Forget charms. Forget amulets and trinkets; they are nothing but folly meant to divert your logic and secure coin purse. Trust no witch on the corner nor foreign vendor in the marker. Take this bit of "advice" from the Trotula Ensemble, for example.
Take a male weasel and let its testicles be removed and let it be released alive.
Let the woman carry these testicles with her in her bosom,
and tie them in goose skin or in another skin,
and she will not conceive.
This is ridiculous! The only true forms of contraception lie in the tricks of the mind and in the powers of herbs. There are a number of potions and medicines that can be brewed from plans as simple as asarum, ferula, artemisia, greater and lesser century plants, pepper, Queen Anne's lace, myrrh, licorice, pennyroyal, rue, peony, parsley, and cypress. None of these plants would cause suspicion to arise in your spouse, and can be easily acquired. See the index for specific recipes or listings of local vendors.
There are also ways to trick your man if he desires intercourse and you've just had enough. Tell him you must feed your child directly from the tit for at least three years lest your child not grow big and strong, and convince your husband that sexual intercourse while lactating will cause deformities in the child. If he does not believe this, no fear! It is nearly impossible to become pregnant while lactating. Burn your stove hotter than usual, or not at all; excessively hot or frigid air may cause your husband to fall asleep. Pour more alcohol into his drink than he requests; the spirits will make his manly parts unable to perform.
(Side Effects of Various Medicines May Include: Headaches, Dizziness, Swelling of the Vagina, Loss of Appetite, Infections, Strangury, Infancy Defects, Still Births, Sterility, Death)
Further Reading: Mazo Karras, Ruth. "Sex and Marriage" from Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing Unto Others. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group: New York City, New York, 2005. Print.
Further Reading: Mazo Karras, Ruth. "Sex and Marriage" from Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing Unto Others. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group: New York City, New York, 2005. Print.
A very amusing take on a very real issue! I'm sure the stress of pregnancy (or potential pregnancy) afflicted many women in medieval times and went through great pains looking for contraceptives. I think you're piece speaks to our view of the dominant gender norms at the time. That a woman, especially a wife, could not refuse sex and had little say in what took place in the household. Whether this is true or not (as I'm sure one could find cases of women who did have power in their household and ones that did not) I can't say, but I seem to have the same idea of how women had to operate in medieval times. It seems to me a common theme of the medieval era is being unable to be blunt or outright. In courtly love neither party admits to much, it's only acceptable to hint and be coy. Much the same way we view what said hypothetical reader of your piece would have to do; make her husband fall asleep, or create a viable reason as to why they can't have sex, anything that shoves the blame of not having sex onto something else.
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