IMC 2021: Sessions

Session 308: Women and Wills in Late Medieval Britain, II

Monday 5 July 2021, 16.30-18.00

Organiser:	Chris Woolgar, Department of History / Centre for Medieval & Renaissance Culture, University of Southampton
Moderator/Chair:	Rachel Delman, University College, University of Oxford
Paper 308-a	Periculum mortis: Women's Wills from the York Archbishops' Registers in the Time of the Black Death (Language: English) Marianne Wilson, Department of Collections Expertise & Engagement, The National Archives, Kew Index terms: Daily Life, Mentalities, Social History, Women's Studies
Paper 308-b	Women, Wills, and Textiles (Language: English) Chris Woolgar, Department of History / Centre for Medieval & Renaissance Culture, University of Southampton Index terms: Daily Life, Mentalities, Social History, Women's Studies
Paper 308-c	Willing Wives: A Comparative Approach to Married Women's Wills in Late Medieval Britain (Language: English) Cordelia Beattie, School of History, Classics & Archaeology, University of Edinburgh Index terms: Daily Life, Mentalities, Social History, Women's Studies
Paper 308-d	Diocesis Roffensis: Women, Reciprocal Gift-Giving, and Religious Foundations (Language: English) Jane Richardson, School of Humanities / Centre for Kent History & Heritage, Canterbury Christ Church University Index terms: Daily Life, Mentalities, Social History, Women's Studies
Abstract	The pious and commemorative bequests of female testators have much to tell us about the events of the life course and the connections of women. These papers look at groups of wills from the later middle ages to illuminate this: particularly, in responses to the crisis of the Black Death; the documentation of life course events and ideas about the performance of gender; gifts given by women, and the special interest the wills of women have in textiles, from kerchiefs and belts for friends to beds linked to household lineage, demonstrating the importance of material culture for medieval mentalities.