This is the first in-depth, comparative study of women's access to justice in medieval English towns. It compares the records of Nottingham, Chester and Winchester and a wide range of legal actions to highlight the variable nature of women's legal status in actions that arose from the complex, messy ties of everyday life.

Teresa Phipps is Honorary Research Fellow at Swansea University

Introduction
1 Women, town courts and customary law in context
2 Commerce, credit and coverture: women and debt litigation
3 Law and the regulation of women's work
4 Violence, property and 'bad speech': women and trespass litigation
5 Public disorder, policing and misbehaving women
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index