“Mein tachter sol man zu pett und zu tisch aufseczen als eines reichen mannes tachter”

47
“Mein tachter sol man zu pett und zu tisch aufseczen als
eines reichen mannes tachter”:
Childhood and Adolescence in Moravian Towns in the
Late Middle Ages from the Perspective of Gender
Michaela Antonín Malaníková
The quotation used in the title of this study brings us directly among the
inhabitants of medieval Znojmo, a town located in southern Moravia, not far
from the border with Austria. It comes from the last will and testament of the
affluent burgher Sigmund Vehiner, who in 1487 left a house with its
appurtenances, a farmstead and a butcher’s shop to his minor son Wolflen, a
vineyard to his daughter Kateřina, while another daughter Klára was to be
equipped for marriage “as befits the daughter of an affluent man” in the case of
Sigmund’s death.1 This last will is an example of somewhat unequal and
probably gender-conditioned distribution of the family property. In some
families, most of the immovable property belonged to the sons, whereas the
daughters were leaving the family house with movable property, or possibly
with money. Although we encounter this type of the division of property in
medieval towns, it might not have been a prevailing model. Which factors
played a part in this respect? What conditions did the urban society create for the
children of its citizens? How significant was their gender in this respect? We
will try to find the answers to these questions in the following lines, using the
example of the communities of the Moravian towns of Brno and Znojmo.
One of the reasons why precisely these two towns were chosen for the
analysis is that they belonged to a single law family (the so-called South-German
or Nuremberg law area),2 which enables us to follow the analysed phenom-
1 Státní okresní archiv Znojmo [State Archive in Znojmo](= SOkA Znojmo), Archiv města
Znojmo [Znojmo Town Archive] (= AM Znojmo), sign. II/96, pag. 131.
2 Town law in the lands of the Bohemian Crown was shaped by a complex process of interaction
between domestic and imported legal practices from the second half of the 12th century
on. From the beginning, there existed two main legal families – the first one influenced by
the northern German (Saxon-Magdeburg) rights and the second one affected by the southern
German rights. Generally on this issue see František Hoffmann, Středověké město
v Čechách a na Moravě [The medieval town in Bohemia and Moravia] (Prague: Nakladatelství
Lidové noviny, 2009), 393-404; Jiří Kejř, Vznik městského zřízení v českých
48
ena in the context of the law that was in effect at that time. Another reason is the
relatively well preserved source base from these localities. The number of inhabitants
of Brno fluctuated between 5,000 and 8,000 in the given time period.
The town experienced its heyday in the Middle Ages after the middle of the 14th
century, when it became the margravial capital of John Henry of Luxembourg,
the brother of Emperor Charles IV. The town of Znojmo had a more agricultural
character throughout the Middle Ages – on approximately the same area inside
the town walls (about 35 hectares) there lived about half as many inhabitants as
in Brno.3 The German ethnic group as well as the Catholic confession remained
strongly represented among the population of both towns throughout the period.
They were both negatively affected by the disputes among John Henry’s successors
in the last third of the 14th century, by the Hussite wars as well as by the
power struggles between King George of Poděbrady and later Vladislaus
Jagiellon on the one side and Matthias Corvinus on the other in the 1460s-1480s.
Each of these conflicts brought about an economic recession and a related
decline in the number of inhabitants.4
The main sources for our analysis are the 14th- and 15th-century testaments
from Brno and Znojmo which are (apart from normative sources, which
however provide a somewhat schematised image) the only evidence usable for
our topic on wider scale.5 In comparison with medieval cities such as Lübeck,
zemích [The formation of urban constitution in the Czech Lands] (Prague: Karolinum 1998),
150-60.
3 See Jaroslav Marek, Společenská struktura moravských královských měst v 15. a 16. st. [The
social structure of the Moravian royal towns in the 15th and 16th centuries] (Prague: Československá
akademie věd, 1965), 35. However, one cannot think about Znojmo as a rural
type of town, see Gracián Chaloupka, “Řemesla a živnosti ve Znojmě v době předhusitské”
[Crafts and trades in Znojmo in the pre-Hussite period], Vlastivědný věstník moravský XVI
(1961-1964): 51. Chaloupka also published here a list of crafts he detected in Znojmo in
1381 and 1415, see ibidem, 52-55.
4 Regarding the political situation in Moravia in the monitored period see the basic
monographs that quote other relevant literature: Josef Válka, Dějiny Moravy 1, Středověká
Morava [Moravian history 1: medieval Moravia] (Brno: Muzejní a vlastivědná společnost,
1991); Jaroslav Mezník, Lucemburská Morava: 1310-1423 [Moravia in the Luxembourg
period] (Prague: Nakladatelství Lidové noviny, 1999); Rudolf Urbánek, Věk poděbradský,
vol. 1-4 [Poděbrad´s age] (Prague: ČSAV 1915, 1918, 1930, 1962); Jaroslav Dřímal, “Účast
moravských královských měst na politickém vývoji českých zemí za bezvládí v letech 1446
až 1453” [The participation of the Moravian royal towns in the political life of the Czech
lands in the times of interregnum in 1446-1453], Brno v minulosti a dnes 8 (1966): 75-117;
idem, “Politika moravských královských měst za feudálních rozbrojů ve 40. letech 15.
století” [The policy of the Moravian royal towns during the feudal disruptions in the 40s of
the 15th century], Časopis Matice moravské 84 (1965): 132-56.
