Wills Women: A Source for Analysis of Family Strategies and Networks of Formal and Informal Power of the Castilian Nobility

Abstract

This paper tries to make a first approach to the concept and exercise of power by women of the aristocracy of the late medieval Castile. To do this I will use as a source of wills analysis of noblewomen and I will rely on one of the new paradigms recently coined by historians of women studies: The Queenship. This innovative approach articulates the analysis of female power around the following scheme: the definition of the power of women, both in its more traditional aspect (marriages, alliances, lineage), and the newest (client networks, influences, «partnership»...) or facet «informal» of female power. The analysis of the aspects that we might consider as «formal power», the «houses» of the queens and the study of their ability to manage and administer their own property. Finally, the construction of a model of «Queen» and the importance, meaning, symbolism and function that takes the same in the late medieval political game. The goal is to bring this model to the Castilian aristocracy through said tripartite scheme.

Keywords

• mujeres y poder
• testamentos de mujeres
• mujeres nobles