High-Ranking Widows in Medieval Iceland and Yorkshire

Download or read book High-Ranking Widows in Medieval Iceland and Yorkshire written by Philadelphia Ricketts and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2010-09-24 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an evocative insight into the property, power, remarriage, and identity of high-ranking widows in two fundamentally different societies, Iceland and Yorkshire. The legal position of widows in each region is examined in light of evidence from charters, royal records and sagas to establish a detailed picture of practice. Comparison and family reconstruction are important elements, enabling the book to emphasize the placement of widows within the context of society and its institutions, and to consider fully the impact of individual circumstances on the widows’ opportunities for action. The result offers a fresh approach that tests widely accepted generalizations about widows’ independence, highlights differences between regions, and suggests the need to reconsider traditional, rigid definitions of kinship systems.