Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - History Other Burgermeisters daughter Burgermeisters daughter What was the predominant image of women and women’s place in medieval society? Actual historical events, such as the scandal and subsequent litigation revolving around Anna Buschler which Steven Ozment detail’s in the Burgermeisters Daughter, suggests something off a compromise between these two literary extremes. It is easy to say that life in the sixteenth century was surely no utopia for women but at least they had some rights. Anna was the daughter of Hermann Buschler, a prominent citizen who had even been the burgermeister of the German town of Schwabisch Hall, within the Holy Roman Empire. When she was young, Anna had simultaneous affairs with a young local nobleman, Erasmus Schenk of Limpurg, and a cavalryman named Daniel Treutwein. Anna’s father was so upset when he discovered these affairs; he deprived her of mostly all her inheritance. Anna a scandalized woman, fought in the Hall legal system for decades, and she eventually won back some of her inheritance. Anna’s story suggests a rather empowered woman, largely thanks to a Germanic legal tradition, which made women’s basic rights, and kept men from treating them like they were their own property. Anna had faced many difficulties, particularly the fact that as an unprofessional single woman, she needed a male to represent her in court (Burgermeisters Daughter, 111). Had she been a professional woman with marketable skills, Anna would have received “proper legal status”, evidence of some amount of equal rights between male and female. Furthermore, the story of Anna’s battle for her inheritance shows a great deal about popular opinion. Anna, known for the affairs that she had, initially lost her case. Instead of calmly accepting this ruling, she then sued the city of Hall. Eventually, public opinion turned against the once highly liked Herman Buschler for the way he treated Anna, and he ultimately lost his position as burgermeister (Burgermeister’s Daughter 119-121). Anna’s story shows that women did have some rights, and that they also had, at least in this case, the ability to defend those rights within legal institutions. Even more important is evidence of public opinion, instead of siding against Anna as an unfit daughter causing trouble for her family Hall’s citizens actually sided with Anna against her father. In this, both daughter’s obedience to father and woman’s obedience to man were turned on their heads, revealing that regardless of religious doctrines of male authority, life among the people was much more complex. While not a complete victory for Anna, the battle for her inheritance was not a complete loss either. She capably fought her father and even the entire city council of Hall. This was no easy task because she couldn’t represent herself in court. It was one of the first times where the moral code of Germany was overturned. She contested her father and went against the respect you’re supposed to have. Her story was not a complete positive statement of female dominance, because that certainly was not the case, an ugly thirty-year court battle doesn’t indicate disempowerment either, even though her battle didn’t personally benefit her to the fullest, it was a large step for women. In the sixteenth century the normative relations between father and child, and among siblings at this time were set in the terms of complete respect. The relations between a daughter and a father was based and was lived completely on full respect from daughter to father, there was no acts of disobedience from the daughter, and Anna’s life was the complete opposite. Siblings relationships during this time was also a very respected relationship, brothers and sisters were to respect each other and live with peace. Anna Buschler’s lived the complete opposite life. Because of the affairs that Anna had, and the disapprovement of her father, this created a feud that would last throughout the family for a thirty-year court battle. She spent her life fighting for her inheritance of the family and her father spent his life trying to ruin her. Anna and her brother Phillip and sister Agatha grew apart and because of the dishonorable things that Anna did to her family, caused hatred between them all. The lawsuits, the punishments and the abuse that Herman Buschler did to his daughter are unbelievable. Anna charged many different law suits against her father and charged him with anything she could. She charged him with abandonment after he had taken her captive and she charged him with abuse. The worst punishment was yet to come, when her father had passed away. By his last will and testament he managed to cast an even darker shadow over her in death then he had in life. He disinherited her and left her the least amount that he thought the law required. (Burgermeisters Daughter, 147-148). This last litigation was a fight to the end; she had come to an agreement between her siblings and made a decision. That decision turned out to be almost exactly what her father had left her. By the end of Anna Buschler's life she learned to be satisfied with what was given to her because she realized in comparison to what she had lost she might as well just take what she was being given. This was definitely not the way sixteenth century families were run, and because of this she fought her father, her siblings and the council of Hall for her inheritance, and in the end she had come out satisfied. Anna Buschler led a very challenging life, and a very dramatic one at that. Anna was a dishonorable woman that was an embarrassment not only to her family but also of her home city, Hall. She fought her way through long, drawn out lawsuits and through the abandonment of her family, but she made the citizens of Hall believe in her, and that’s all it took. Women’s life in the sixteenth century was built around men and didn’t have the majority of rights in Germany, but Anna Buschler showed the cities around her and Germany that it could be done, that you can show the world the power of a woman. Bibliography: Word Count: 1048
Copyright © 2005 College Term Papers, INC All Rights Reserved.