Propertied Women’s Economic Agency in Norway c.1400-1550

Susann Anett Pedersen, Ph.D. (2021) in medieval history, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), is a postdoctoral researcher at NTNU. She has published articles on property and gender, and is now researching credit in medieval Norway.

Acknowledgements


Abbreviations


1 Introduction

 1 Women’s Economic Agency


 2 Elite Women, Marital Status, and the Ability to Make Independent Economic Choices


 3 Approach and Plan of Study


 4 The Actors and Their Context


 5 Sources




2 Negotiating and Securing Inheritance

 1 The Daughter’s Share in Law and Practice


 2 Minors and Their Guardians


 3 Unmarried Heiresses


 4 Married Women and Their Husbands


 5 Widows


 6 Concluding Remarks




3 Arranging and Dissolving the Marital Property

 1 Negotiating Marriage

 1.1 A Woman’s First Marriage


 1.2 Remarriage




 2 The Changing Patterns of Marital Property Arrangements in the Late Medieval Period


 3 Helmingsfélag through Two Generations


 4 Marital Gift Exchange


 5 Retaining the Widow’s Share of the Marital Property in Practice


 6 Concluding Remarks




4 Gifting Landed Property

 1 Women’s Donations to Ecclesiastical Institutions


 2 Distributing Landed Property among Individuals


 3 Consent and Conditions


 4 Concluding Remarks




5 Purchasing, Exchanging and Selling Landed Property

 1 Unmarried Heiresses’ and Widows’ Property Transactions


 2 The Economic Partnership between Husband and Wife as Expressed through Property Accumulation

 2.1 Was There a Set Limit to Married Women’s Purchases?


 2.2 Two Married Couples’ Accumulation of Landed Property – Differences and Similarities




 3 Women’s Motivations to Purchase, Sell and Exchange Landed Property


 4 Concluding Remarks




6 Entering Credit Relations

 1 Married Women and Their Property’s Role in Credit Transactions

 1.1 A Creditor in Her Own Name – Philippa Hansdotter


 1.2 Married Couples’ Credit Transactions




 2 Widows Settling Their Deceased Husbands’ Unfinished Credit Transactions

 2.1 Transfer of Debt at Death – a Question of Responsibility


 2.2 Finalising a Late Husband’s Credit Transactions




 3 Widows’ Own Credit Transactions


 4 Women Representing Their Natal Families’ Economic Interests


 5 An Inside Perspective: Anne Rud Negotiating Her Late Husband’s Credit Network


 6 Concluding Remarks




7 Propertied Women’s Economic Agency

 1 Options, Choice of Action, and the Consequences of Choices Made


 2 Women’s Formal and Informal Roles


 3 Elite Women as Economic Actors in Late Medieval Norway




Bibliography


Index