5 Unfortunately, no sources such as coroners´ rolls survived for Moravian towns, which would
allow us to look at children’s everyday life and to reconstruct a much more colourful world
of children, like B. Hanawalt or J. Goldberg did for medieval England; see Barbara A.
Hanawalt, ‚Of Good and Ill Repute‘. Gender and Social Control in Medieval England (New
49
Cologne or Vienna, where the numbers of extant last wills are in the thousands,6
the summary figure of approximately 550 testaments for Brno and Znojmo
seems modest. Moreover, we need to bear in mind that the outcomes of an analysis
of these last wills are representative only of the more affluent part of the
urban population who had them, for a fee, recorded in the urban books, thus
maintaining them for later generations.7 However, I think that, in spite of these
restrictions, the extant testamentary corpus is representative enough to be subjected
to an analysis in order to derive conclusions of more general validity.
What makes the situation even more favourable is the fact that one can compare
the legal practice (represented in the case of Brno by the so-called Memory
Books and for Znojmo by the Book of Testaments, specifically kept from 1421)
with the period’s laws, above all with the Book of Law of Scribe Jan8 and with
York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 158-78, Jeremy Goldberg, “Childhood
and Gender in Later Medieval England,” Viator 39 (1/2008): 249-62.
6 In Hanseatic Lübeck more than 6000 testaments survived from this time period, even though
the vast majority of them only as regesta. In geographically close Vienna 2400 testamentary
records from the years 1395-1430 are preserved in the town books, see Martin Urs Zahnd,
“Spätmittelalterliche Bürgertestamente als Quellen zu Realienkunde und Sozialgeschichte,“
Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung 96/1-2 (1988): 60. In
Bratislava there were over 800 of them written into the town books between 1414 and 1529;
see Katalin Szende, “From Mother to Daughter, from Father to Son? Intergenerational
Patterns of Bequeathing Movables in Late Medieval Bratislava,” Annals of Medieval Studies
at CEU 7 (2001): 213.
7 There are almost no testaments preserved in the form of charters for medieval Brno and
Znojmo. For Brno there are only several individual pieces, in the case of Znojmo, there is
just one; see Vincentius Brandl (ed.), Codex diplomaticus et epistolaris Moraviae XII
(Olomouc, 1890), 414, No. 467. Regarding testamentary practice in medieval Brno see
Miroslav Flodr, Brněnské městské právo. Zakladatelské období (-1359) [Brno municipal
law. The founding period (-1359)] (Brno: Matice moravská, 2001), especially 284-98; Hana
Jordánková and Ludmila Sulitková, “Zásady testamentární praxe královského města na
jihoněmeckém právu (na příkladu Brna)” [The principles of testamentary practice of a royal
town based on southern German rights (on the example of Brno)], in Pozdně středověké
testamenty v českých městech: prameny, metodologie a formy využití [Late medieval
testaments in the Czech towns: sources, methodology and forms of utilization], ed. Kateřina
Jíšová and Eva Doležalová (Prague: Scriptorium, 2006), 39-53. Testamentary habits in
Znojmo have received the most systematic attention so far from Věra Tlapáková,
“Testamenty znojemských měšťanů v pozdním středověku (do roku 1479)” [The testaments
of Znojmo burghers in the late Middle Ages (until 1479)] (unpublished MA thesis,
Department of History, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, Brno, 2004); eadem, “Testamentární
praxe ve Znojmě v 15. století” [The testamentary practice in Znojmo in the 15th
century], Jižní Morava 41 (2005): 29-43.
8 Miroslav Flodr (ed.), Právní kniha města Brna z poloviny 14. století I. Úvod a edice
(hereafter as Právní kniha I) [The Book of Law of Brno (of Scribe Jan) from the first half of
the 14th century I. Introduction and edition] (Brno: Blok, 1990); idem, Právní kniha města
Brna z poloviny 14. století II. Komentář [The Book of Law of Brno (of Scribe Jan) from the
first half of the 14th century II. Commentary] (Brno: Blok, 1992); idem, Právní kniha města
50
the so-called Manipulus,9 both originated in Brno, as well as with the Ortholf
Code kept in Znojmo,10 which was strongly inspired by the judgements reached
in Brno.
The issue of gender differentiation of the bequests is of utmost relevance,
because medieval society worked as a system in which gender differences
played an important part and the destinies of individuals were to a significant
extent derived from their biological sex, or more precisely from the notions
medieval society associated with it.11 If we are to characterise the extant wills
with respect to the gender and the family state of their initiators, we come to the
conclusion that out of the almost 280 last wills from 1346 to 1515 still in
existence for Brno,12 three-quarters belonged to men, more than 70 % of whom
were provably married. The wills of married men thus comprise more than a half
of the overall number of testaments. Female burghers had 24 % of the Brno
testaments written up, women explicitly described as widows comprising half of
them. For Znojmo, we have a total of 270 last wills preserved,13 of which men’s
Brna z poloviny 14. století III. Rejstříky a přehledy [The Book of Law of Brno (of Scribe
Jan) from the first half of the 14th century III. Index and summaries] (Brno: Blok, 1993).
9 Miroslav Flodr (ed.), Příručka práva městského (Manipulus vel directorium iuris civilis)
[The Handbook of urban law (Manipulus vel directorium iuris civilis)] (hereafter Manipulus)
(Brno: Matice moravská, 2008).
