This collection of essays addresses women in Scotland in the medieval and early modem period, drawing on archival sources from Court of Session records to Middle Scots poetry. The editors argue persuasively that it is important to know about Scotswomen from all social levels. The book includes a time line and introductory bibliographical essay. The twenty essays in the collection are arranged under the themes of religion, literature, legal history, the economy, politics and the family. They demonstrate the connections between Scottish women's experience and those in England and the continent, as well as highlighting what was unique for the history of Scottish women.

Through this comprehensive review of the feminine situation during more than six hundred years of Scottish history, the reader will discover how women really lived and what they really thought, whatever their place in society.

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Forward
• Acknowledgements
• Timeline
• Introduction
• PART ONE
  • 1. The Foundation and Patronage of Nunneries by Native Elites in Twelfth- and Early Thirteenth-Century Scotland
  • 2. Power Through Purity: The Virgin Martyrs and Women’s Salvation in Pre-Reformation Scotland
  • 3. Women in Scottish Divinity, c. 1590–c. 1640
• PART TWO
  • 4. Scots Abroad in the Fitteenth century: The Princesses Margaret, Isabella and Eleanor
  • 5. Images of Women in Sixteenth-Century Scottish Literary Manuscripts
  • 6. Women of the Gàidhealtachd and their Songs to 1750
• PART THREE
  • 7. ‘Dragonis baith and dowis ay in double forme’: Women at the Court of James V, 1513–1542
  • 8. Politicking Jacobean Women: Lady Ferniehirst, the Countess of Arran and the Countess of Huntly, c. 1580–1603
  • 9. ‘Holde her at the Oeconomicke rule of the House’: Anna of Denmark and Scottish Court Finances, 1589–1603
  • 10. In Search of the Antecedents of Women’s Political Activism in Early Eighteenth-Century Scotland: the Daughters of Anne, Duchess of Hamilton
• PART FOUR
  • 11. ‘For Whatever Ales Ye’: Women as Consumers and Producers in Late Medieval Scottish Towns
  • 12. Embroidery to Enterprise: the Role of Women in the Book Trade of Early Modern Scotland
  • 13. The Power Behind the Merchant? Women and the Economy in Late-Seventeenth Century Edinburgh
  • 14. Women and Legal Representation in Early Sixteenth-Century Scotland
  • 15. Wife and Widow: The Evidence of Testaments and Marriage Contracts c. 1600
  • 16. Women and the Church Courts in Reformation-Era Scotland
• PART SIX
  • 17. A Woman’s Place: Birth Order, Gender and Social Status in Highland Houses
  • 18. Wet Nurses and Unwed Mothers in Seventeenth-Century Aberdeen
  • 19. Wed to the Manse: The Wives of Scottish Ministers, c.1560–c.1800
  • 20. Women and Gender in the Early Modern Western Gàidhealtachd
• Contributors
• Index