Women and Stews: the Social and Material History of Prostitution in the late medieval Southern Low Countries

Abstract

This article explores the social background and material culture of an understudied medieval brothel, the private ‘stew’, the most common type of brothel in the Southern Low Countries, where public brothels were rare. The fifteenth-century lease contracts of private stews contain information about the stew's size, economic value, and ambiance, suggesting the advantageous social position of some of the women who sold sex and providing inspiration to English brothel keepers. The absence of public brothels in the Low Countries reflected both a tolerance for prostitution and the relative freedom enjoyed by women in this region.