10 SOkA Znojmo, AM Znojmo, sign. II/287/2.
11 Although the main discussions on the concept of gender as part of historiography took
place outside medieval studies, a number of ideas penetrated here. For an overview of other
works and the major topics in this field of historical research written at the turn of the new
millennium see, e.g., Bea Lund, “Mediävistische Genderforschung. Fragestellungen – Forschungsergebnisse
– Geschichtsdidaktische Überlegungen,“ in Zwischen Politik und Kultur:
Perspektiven einer kulturwissenschaftlichen Erweitung der Mittelalter-Didaktik, ed.
Wolfgang Hasberg (Neuried: Ars Una, 2003), 71-108, Felice Lifshitz, “Differences,
(Dis)appearances and the Disruption of the Straight Telop. Medievalogy („Mediävistik“) as
a History of Gender,” in Mediävistik im 21. Jahrhundert. Stand und Perspektiven der internationalen
und interdisziplinären Mittelalterforshung, ed. Hans Werner Goetz and Jörg
Jarnut (Munich: Fink, 2003), 295-312.
12 While the situation in Znojmo is somewhat “uncomplicated” from a research point of view,
predominantly due to the existence and preservation of the Book of Testaments, by contrast
in Brno it was necessary to assess all the entries of the so-called Memory Books on an
individual basis. In the examined corpus of last wills not all the records relating to the last
acquisition (in the 14th century for these acquisitions a fixed form of testament had not been
shaped yet) were included. It contains only those whose record resulted from efforts to
reconcile earthly affairs, and those from which it was possible to reconstruct the greater
part of the last purchases.
13 Chronological limitations of the research are largely artificial, arising from the state of
preservation of the sources. Brno Memory Books are kept till 1515. Four chronologically
relevant last wills that were included into the corpus belong to the Book of Testaments of
Brno, founded in 1510 (and used till 1571), Archiv města Brna [Brno Town Archive] (=
AM Brno), fond A 1/3 (Sbírka rukopisů a úředních knih), manuscript nr. 49. The Book of
Testaments of Znojmo contains testaments till 1529, whereas after the year 1513 only seven
last wills are preserved, see SOkA Znojmo, AM Znojmo, sign. II / 96, pag. 194-204.
51
wills comprise 80 %. The ratio between married men and widowed women in
the group of the originators is very similar to that of Brno.14 It means that
women testators were mostly widows, whereas the men were usually married.
These conclusions correspond to the situation in other European towns:15 in the
mentioned Lübeck, for instance, married men comprised 56 % male testators,
whereas married women only 8 % of the female ones. Women comprised more
than half of the group of widowed persons there.16 Another fact worth mentioning
is that the type of property bequeathed by male and female burghers in Moravia
did not significantly differ, which is given by the strong position, both legal
and factual, of widows in the urban society of the Late Middle Ages. The
structure of property disposed of by the testators of both genders is similar, and
it is therefore relevant to compare the strategies they applied in relation to their
heirs and heiresses.
The distribution of property in individual families was influenced by a
number of factors, starting with the representation of male and female heirs in
the family and ending with the life cycle stage in which the individual beneficiaries
were. Some of the children might have already been married when the will
was composed, and the payment of dowry was in practice usually tantamount to
using up their claims of inheritance from the property of the original family.
14 It was not possible to fully determine the marital status for approximately one-third of the
last wills. Nor were the most likely cases (which could not be verified in other sources)
taken into account to avoid biased interpretation of the results. In case of women’s
testaments, which could not be determined with absolute certainty, a great part probably belonged
to widows, which means that the number of testaments of widows was in fact even
higher. This fact corresponds to the disposition of property rights as defined in the contemporary
town law – only those who had the full right of disposal, could make the legal
purchases.
15 In the New Town of Prague, between the years 1455 and 1494, the female wills represent
one quarter (exactly 25%), see Thomas Krzenck, “Prager und Pilsener Frauentestamente in
der Hussitenzeit im Vergleich,” Mediaevalia Historica Bohemica 4 (1995): 266. One
quarter to one third representation of female wills for the medieval cities is generally a
European average. But, for instance, in Cologne the situation is specific due to the favourable
conditions for female entrepreneurial activities – here in the middle of the 14th century
the number of female testators even outnumbered the number of their male counterparts
and a large part of female testators were not married. In subsequent decades, the situation in
Cologne in this respect became equal and joint testaments of spouses are becoming more
and more important. This can be interpreted as an effort to nsure the spousal co-ownership
(eheliche Erwerbsgemeinschaft), see Brigitte Klosterberg, Zur Ehre Gottes und zum Wohl
der Familie – Kölner Testamente von Laien und Klerikern im Spätmittelalter (Cologne: Janus-
Verl.-Ges., 1995), 31-34. In Brno and Znojmo we can also find examples of spousal
co-ownership, but they are less numerous and often relate to situations when the spouses
owned property in different towns.
16 See Birgit Noodt, Religion und Familie in der Hansestadt Lübeck Aland der Bürgertestamente
des 14. Jahrhunderts (Lübeck: Schmidt-Römhild, 2000), 259. Widows compromised
56% of the female testators in Cologne in the 14th century and 70% in the 15th century, see
Klosterberg, Zur Ehre Gottes, 60.
52
Children whose portion was already covered might not have been included in
the testament alongside their other siblings.17 In connection with childhood, the
coming of age is a factor that is very strongly reflected in the analysed sources.
