Lives in the early medieval period, whether in Francia or Anglo-Saxon England or the Holy Land, were strongly conditioned by gender, social rank and religious status, and the effects of all three on life-cycles. By bringing to bear different perspectives, including the geographical and institutional, and examining a few exceptionally well-documented individual cases, I hope to highlight, connect and compare the importance of gender, rank and religious status to life-cycles as lived. I shall take a cue from a recent paper given to the Life-Cycles Seminar which discussed different versions of and theories about the Ages of Man.

Chair: Mary Clare Martin