| This thesis investigates the narratives and practices of maternal breastfeeding in the medieval
period in England and how the texts of the period reflect shifting authority away from mothers
and onto religion and medicine. This analysis is completed through three lenses: maternal,
religious, and medical. To examine maternal perspectives, I evaluate several Old English texts
while centering maternal breastfeeding to demonstrate how lactation authority began to shift
away from mothers and toward the Christian church. These texts include the Old English
Metrical Charm 6, Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, and an anonymous
homily titled De Infantibus. Chapter two focuses on religious narratives and Marian devotion
which complicated the issue of maternal lactation, creating paradoxes around maternity that
affected both lay and religious women, illustrated in a comparison of two contemporary Middle
English female writers: Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe. Finally, I evaluate how specific
remedies in the medical writing, as well as the authorial voice and intended audience of these
texts, impacted women’s authority over maternal lactation. The medical texts included in this
review are Bald’s Leechbook, Leechbook III, The Lacnunga, the Old English Herbarium, and
The Trotula. Through study of maternal breastfeeding, we gain a unique view of female history
and authority that was influenced by and also helped to shape broader cultural contexts of the
Middle Ages.
Key Words: medieval, England, lactation, motherhood, breastfeeding, religion, medical, AngloSaxon, Old English, Middle English, Metrical Charm, Bede, homily, Julian of Norwich, Margery
Kempe, Marian paradox, The Trotula, Leechbooks, Lacnunga |