Planting new ideas: A feminist gaze on medieval castles

Abstract

The theme of the Château Gaillard 29 Conference “Vivre au Château” is very timely: studies of medieval castles have great potential to generate meaningful archaeologies, including biographies and life cycles as well as social meanings of architecture, landscapes and material culture. This article takes an inclusive (or feminist) archaeological approach to two castles in Ireland, offering an alternative to narratives of power or bodily prowess. The first is Adare, a large baronial castle located in mid-southwestern Co. Limerick, and the second is Lea, Co. Laois, found within the western borderlands of the Anglo-Norman heartland in Leinster. The castles are geographically distant but both form part of the ancestral landholdings of the Geraldines in Ireland. Different questions are asked of women’s daily life and their gendered roles, utilising excavation results, an ecological survey, as well as evidence from allegorical prayers, inscribed slates and studies of medieval gardens and relict plants. Explorations of daily life are important and play a crucial part in revealing how social values were constructed, enacted and reflected. In order to attend to the daily sphere, we must integrate people, places and things within our scholarship to enrich our understanding of the medieval world.