IMC 2019: Sessions
Session 1519: Wills, Women, Possessions, and Materiality in Late Medieval England
Thursday 4 July 2019, 09.00-10.30
| Sponsor: | Institute for Medieval Research, University of Nottingham / Midlands 3 Cities Doctoral Training Partnership |
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| Organiser: | Esther Lewis, Department of History, University of Nottingham |
| Moderator/Chair: | Cordelia Beattie, School of History, Classics & Archaeology, University of Edinburgh |
| Paper 1519-a | 'When I was sole Widowe': Late Medieval Married Women's Wills as Sites for Self Expression? (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Lay Piety, Social History, Women's Studies |
| Paper 1519-b | Wealthy Women Will-Makers?: Examining the Possessions of Late Medieval London Widows (Language: English) Index terms: Daily Life, Economics - Urban, Social History, Women's Studies |
| Paper 1519-c | A Prayer Book and a Will: Reconstructing the Life Cycle and Possessions of Isabel Ruddok (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Genealogy and Prosopography, Lay Piety, Manuscripts and Palaeography |
| Abstract | Late medieval women's wills allow the historian to make an assessment of the value that a testator placed on a specific object. Although a textual document, wills describe physical and material objects that were considered important enough to leave instruction for after their owner's death. This session will discuss female possessions through analysis of late medieval English last wills and testaments in relation to each speaker’s wider research. It will draw on themes of gender, value, possession, female agency, omission and prosopography, providing space for a discussion of female autonomy in the last will and testament. |