Hi, I am writing a medieval film, and a character in the story is a gold digger. One of the other characters describes her that way.
This film historian portrayal doesn't take itself too seriously. (Think style of 'A knights tale') but I want to hear your thoughts.
According to the OED, "gold digger" dates to 1920. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any precisely medieval equivalents. I would suggest one of the following seventeenth-century expressions:
They more generally mean "money-grubber," but I imagine that context would make your more specific meaning clear. Also, while not strictly medieval, they have the good fortune of being both transparent in meaning and sufficiently archaic that they won't seem out of place to the reader.
EDIT: Fixed the third list entry.
It's not that old, probably early 1900s. Go with "leech" or "exploiter" maybe?