Description
Book SynopsisContributing an original dimension to the significant body of published scholarship on women in 16th-century England, this study examines the largest corpus of women's private writings available to historians: their wills. In these, female voices speak out, commenting on their daily lives, on identity, gender, status, familial relationships and social engagement. Wills show women to have been active participants in a civil society, well aware of their personal authority and potential influence, whose committed actions during life and charitable strategies after death could and did impact the health of that society. From an intensive analysis of more than 1200 wills, this pioneering work focuses on women from all parts of the country and all strata of society, revealing an entire population of articulate, opportunistic, and capable individuals who found the spaces between the lines of the law and used those spaces to achieve personal goals. Author Susan James demonstrates how will
Trade Review"This book is highly recommended for its topic, approach, and new perspectives on women’s wills in the Tudor epoch. James presents her views with clarity and at a welcome pace." - George Lazaroiu, Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, NY, and Spiru Haret University, Bucharest, Romania
"Does James succeed in allowing us access to the voices of ordinary women? The answer is yes, and with an extraordinary level of detail. Her desire to focus on women’s common experience, however, introduces the idea of a more “universal” Tudor woman than some historians would be willing to accept. But the book should be read by everyone interested in women’s voices, especially in this period. The great strength of James’s book is the amount of knowledge she has so admirably extracted from her sources. Wills really are so much more than mere transfers of property." - Judith Spicksley, University of York, UK
"This is an important contribution that analyses an impressive body of data. James’s investigation of women’s wills sheds light on the concerns, preoccupations and activities of women in Tudor England and raises important new questions about gender and inheritance." - CHARMIAN MANSELL, UNIVERSITY OF EXETER, UK
Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1: The Performance of Death; 2: Identity and Remembrance; 3: Women's Work; 4: The Dispersal of Assets; 5: The Dispersal of Assets; 6: The Dispersal of Assets; Conclusion