The legal status of majority was differentiated according to the child’s gender:
according to the Book of Law of Brno, girls came of age after completing the
twelfth year of their lives, and boys after their fourteenth year, which corresponds
to the letter of canon law.18 It is evident that the urban law was based, in
accordance with Roman law, on the premise of sexual maturity (pubertas),
which might have been, if needed, ascertained also by a physical examination
according to secondary sex characteristics. If we proceed from the division of
childhood into three stages, infantia, pueritia and adolescentia, the transition to
sexual maturity corresponds to the transition from the second stage of childhood
to the third.19 The need for legal and social protection was recognised for underage
persons, who were by definition unable to correctly distinguish between
good and evil.20 At the same time, it is evident that the Moravian burghers
associated the coming of age with becoming economically self-sufficient. This
particular aspect was certainly more important in practice than reaching some
imaginary age, and we can assume with reason that precisely this was the factor
that the inhabitants of towns at that time connected in their minds with the notion
of “adulthood”. For girls, especially those from affluent burgher classes, the
level of coming of age more often coincided with entering into marriage than
with biological maturity as such; it had therefore rather social character. Entering
into marriage was, above all in the case of girls, a fundamental transition
ritual.
The distribution of property also reflected a very complicated net of relationships
in the burgher families, where children from present and previous marriages
of their parents grew up together; this often resulted in tense situations, as
is abundantly evidenced by the preserved heritage disputes. The situations in
which the will mentions children of both genders who came from the same marriage
and did not yet come of age have the highest information value with re-
17 This practice corresponds to the situation in some of the imperial and other West European
cities, for example in medieval London, as stated by Barbara Hanawalt, inheritance and
dowry were closely linked, because, according to the law, the girl was supposed to get her
share of the family property either through a bequest in testament, or at marriage as a
dowry, see Barbara A. Hanawalt, The Wealth of Wives: Women, Law and Economy in Late
Medieval London (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 66-68.
18 See Hanawalt, The Wealth of Wives, 45. Regarding the age of the majority in the Book of
Law of Scribe Jan (Právní kniha), see Gertrud Schubart-Fikentscher, Das Eherecht im
Brünner Schöffenbuch (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1935), 26-28.
19 See Shulamith Shahar, Childhood in the Middle Ages (London: Routledge, 1990), 21.
20 (…) annis puericie (…) in quibus homo nec campos nec usum plene racionis habens nec
inter bonum et malum sufficienter discernere sciens iudicatur…, see Právní kniha I, 249,
no. 316.
53
spect to the questions that we ask in this analysis. An increased attention is
therefore paid to these cases within the presented argumentation.
It is impossible to base the analysis of the bequests on the real value of individual
items,21 because its determination is not unambiguous even in the seemingly
simple cases of inheritances in cash. The typology of the bequeathed immovable
and movable property was therefore chosen as the most suitable starting
point for the comparison. Along with the division into two basic recipient
categories (daughters, female relatives and friends versus sons, male relatives
and friends), it may help us discover whether a certain type of property was
preferentially handed down in the female, or male line. Unlike the towns of the
Magdeburg area, the towns of the South German area do not apply female and
male furniture (gerâde and herwêrde), i.e. equipment that was to be inherited in
the male of female line of the family, as a legal institution, but we may ask
whether or not some form of division on the gender basis was used there as
well.22 For children, this method allows us to follow the conditions that the urban
society created in relation to the future generations, and more specifically
whether and how these conditions were modified by the fact that the children
were born in a male or female body.
The analysis of the testaments from Brno and Znojmo in relation to the
individual female and male recipients has proved that providing for the closest
family, i.e. one’s spouse and children, was the priority for most testators. The
importance of collateral family lines was thus already suppressed in favour of
21 It is rather impossible because except of the bequests of cash we only rarely learn the value
of the legates, and if we do, it cannot be automatically considered as corresponding to reality.
In practice, the combined bequests of cash and immovables are the most common, or
possibly of the movables but mostly with no estimated price.
22 Regarding gerade or grod as legal institutions in the lands of the Bohemian Crown see
Antonín Haas, “Ženský nábytek v magdeburské oblasti českého městského práva” [Female
acquisitions in Magdeburg area of the Czech municipal law], Sborník prací Filosofické
fakulty brněnské university C7 (1960): 141-50; lately on the same topic Michaela Hrubá,
Zvonění na sv. Alžbětu: odraz norem a sociální praxe v životních strategiích měšťanek na
prahu raného novověku [Ringing on St. Elisabeth: The reflections of social norms and
practices in the life strategies of town´s women on the threshold of the Early Modern
period] (Prague: Argo, 2011), 62-73; Jan Mareš, „Ženská výbava v litoměřickém městském
právu v předhusitské době“ [Women paraphernalia in city rights of Litoměřice in the pre-
Hussite period], Porta Bohemica 4 (2007): 54-91. For this practice in neighbouring Poland,
or more precisely in Krakow and Gdansk, see Urszula Sowina, “Testamenty mieszan
krakowskich o przekazywaniu majątku w poźnym średniowieczu i we wczesnej nowożytności”
[The last wills of burghers of Krakau on the transfer of property in the late Middle
Ages and early Modern times], in Sociální svět středověkého města [The social world of the
medieval city] (= Colloquia mediaevalia Pragensia 5), ed. Martin Nodl (Prague: Filosofia,
2006), 175-76; Beata Możejko, Rozrachunek z życiem doczesnym. Gdańskie testamenty
mieszcańskie z XV i początku XVI wieku [Settlement of the afterlife. The last wills of
burghers of Danzig in the 15th and early 16th century] (Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu
Gdańskiego, 2010), 122-25.
