If you enjoy historical romance this book adds a little depth to what the husband & wife really did while alone in their chambers! As a medical provider I found myself cringing and wondering HOW people ever believed some of the healthcare tips and medical care given in Medieval times was truly lucky it didn’t kill the person being treated.

Here is an example of advice given to men with regards to bedding a woman.

“John Gaddesden, born c. 1280 and a graduate of the University of Oxford, is perhaps the most famous English physician of the later Middle Ages. In his Rosa Anglica (‘English Rose’), Gaddesden wrote: To excite and arouse a woman to intercourse, a man ought to speak, kiss and embrace [her], to touch her breasts, to caress her breasts and to touch the whole [area] between her perineum and her vulva, and to strike her buttocks with the purpose that the woman desires sex [...] and when the woman begins to stammer, then they ought to copulate.”

Followed by this rare gem:

“In stark contrast to the opinions of later centuries, medieval England believed that women experienced more pleasure in intercourse than men, and that women’s need for intercourse was insatiable and stronger than men’s. Another common belief was that both men and women emitted seed that united to create an embryo, and it followed that if a woman felt a ‘lack of pleasure’ she did not emit this ‘sperm’ and therefore, no conception could take place. Medical belief in the Middle Ages, by holding that women must orgasm in order to conceive a child, followed Galen.2 A further idea was that male seed was precious and should not be wasted, while female seed was both prodigious and potentially lethal unless frequently purged. Menstruation achieved this, as did intercourse, and masturbation was recommended to avoid the dangers of a woman storing up her ‘seed’. If she did not, she would suffer from an affliction called ‘uterine suffocation’, which would cause her to have difficulty breathing and to endure fainting fits and convulsions. John Gaddesden stated: If the suffocation comes from a retention of the sperm, the woman should get together with and draw up a marriage contract with some man. If she does not or cannot do this, because she is a nun and it is forbidden by her monastic vow or because she is married to an old man incapable of giving her her due, she should travel overseas, take vigorous exercise and use medicine which will dry up the sperm … if she has a fainting fit, the midwife should insert a finger covered with oil of lily, laurel or spikenard into her womb and move it vigorously about.”

Glad we don’t have uterine suffocation any longer, Phew! 😅

Last but not least, this is some scary thoughts on birth and wandering wombs:

“If a woman struggled in labour, the Trotula recommended that she take a bath in water containing mallow, fenugreek, linseed and barley, and afterwards, ‘let there be a fumigation of spikenard and other aromatic substances’. Trying to make her sneeze with powder of frankincense was another option. For opening and strengthening the birth canal, white hellebore ground into a powder was recommended; alarmingly, this was believed to ‘shake the organs’ and help push the fetus out. After childbirth, says the Trotula, ‘[t]he womb, as though it were a wild beast of the forest, because of the sudden evacuation, falls this way and that, as if it were wandering’. As the wandering womb caused terrible pain, the Trotula recommended the tops of the elder plant mixed with barley flour and the white of an egg made into little wafers with suet, and warm wine with cumin. The womb could wander from its rightful place on other occasions as well, said the Trotula, following widespread contemporary medical opinion, and one symptom was pain in the left side.”.

I am so glad our wild beastly wombs stopped wandering around after giving birth!

I have to commend the author Kathryn Warner on her extensive research into the sex and sexuality of Medieval England. I am surprised the human species did not die out with the excellent medical care given. As always if in doubt - just bleed the patient.

Thank you for this very interesting look into a somewhat closed door subject. I really enjoyed reading this book!

5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️