Widowhood in medieval England: Baronial dowagers of the thirteenth century Welsh Marches

Widows occupied a singular place in medieval English society. Unlike single or married women, who had no legal autonomy, widows had full legal competence. They controlled their own dowries and inheritances, and also acquired lifetime use of one-third of their late husbands' property as 'dower'. Noble widows, who often held large amounts of land both through inheritance and as dower, used their control over property to play significant roles in their families and in society at large.; This dissertation focuses not only on the legal and tenurial elements of widowhood, but also on how noble widows interacted with their families, their tenants and dependents, the Crown, and the Church. I addressed these issues prosopographically, by selecting a group of thirteenth-century widows who either married barons of the Welsh March or were heiresses to Marcher baronies, and following their activities through the plea rolls of the central law courts, the records of the royal chancery and exchequer, family and ecclesiastical cartularies, and medieval bishops' registers.; My research revealed that noble widows were far more active than has been assumed. First, thirteenth-century noble widows, protected from forced remarriage by Magna Carta, remained single in two out of three cases and those who did remarry often survived their second spouses for a decade or more. Moreover, no widows I studied voluntarily entered a nunnery during widowhood. Noble society thus included a fairly large population of single, independent women. Second, although women could not act as judges or jurors, lead troops, sit in royal councils or parliaments, or hold professional administrative positions, noble dowagers nevertheless utilized their independent status and achieved positions of influence and authority in all aspects of noble life, except those from which the law specifically restricted them. The inclusion of noble widows in medieval English public life compels us to alter our perception of English 'feudal' society as totally dominated by men, with no female contributions outside the home, to one which accepted the presence of women in a broad range of social, economic, and political roles.