Handbook for William: A Carolingian Women's Counsel for Her Son

"I send you this little book written down in my name, that you may read it for your education, as a kind of mirror."

So wrote the Frankish noblewoman Dhuoda to her young son William in the middle of the ninth century. Intended as a guide to right conduct, the book was to be shared in time with William's younger brother. Dhuoda's situation was poignant. Her husband, Bernard, the count of Septimania, was away and she was separated from her children. William was by Charles the Bald as a guaran...