Albrecht Classen 
Violence in Courtly Medieval Literature 

Violence in Courtly Medieval Culture explores the dark side of courtly literature. Although courtly literature is often associated with a chivalrous and idyllic life, the essays in this collection demonstrate that the quest for love in the world of medieval courtly literature was underpinned by violence — lovers were rejected, mistrust ruled, rape was a rampant problem, and marriage was often characterized by brutality. The collection focuses on the prevalence of what is now known as ‘domestic violence’ in the world of courtly literature. Many female writers addressed the problematic correlation of love with violence, specifically the physical violence that women faced at the hands of men, as witnessed by the twelfth-century troubairitz poetry, thirteenth and fourteenth century women’s trouvere poetry, and by fifteenth and sixteenth century German women’s love poetry. Not surprisingly, as medieval law books, romances and short narratives demonstrate, domestic violence was not at all unknown in the Middle Ages and represented a severe problem, which women could fight with only very limited resources because biblical teachings assigned absolute power to the father/husband.