Allas, what wonder is it thogh she wepte,
That shal be sent to strange nacioun
Fro freendes that so tendrely hire kepte,
And to be bounden under subjeccioun
Of oon, she knoweth nat his condicioun?
Housbondes been alle goode, and han ben yoore;
That knowen wyves; I dar sey yow na moore.
– Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. The Man of Law at first sympathizes with Constance’s weeping about leaving her family and friends and being sent to a foreign nation to be bound to a man she doesn’t know. But then he says she has little to complain about because husbands are all good, have been for years and wives know that. In Chaucer’s time women were considered subject to male authority and protection and were seen as the weaker sex.