widows and widowhood 745wheel of fortune The wheel of fortune in medieval art
was an expression of the variability of luck or fortune.
One could be great or well off today, but in dire circum-
stances tomorrow. Everything about life would change. It
was used in literature and linked to variations in fortune
in literary figures and as an iconographic device. In art it
usually involved a wheel turning with people either going
up or going down, climbing or descending. Sometimes
these wheels were wheels of avarice with gluttonous ani-
mals lurking in the spokes. Such iconography was por-
trayed in ROSE WINDOWS, since their shape naturally led
to ideas about wheels. Another visualization of this wheel
involved a woman who was turning a wheel device with
human representations riding up and down.
Fortune had been a formidable and protective god-
dess in classical culture. This goddess was somewhat
Christianized and introduced into medieval literature in
The Consolation of Philosophyby BOETHIUS. As Fortuna
she could regulate only the distribution of property and
wealth and had no hold over the free will, body, and soul
of Christians. Under the watchful eye of God, she was
blind or arbitrary or an instrument for the punishment of
sins. Such a concept did not suggest much of a belief in
any real chance for lasting social and economic promo-
tion. In the ideology held by some in the Middle Ages,
one should stay in one’s place and concentrate on gaining
salvation.
See alsoECONOMIC THOUGHT AND JUSTICE; SOCIAL STA-
TUS AND STRUCTURE; VIRTUES AND VICES.
Further reading:John B. Friedman and Jessica M.
Wegmann, Medieval Iconography: A Research Guide(New
York: Garland, 1998); Émile Mâle, Religious Art in France:
The Late Middle Ages: A Study of Medieval Iconography and
Its Sources,ed. Harry Bober, trans. Marthiel Mathews
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1986).
Whitby, Abbey and Monastery and Synod of Situ-
ated on a headland in East Yorkshire, Whitby was a dou-
ble monastery known to BEDE. It was founded in about
657 on estates donated by King Oswiu (d. 670). Its first
abbess, Hilda (d. 680), made Whitby into training ground
for clergy and the burial place of the kings of Northum-
bria. It was the site of the important synod of 664. At this
meeting the English church decided to conform to the
Roman way, sponsored by Saint WILFRID, rather than the
Irish method of calculating the movable feasts of EASTER,
style of TONSURE, and the rituals used at baptism, among
other issues. In the eighth century the monastery was a
center of learning. The illiterate poet and saint CAEDMON
produced his vernacular religious poems there. In the
ninth century the monastery was abandoned, but it was
reestablished in a nearly site in the late 11th century by
monks from Evesham, though it never attained the cul-
tural and religious importance it had around 700.
Further reading:Alfred William Clapham, Whitby
Abbey, Yorkshire(London: H. M. Stationery Office, 1952);
Henry Mayr-Harting, The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-
Saxon England, 3d ed. (University Park: Pennsylvania
State University Press, 1991).widows and widowhood As a result of the demo-
graphic conditions of the Middle Ages many women sur-
vived their husbands. Women were usually considerably
younger than their husbands, and the high mortality rate
of childbirth did not equalize the survival rate. The regu-
lation of widows was the object of particular attention in
medieval LAW, religious regulation, and society. The
DEATHof a husband produced anxiety about the posthu-
mous disposition of his resources, wife, and children.
Males, their female close relatives, and families wanted to
know and control resources, keep control of surviving
children, and oversee the management of property open
to inheritance. These objectives often led to concern
about whether widows should remarry.
There were also questions in the later Middle Ages
about the disposition of dowries and the continuation and
prosperity of lineages. The church promoted CELIBACYand
discouraged remarriage, unless one was incapable of
chastity. It was probably best to enter a nunnery, especially
if there were no children. Widows who lived alone were
suspicious characters, at best only too open to temptation
and passing or squandering of wealth outside their late
husband’s family. In theory widows could control their
resources, but the realities of surviving in medieval society
and economic matters encouraged remarriage, even if it
meant the loss of control of one’s children, dowry, or per-
sonal property. All of this depended, of course, on the
social and economic condition of the couple involved.
Peasants and artisans had more immediate concerns and
had to act accordingly to manage immediate and serious
survival issues. Jewish and Islamic law protected the
rights of widows to financial support and housing afterThe Wheel of Fortune, illumination by Chrétien Legouais in
Ovid Moralise,Ms. 1044, fol. 74 (14th century), Bibliothèque
Municipale, Rouen, France (Giraudon / Art Resource)