Cathryn Spence – författare

Gender influenced every aspect of life in medieval and early modern Scotland. This collection illuminates how gendered expectations and experiences shaped people's relationships with where they lived, what they believed and how they exercised power.Showcasing new work by an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars, essays in this collection draw upon a wide range of sources to present familiar topics in original ways, while opening up unexpected vistas for our historical sight.Essays range from innovative interpretations of famous people and well-known events to examinations of the thoughts and activities of ordinary Scots, with consideration also for how people from the past are publicly commemorated today. Together, they demonstrate the centrality of gender in the shaping of Scottish history.

Gender influenced every aspect of life in medieval and early modern Scotland. This collection illuminates how gendered expectations and experiences shaped people’s relationships with where they lived, what they believed and how they exercised power.Showcasing new work by an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars, essays in this collection draw upon a wide range of sources to present familiar topics in original ways, while opening up unexpected vistas for our historical sight.Essays range from innovative interpretations of famous people and well-known events to examinations of the thoughts and activities of ordinary Scots, with consideration also for how people from the past are publicly commemorated today. Together, they demonstrate the centrality of gender in the shaping of Scottish history.

This text provides the first full-length consideration of women’s economic roles in early modern Scottish towns. Drawing on tens of thousands of cases entered into burgh court litigation between 1560 and 1640 in Edinburgh, Dundee, Haddington and Linlithgow, Women, credit and debt explores how Scottish women navigated their courts and their communities. The employments and by-employments that brought these women to court and the roles they had in the economy are also considered. In particular, this book explores the role of women as merchants, merchandisers, producers and sellers of ale, landladies, moneylenders and servants. Comparing the Scottish experience to that of England and Europe, Spence shows that over the course of the latter half of the sixteenth century and into the seventeenth century women were conspicuously active in burgh court litigation and, by extension, were engaged participants in the early modern Scottish economy.