54
the nuclear family, which can be interpreted together with Jack Goody as a consequence
of urbanisation.23 This trend is accentuated also by the relevant urban
law: it supports collateral relatives only if no one from the nuclear family remained
alive,24 which is one of the reasons why South German laws are regarded
as more progressive than North German ones in the Lands of the Bohemian
Crown.25 In the upshot, the preference of the nuclear family led to greater
equality of daughters in urban inheritance law, among other things.
Although the records in law books represent the valid norm, it must be
emphasised that it is not legislation in today’s meaning of the word. In the case
of the Book of Law of Scribe Jan, known also as Brünner Schöffenbuch, on
which the other analysed manuscripts are based and which became inspiration
also for Bohemian codifications of the Modern Period,26 it is a set of model solutions,
i.e. of the legal statements proclaimed by the town council in the particular
cases. Medieval urban law was living and was being searched for in every particular
case; it therefore cannot be regarded as a fixed legal framework, valid
under all circumstances. The issues connected with inheritance, heirs and their
succession are very complex and pervade all the relevant law materials.27 What
is fundamental in this respect are above all the articles concerning testaments
(De testamentis) and heirs (De hereditatibus and De successionibus) both in the
Book of Law of Scribe Jan (1355-1357) and in the somewhat more recent so
called Manipulus (1379-1386). From the detailed and extensive28 character of
23 Jack Goody, Proměny rodiny v evropské historii [The Family in European history] (Prague:
Nakladatelství Lidové noviny, 2006), 32.
24 It is a paragraph in the Book of Law of Scribe Jan (Právní kniha) aptly called Quod frater
patris ad bona relicta propinquior est heres quam frater matris, see Právní kniha I, 263-64,
No. 358. The later town law in Brno organically built on Iura originalia, see Miroslav
Flodr (ed.), Iura originalia civitatis Brunensis. Privilegium českého krále Václava I. z ledna
roku 1243 pro město Brno [Iura originalia civitatis Brunensis. The privilege of the Czech
King Wenceslas I. from January 1243 for the city of Brno] (Brno: SNIP, 1993), [II
Privilegium minus], No. 9: Statuimus insuper, quod quicumque civium moriatur, si uxorem
habuit vel liberos, iudex vel advocatus nequaquam intromittat se de bonis ipsorum, sed sint
in potetsate uxoris et liberorum.
25 There is evidence that in other Czech towns conditions for heirs and heiresses may not be
equal, or more precisely, that the heiresses could be legally disadvantaged, see Antonín
Haas, “Omezení odúmrti a vdovská třetina v starém českém právu” [Limitations of escheat
and widow´s third in the old Czech law], Právně historické studie 17 (1973): 210-11.
26 In the examined towns these norms have remained in force throughout the whole medieval
period, in fact until the end of the 17th century, when the Codification of Koldín was
established, see Jordánková and Sulitková, “Zásady testamentární praxe,” 45.
27 The freedom of bequest in Brno was indirectly codified already by Iura originalia, see
Flodr (ed.), Iura originalia, [II Privilegium minus], No. 9-12. For Znojmo a similar set of
rights, which could be called a “foundation charter” have not been preserved.
28 Právní kniha I: De testamentis, 360-72, No. 617-49, De hereditatibus, 252-66, No. 321-65,
De successionibus, 356-59, No. 607-13; Manipulus: De testamentis, 200-10, No. 1290-
1322, De hereditatibus, 72-83, No. 484-564, De successionibus, 196-99, No. 1280-86.
Under the heading De testamentis and De successionibus both the texts are almost identical,
55
the individual sections, we can derive how significant attention was paid to testamentary
and inheritance affairs by the town council. For the purposes of this
study, we will restrict ourselves to the basic provisions concerning the practice
in the relatively frequent situation when a man died, leaving his wife and children,
and on the analysis of the sentences concerning children heirs. Furthermore,
we will focus on several cases from De hereditatibus section that are relevant
to our topic.29
If the husband died, all his property was to be, according to both Brno and
Znojmo law and in the standard situation, divided among his wife and children
in the ratio of one to two-thirds.30 The so-called widow’s third, which started to
appear in the towns on the territory of today’s Czech Republic at the end of the
14th century,31 can be regarded as one of the features strengthening the position
of burgher women and, at the same time, as a characteristic sign of South German
laws. According to the urban law of Brno, the widow was entitled to a third
of the property, but if she decided to remarry, her third was to be handed over to
her in movable property.32 Immovable property held traditionally a higher
status,33 which is important for our argumentation, and children had a better title
to inherit it from their father from the viewpoint of the urban law.
The Book of Law of Scribe Jan, which was taken over in this respect also
by the Ortholf Code of Znojmo, lists four categories of descendants based on the
degree of their titles to the inheritance: legitimate, so-called pueri naturales et
legitimi (born from a legitimate marriage blessed by the church), illegitimate,
so-called naturales non legitimi (born to a concubine during the wife’s life),
adoptive and finally the category of children termed nec naturales nec legitimi,
i.e. those who were born from an adulterous relationship of the wife or from an
incestuous relationship.34 Legitimate and adoptive children were to have the
whereas the structure under the heading De hereditatibus is slightly different in the
Manipulus.
29 A brief explanation of this issue is submitted by Miroslav Flodr, see Flodr, Brněnské
městské právo, 284-97.
