Dhuoda's Manual: Dhuoda was a woman of the ninth century who lived in Uzes, in the department of Gard in southwest France. She wrote a book called The manual of Dhuoda which (mostly) has found it's way down through history as a legacy of the period, which is a remarkable feat in itself. The Manual includes details concerning Dhuoda and her family as well as her advice on how a family should properly behave. Dhuoda was a woman of learning, as she was aware of many of the political events of her day. She recorded her marriage in 824 to Bernard, a godson of the Emperor Louis the Pious, to whom she was loyal and devoted. Bernard was a soldier, and thus absent from his family for long periods of time. Her shame and pride in his accomplishments are evident in the Manual. Dhuoda bore two sons during her marriage, William and Bernard. Because of her husbands absence, by the time her first son was born, she had learned how to live alone. She loved her sons with a maternal passion, and wrote the Manual for them (especially for William who was sixteen years old at it's completion). She began the book in 841 and finished it in 843 shortly before her death. She explains her desire to write the book in it's introduction, "Many children, I know, are happy with their parents in this world. But I, son William, am far away from you, anxious and longing to aid you in need. So I am sending you this little work, written by myself in a way which will serve your young mind. It gives me joy to think that although I cannot talk with you face to face, when you read these pages, you will know what you ought to do.". She implores William to be true to his feudal lord, Charles, and to honor his feudal oath. She also emphasizes the need for her son to remember his duty to God and to the church. She asks that he obey his father and to revere him in his prayers. The Manual gives testimony to the importance of religion in the family and the patriarchal basis of the family unit. The father, Bernard, was the most important member of the family, and the children were encouraged and expected to give him the utmost deference. Dhuoda never lived to see the death of her husband a year after her own death, or the premature deaths of her two sons, who ended the family line.--Mary Dragelevich (summary based on Medieval Portraits from East and West by Eleanor Duckett 1972.)