Marion Turner

The medieval English matriarch was a force to be reckoned with

Like many 15th-century women, Margaret Paston was a fearless protector of her family, supremely capable, in her husband’s absence, of defending their property against predatory neighbours

A medieval woman hunting with a hound. From The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England, by Joseph Strutt. [Getty Images] 
issue 14 September 2024
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  • God’s Own Gentlewoman: The Life of Margaret Paston

    Diane Watt

    Icon Books, pp. 288, £20

In 1448, Margaret Paston, a wife and mother in her twenties, wrote to her husband John urgently requesting more weapons: she needed crossbows, poleaxes, windlasses and jacks. In John’s absence, a local lord was trying to take over Gresham, their property in Norfolk, and was mounting a violent siege of the manor house.

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