30 As emphasized in several places of the Book of Law of Scribe Jan (Právní kniha) and the
Ortholf Code of Znojmo, see Flodr, Brněnské městské právo, 294 and SOkA Znojmo, AM
Znojmo, sign. II/286, pag. 329. See also Tlapáková, “Testamenty znojemských měšťanů,”
36.
31 See Haas, “Omezení odúmrti,” 212-15; as to the institution of the so called widow’s third in
the Czech lands cf Hrubá, Zvonění na sv. Alžbětu, 62 and 282, note 23.
32 Si propter secundas nupcias mater de bonis communibus suam terciam velit excipere
partem, illa in bonis mobilibus, si sunt, est sibi danda, see Právní kniha I, 260, No. 343.
33 Likewise, in medieval Hungary stricter rules applied to immovable property, see Katalin
Szende, “From Mother to Daughter, from Father to Son? Inheritance of Movables in Late
Medieval Pressburg,” in Generations in Towns: Succession and Success in Pre-Industrial
Urban Societies, ed. Finn-Einar Eliassen and Katalin Szende (Newcastle upon Tyne:
Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009), 45.
34 Právní kniha I, 260, No. 345.
56
same legal titles to the inheritance.35 However, no situations explicitly dealing
with the inheritance among legitimate, adoptive or illegitimate children of the
first or second degree that would imply precisely from their belonging to the different
legal categories are documented in the legal practice, which is within the
presented research represented by the Memory Books and paper testaments from
Brno and the Book of Testaments of the Town of Znojmo.36 We generally find
adoptions rather rarely in the legal practice – as one example for all, let us mention
a 1349 record from Brno, in which Ditlinus “adopted” his cousin (his uncle’s
son) Nicolas as his universal heir, but carefully stipulated four conditions
that had to be fulfilled for the adoption to become legally valid.37 On the contrary,
the situations when the property was divided between biological children
and stepchildren are very frequent, and this fact is usually explicitly stated.
Concerning the specific legal norms that had the potential of directly influencing
the bequests intended for the sons and the daughters, we can state that
none of the articles of both town rights explicitly mentions different legal titles
to inheritance stemming from the child’s gender. The most telling in this respect
is a sentence of the Book of Law of Scribe Jan De hereditaria successione,
quantum ad masculum et feminam, which stipulates: …mortuis parentibus in
bonis per eos relictis heredes tam femelle quam masculi ius hereditarium obtinebunt.
38 It is true that from the context of some sentences it follows that
immovable property might have traditionally been passed down preferentially in
the male line in some families, but this may stem from the fact that legal advice
was often sought by localities outside the town itself, which were of rather rural
character and were less progressive from the viewpoint of law. It is of extraordinary
interest for our topic to follow in these situations the attitude of the town
council, and in the case of Brno also the prospective shifts that can be registered
35 Právní kniha I, 262, No. 352, and also Flodr, Brněnské městské právo, 295.
36 An exception is an interesting case described in the Book of Law of Scribe Jan – a husband
caught his wife in flagrante, hurt her, but did not seek the canonical separation from table
and bed, and continued in marital cohabitation. Later his wife gave birth to a son, whom her
husband refused as illegitimate and as such excluded from the right of inheritance. However,
the urban authorities confirmed son´s right to inheritance with reference to the fact
that his wife had not been renounced after the incident, and therefore the husband de facto
confirmed his son´s legitimate origin. Cf Flodr, Brněnské městské právo, 297. This case
also shows how the symbiosis between the two legal systems – secular and ecclesiastical –
worked in practice. While canon law solved the moral implications of the “sinful behaviour”,
the urban authorities focused on the practical implications of such violations with
a view to maintaining stability and balance in the urban community.
37 First, all of Ditlin´s debts had to be repaid, Ditlinus would have to die without heirs and
testament (intestatus), and the power to dispose of his own property was to be
unquestionable until the end of his life, Nicolas had to lead an honourable and obedient life,
see Miroslav Flodr (ed.), Pamětní kniha města Brna z let 1343-1376 (1379) [Memory Book
of Brno from the years 1343-1376 (1379)] (hereafter as Pamětní kniha I) (Brno: Matice
moravská, 2005), 220-21, No. 545.
38 Právní kniha I, 262, No. 351.
57
in comparison of the Book of Law of Scribe Jan from mid-14th century with the
approximately two decades later Manipulus, created in accordance with the
needs of the current law practice.
A case from Klobouky near Břeclav is telling from the viewpoint of the
town council’s attitude to the gender of the heirs. One of the locals had left his
house along the male line, all of whom however died out in a plague outbreak,
while some relatives remained alive in a female branch (mulieribus vero aliquibus
superviventibus); the superiors of the community therefore asked to
whom the house was to pass. The councillors of Brno answered that it was to
pass to the surviving women, although the will stipulated otherwise, arguing
with the inheritance law.39 Furthermore, one of the requests for advice testifies
that according to the will of one Hainricus, a field in the community of Borkovany
was to be bequeathed in the male line, and if the sons died, always to the
oldest family member (seniority principle).40 The town council of Brno decided
that in line with the testator’s wish, the oldest of his sons, i.e. of Hainricus’
grandsons, was to be entitled to the field. Comparing this to the corresponding
article of Manipulus, we register an interesting shift in meaning: Si hereditas
legata fuerit tribus filiis vel pluribus ita, quod seniore mortuo ad secundum et de
secundo ad juniorem devolvi debeat, tunc omnibus istis mortuis filii senioris hereditatem
eandem obtinebunt. Et sicut est in linea masculina, sic eciam est in
linea feminali. Unde sicut testator disposuit, quod semper senior filius agrum
possideret, eodem modo in tali possessione filiorum filii, si seniores fuerint, sibi
succedunt.41 We can see that the Manipulus, which is only a little later,
accentuates also the inheritance in the female line, unlike the Book of Law.
