Foresters, Landholders, Trespassers, and Hunters: Women in the Medieval English Forest

When we think of a woman in the medieval English forest, the person most likely to spring to mind is Maid Marian, the love interest of the legendary outlaw, Robin Hood. Disappointingly for medievalists, Maid Marian was an early modern addition to the ballads about this famous figure. Yet, the royal forests in thirteenth-century England were, in fact, home to many women (and men) from all social backgrounds, very few of whom were the wellborn lovers of outlaws. Women appear in the surviving records, instead, alongside their male kin, acquaintances, neighbors, and employers, as residents of and visitors to forest areas, some of whom fell afoul of forest law by hunting game without permission or damaging the vert (a term referring to forest vegetation). Although the royal forests of medieval England, their administration, and the exploitation of their natural resources have received considerable attention from modern scholars, the place of women in forest society remains curiously neglected as a subject for study. There has also been a tendency to dismiss women as active participants in forest culture, notably in relation to hunting. Utilising extant forest records primarily from the thirteenth century, this article offers fresh perspectives on the range of activities in which women engaged as officials, landholders, and inhabitants in English medieval royal forests. After providing a brief overview of royal forest administration, it analyses the roles and responsibilities fulfilled by women who lived in, or who ventured into, forest areas, together with their documented transgressions against the vert and the venison.