Description
Book SynopsisIn Out of Love for My Kin, Amy Livingstone examines the personal dimensions of the lives of aristocrats in the Loire region of France during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. She argues for a new conceptualization of aristocratic family life based on an ethos of inclusion. Inclusivity is evident in the care that medieval aristocrats showed toward their families by putting in place strategies, practices, and behaviors aimed at providing for a wide range of relatives. Indeed, this careand in some cases outright affectionfor family members is recorded in the documents themselves, as many a nobleman and woman made pious benefactions out of love for my kin.
In a book made rich by evidence from charterswhich provide details about life events including birth, death, marriage, and legal disputes over propertyLivingstone reveals an aristocratic family dynamic that is quite different from the fictional or prescriptive views offered by literary depictions or ecclesiastical sourc
Trade Review
Livingstone's examination of aristocratic family life in central France during the eleventh and twelfth centuries takes issue with models presented in works by Georges Duby and Karl Schmid. Rejecting their concept of a revolution in family relationships centered on patrilineage, primogeniture, and exclusion of kin to preserve assets, the author argues for inclusive behavior that valued a broad definition of kin and provided liberally for all offspring. Citing evidence from charters, monastic obituaries, and chronicles, Livingstone presents abundant examples of family life marked by affection, devotion, and cooperation. Such a revision of family dynamics also influences the portrait of the medieval noblewoman, who is here revealed to be valued by parents and spouse, active in disposing of lands both her own and shared, and retaining a place within her natal family as well as carving out a cooperative lordship with her husband.
* Choice *
The prosopography, of course, is splendid in all technical aspects. But it is more than this: she seems so familiar with and understanding of these people that they come alive on the page. Her treatment of the name Domitilla (pp. 176-178), which at least two women assumed in the course of their lives, is a gem in its technical virtuosity and as a way to understand the noble self-fashioning of her aristocratic subjects. The book is full of gems. In a phrase this is an extraordinarily fine book and a most valuable blueprint for future work on other regions. The author is to be commended.
-- William Chester Jordan * Medieval Prosopography *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Aristocrats and Their Families1. The Lands of the Loire, 1000–12002. Aristocratic Family Life3. Aristocratic Family Life Writ Small: The Fréteval, Mondoubleau, and Dives Kindred4. Inheritance: Diversity and Continuity5. Marriage and the Disposition of Property: A Sign of Status?6. Marriage: Practicalities, Ideologies, and Affection7. For Better, Not Worse: Wives and Husbands as Partners in Family and Lordship8. Contestations: Asserting and Reasserting a Place in the FamilyConclusion: Out of Love for My KinAppendix. Genealogical Charts
1. The Counts of Chartres
2. The Viscounts of Châteaudun to c. 1200
3. The Viscounts of Chartres
4. The Vidames of Chartres
5. The Lords of Alluyes-Gouet
6. The Lords of Montigny
7. The Fréteval-Mondoubleau-Dives Kindred
8. The Lords of Fréteval
9. The Dives Family
10. The Lords of Mondoubleau
11. The Descendants of Ingelbald Brito and Domitilla of Vendôme
12. The Lords of Lisle
13. The Lords of LangeaisWorks Cited
Index