The rather indifferent attitude to gender assumed by the period law norms
is echoed in practice for example in situations when all children, without specification,
are left the whole property together, or they are bequeathed its equal
part. In this context, we can point out for instance the wills from Brno by Mikuláš
Herlin, Václav Olejník or Johann Arnold called Czwilling, all from the
first decade of the 15th century,42 or similarly formulated testaments from Znojmo
by Petr Völkl from 1446 or by Dorota Hungerin,43 who portioned out her
property among all her grandchildren and nephews based on the same principle
in the 1470s. It is very unlikely that all these cases would concern a group of
39 Právní kniha I, 259-60, No. 341; in unchanged, only shortened form this paragraph is also
noted in Manipulus 78, No. 533.
40 Hainricus condidit testamentum et sic disposuit, quod eidam ager situs in campis ville
Purkban hereditarie et succesive per lineam masculinam a descendentibus ab eo possideri
debet, ita quod filiis eius mortuis, proximus consanguineus et senior eundem agrum
possideret (…), Právní kniha I, 259, No. 340.
41 Manipulus 78, No. 531.
42 Miroslav Flodr (ed.), Pamětní kniha města Brna z let 1391-1515 [Memory Book of Brno
from the years 1391-1515] (hereafter Pamětní kniha II) (Brno: Matice moravská, 2010)
122, No. 326; ibidem 143, No. 377; ibidem 166, No. 446.
43 SOkA Znojmo, AM Znojmo, sign. II/96, pag. 43-44; ibidem, pag.121.
58
children of the same gender; instead, we can assume that the testators did not
consider it necessary to further specify the bequests. In these cases, moreover,
husbands often allotted the same share of their property as to their children also
to their wives, which manifests the effort to divide the property equally among
the entire closest family.
In 1397, Jan of Meziříčí called Lolako left a house to be jointly owned by
his daughter Magdalena and son Nicolas.44 Michael Lautsch, a burgher from
Znojmo, chose a similar strategy in the 1470s; in his will, he stipulated a specific
share for his wife, dividing the rest of the property (including a house and a mill)
equally between his son and daughter.45 Somewhat more complicated, although
identical as regards the principle of “equality”, is the will of Matyáš Sleicher
from the 1460s.46 He bequeathed all his property in equal parts to his wife and
four children – a daughter and three sons. He stipulated a special share for his
daughter from his previous marriage, Fronka, whom he provided with an extra
share pointing out her dowry (andere zugehorung, die dannen gehoren zu einer
iunkfraw, das genem ist zu pet vnd zu Tisch), explicitly leaving nothing to another
of his daughters, Anna, who was already married at that time, because, according
to his words, he had endowed her in accordance with the custom. We
can use the quoted example as a model illustrating the situations when parents
divide their property among their children in different stages of the life cycle
and thus with different claims: Mathias had two elder daughters (probably from
his first marriage), one of whom had received dowry and the other was of the
age to marry. He therefore explicitly left nothing more to Anna (but felt the need
to explain his decision properly), whereas Fronka was presented with a silver
belt, a quarter of a vineyard and equipment. Minor children received equal parts:
along with their mother, they inherited a house, other immovables and valuables,
in order to provide for their existence in the case of his death. Michael proved to
be a responsible father who carefully weighed the current needs of all members
of his family, trying to satisfy them within his possibilities. The examples of
equal distribution of property among children (albeit with respect to their current
needs depending on their age) have been mentioned in order to demonstrate a
tendency which we can, with a certain overstatement, described as “democratic”.
47 On the contrary, it is impossible to ascertain that this trend would grow
more intensive, or on the contrary that it would recede in the course of time,
which is however given also by the fact that the number of wills preserved from
individual years in both towns is not very high.
However, there are also provable situations when the parents took into account
also other factors apart from age, such as the spiritual career of one of
their children. It is evident that they regarded the taking of monastic vows as an
