their customers on their own. Picking up customers on the street was easily accessible to women who were in the trade temporarily.

• Vagabonds were a more casual prostitute, in that they stayed in someone's home. The generally slept during the day and had illicit activities at night. Though they were more independant than those in a brothel, they lacked a steady flow of customers and were threatened with violence by strangers.

• Some prostitutes would go to a customer's home. The customer had to be wealty, and command privacy. He also had to be unmarried, or living apart from his wife.

• Bawds found customers for prostitutes and lived off a part of the earnings. They also served as go-betweens for couples of long standing, where one person might be married.

• A brothel was the most formal and organized place for prostitutes to work. However, because of municiple restrictions placed on these brothels, it was not a favorable place for prostitutes to work. It limited thier economic activity, as well as their personal freedom.

• Some prostitutes were known for catering to priests. However, several women were known for mocking the preists. "Elizabeth Chekyn was convicted in 1516 of being 'a common harlot and strumpt, and also was now lately taken strolling and walking by the streets of this city in a priest's array and clothing, in rebuke and reproach of the order of priesthood.' When she performed her ritual of punishment, parading through the streets of London with a striped hood and white rod, she had 'on her breast a letter of H of yellow woolen cloth in sign and token of a harlot, and on her left shoulder a picture of a woman in a priest's gown.'"

• The fees of a prostitute depended on the woman and her customers. Prices ranged from less than a penny's worth of food, to several pounds. The larger amounts tended to be for the purchase of a woman, rather than a single act.

• "Medieval physicians believed that prostitutes were sterile because their wombs became clogged with dirt, because of the great quantities of semen they received made their wombs slippery, or because they commonly got no pleasure from sex and therefore did not emit seed."