We’ve read about them in chivalric novels and satirical novellas by Boccaccio, seen them in films, and studied them in paintings. But there has never been—and still isn’t—consensus. It’s easy to understand why: what could possibly be common between noble beautiful princesses for whom knights perform feats and filthy peasant girls who meekly die somewhere in the background of a series or a novel? What is she—a “proper” medieval woman? A “vessel of sin” or the Beautiful Lady? A valuable commodity in a marriage market or an powerless slave of her husband? A daring prostitute or an exalted nun? Or maybe it’s all of the above together? Or none of it at all—so perhaps it’s better to forget everything we knew or thought we knew about this topic, start studying from scratch, and look for the truth somewhere else, where nobody has searched yet. Women of the Middle Ages: stereotypes and facts.