To pay back debts, were the daughters of serfs forced into prostitution?

by CyberWolfWrites

I'm writing a book taking place in a magical universe similar to medieval England and the main character is a serf girl living with her late father's sister. After her uncle goes into debt (and doesn't want to sell his land back to the landlord), he decides to use the main character to get money. I'm just curious if this is at all possible in medieval times.

Dekarch

Serfs by definition don't own land, they are tenant farmers. So that's a problem right there. And who is he going into debt to and why? And what would that person be planning to do about it, and why can't he go to his lord for aid? That's the whole point of feudalism and serfdom. At least in theory, serfs have traded full freedom for the protection of the lord who owns the fields where they work.

Prostitution tends to be a more urban phenomenon than a rural one. Urban areas had a combination of a relatively affluent customer base (with coin to exchange for sex) and a relatively large number of unattached men willing to pay for sex (or married men in a position to have at least some hope that the emtire community wouldn't know about his visit before he had his pants back on). Raising a significant amount of money through full time prostitution would be nearly impossible in a rural village because there just isn't a ton of spare cash. More likely, that uncle would be looking to marry her off to a more well-to-do free farmer in exchange for his help with the debt. It's going to result in a much higher long term benefit.

Having said that, it's almost impossible to say something definitely didn't happen. It would make me roll my eyes and set down the book unless you addressed the points above, but I am not likely your target audience.

You'd really need to arrange a consultation with a specialist in medieval rural life to talk about the specific time and place you have set your book and the economics of what you are proposing.

Let me throw you a link to start looking into medieval sex work.

https://daily.jstor.org/regulating-sex-work-in-medieval-europe/

An article that has an extensive bibliography is https://thehistoricalnovel.com/2015/01/06/the-medieval-prostitute/

I wouldn't normally recommend a blog post bit the bibliography is an excellent starting point for doing your own research into the topic.

P.J.P. Goldberg, Women, Work and Life Cycle in a Medieval Economy, (Clarendon Press, 1992)

Henrietta Leyser, Medieval Women: A Social History of Women in England 450-1500, (Pheonix, 2002)

James A. Brundage, Law, Sex and Christian Society in Medieval Europe, (University of Chicago Press, 1987)

Ruth Mazo Karras, Common Women: Prostitution and Sexuality in Medieval England, (Oxford University Press, 1998)

James A. Brundage, ‘Sex and Canon Law’ in Handbook of Medieval Sexuality ed. Vern L. Bullough and James A. Brundage (Garland Publishing, 1996) pp 33-51

Ruth Mazo Karras, ‘Prostitution in Medieval Europe’ in Handbook of Medieval Sexuality ed. Vern L. Bullough and James A. Brundage (Garland Publishing, 1996) pp 243-261

Barbara A. Hanawalt, ‘The Female Felon in Fourteenth Century’ in Women in Medieval Society, ed. Susan Stuard (The University of Pennsylvania Press, 1976) pp 125-141

Ann J. Kettle, ‘Ruined Maids: Prostitutes and Serving Girls in Later Medieval England’ in Matrons and Marginal Women in Medieval Society ed. Robert R. Edwards and Vickie Ziegler (The Boydell Press, 1995) pp 19-33

P.J.P Goldberg, ‘Women’s Work, Women’s Role in the Later Medieval North,’ in Profit, Piety and the Professions in Later Medieval England ed. Michael Hicks (Alan Sutton Publishing, 1990) pp 34-51

Jane Tibbetts Schulenberg, ‘Saints’ Lives as a Source for the History of Women 500-1100’ in Medieval Women and the Sources of Medieval History ed. Joel T. Rosenthal (The University of Georgia Press, 1990) pp 285-321

Iphikrates

Hi there - we're happy to approve your question related to your creative project, and we are happy for people to answer. However, we should warn you that many flairs have become reluctant to answer questions for aspiring novelists and the like, based on past experience: some people working on creative projects have a tendency to try to pump historians for trivia while ignoring the bigger points they were making, while others have a tendency to argue with historians when the historical reality does not line up with what's needed for a particular scene or characterization. Please respect the answers of people who have generously given you their time, even if it's not always what you want to hear.

Additionally, as amazing as our flair panel is, we should also point out that /r/AskHistorians is not a professional historical consultation service. If you're asking a question here because you need vital research for a future commercial product such as a historical novel, you may be better off engaging a historical consultant at a fair hourly rate to answer these questions for you. We don't know what the going rate for consultancy work would be in your locality, but it may be worth looking into that if you have in-depth or highly plot-reliant questions for this project. Some /r/AskHistorians flairs could be receptive to working as a consultant in this way. However, if you wish for a flair here to do this work for you, you will need to organize this with them yourselves.

For more general advice about doing research to inform a creative project, please check out our Monday Methods post on the subject.