44 Pamětní kniha II, 57, No. 145.
45 SOkA Znojmo, Archiv města Znojmo, sign. II/96, 121.
46 Pamětní kniha II, 300, No. 683.
47 Regarding this tendency see also Hrubá, Zvonění na sv. Alžbětu, 124-25.
59
important milestone that excluded the child from the family circle, moving him
or her outside the ordinary functioning of the family and of the town, because
they often explicitly mention this fact, or even condition some bequests by it.48
Daughters – nuns (they are recorded less frequently) and sons – monks or priests
most often receive cash, an annuity or bedclothes from their parents, which
makes these bequests close to the legacies for spiritual persons outside the circle
of the family, which are very numerous in testaments.49 Another factor that was
taken into account by the testators, both male and female, was distinguishing
among their own children and stepchildren. It did not necessarily have to have
an emotional basis, but might have reflected the fact that the given child had
been materially provided for from the property of their biological parents. Jakub,
the stepson of the barrel maker Maternus, received a vineyard from his stepfather
in his 1483 will, whereas his house with the furniture, cash and a part of a
vineyard went to his daughter Veronika along with her mother, and more property
to his daughter Barbara. Likewise, the share of the stepson André in the will
of the butcher Šimek was incomparably lower than those of his half-siblings
Markéta and Petr, who were to jointly possess extensive immovable property.50
Although children often received shares regardless of their sex, gender
might have had a distinctive function in some cases. If we analyse the composition
of the bequests in detail, we find out a visible tendency in some burgher
families to leave cash and movable property to daughters, whereas sons received
immovables in a greater extent.51 An example of a restrictive tendency in
relation to daughters is the testament of Martin Brunnar, who left cash for his
daughter Kateřina in 1458, whereas her brother Bartoloměj shared a house with
their mother. When Ludmila, the widow of Jakub Klein, wrote down her will at
the beginning of the 1470s, she named bequests for five children. The mother divided
cash, a part of a vineyard and an annuity among her four daughters, two of
whom were married, one was a nun and one was still unmarried, while her son
Augustin received a village, a house with the furniture and a vineyard with the
48 Moreover, the right to inheritance for children belonging to the spiritual order explicitly
formulates also the local urban law, see Právní kniha I, 263, No. 356.
49 With respect to the medieval perceptions of persons belonging to the spiritual order as the
“third gender” see Robert N. Swanson, “Angels Incarnate: Clergy and Masculinity from
Gregorian Reform to Reformation,” in Masculinity in Medieval Europe, ed. Dawn M.
Hadley (London: Longman, 1998), 161.
50 Pamětní kniha II, 447, No. 847; ibidem, 519-20, No. 926.
51 The same was stated also for the late medieval and early modern New Town in Prague by
O. Fejtová and K. Jíšová, who nevertheless emphasized that the total amount of property
bequeathed to sons and daughters was comparable, see Olga Fejtová and Kateřina Jíšová,
“Děti v testamentární praxi pozdního středověku a raného novověku v městech pražských
jako badatelské téma” [Children in testamentary practice of late medieval and early modern
Prague as a research topic], in W kręgu rodziny epok dawnych. Dzieciństwo [In the family
circle of ancient times. Childhood], ed. Bożena Popiołek, Agnieszka Chłosta-Sikorska, and
Marcin Gadocha (Krakow: DiG, 2012), 15-30.
60
appurtenances. Bequests skipping one generation, i.e. endowing grandsons and
granddaughters, have a similar information value for our topic. The principle of
preferential leaving of immovable inheritance in the male line was applied for
example by the burgher from Brno Petr Sleicher. In 1449, he bequeathed a garden,
a house, vineyards and cash to his grandsons Matyáš and Jan, with the cash
alone significantly exceeding the amount which was the only part of his property
he excluded as a bequest to his granddaughter Markéta.52
The fact that boys were preferred to girls with respect to the inheritance of
immovable property in some families perhaps surprises less than if it were the
other way round. Yet even such cases can be found in the analysed material. The
smith Tomáš of Znojmo earmarked a house and a quarter of a vineyard for his
daughter, her husband and their children, while not bequeathing any other immovable
property apart from a part of a vineyard for his son.53 The generally
rather negative attitude of medieval society towards women reflected also in
some institutes (such as the institute of testimony)54 of the urban Moravian law,
which are otherwise rather liberal towards women, corresponding to those female
burghers enjoyed in the towns of Western Europe, as opposed to Southern
Europe, for example Italy.55
Although the legal restrictions of public-law activities of female inhabitants
of towns might have been a motivation for some testators to rather bequest their
immovable property to their sons and grandsons, a greater part was played in
these cases by the different life trajectories of daughters as compared to sons.
Women had a much higher level of mobility within the family structures, which
was further complicated by the fact that a certain level of loyalty was required
from them towards both their original and their new family. It was not unusual
in European medieval towns that a widowed woman returned to her native
house,56 which can be documented also in the source material of the geographic
52 Pamětní kniha II, 244-46, No. 603.
53 SOkA Znojmo, AM Znojmo, sign. II/96, pag. 138.
54 The female testimony here is generally rejected, justified by a female instability: (…) quod
testimonium mulieris, quia inconstans est reicitur de iure, exceptis tamen casibus, in quibus
mulier testari potest. As pointed out by G. Schubart-Fikentscher, this paragraph has a direct
model in Roman law, see Schubart-Fikentscher, Das Eherecht im Brünner Schöffenbuch,
12. Only some situations when women’s testimony was admitted are stated. Although there
is evidence that women could testify, if necessary in a number of situations, the very need
to establish the conditions under which their testimony was admitted, is sufficiently significant.
For the restrictions of women in the various legal institutions see Flodr, Brněnské
městské právo, passim; for women as legal protagonists see under the heading De mulieribus,
Právní kniha I, 308-17, No. 482-504.
55 Evidences of significant differences between Italy and Northwest Europe in this area were
presented among others by David Herlihy, Opera Muliebria. Women and Work in Medieval
Europe (Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Pr., 1990), 154-67.
56 On this topic, see e.g., Leah Otiis-Cour, Rozkoš a láska [Lust and love] (Prague: Vyšehrad,
2002), 27; Edith Ennen, Ženy ve středověku [Women in the Middle Ages] (Prague: Argo,
2001), 244. In more detail, see Linda Guzzetti, Venezianische Vermächtnisse. Die soziale
61
area under investigation.57 The dowry of daughters leaving their father’s house
for the first time was more likely to be comprised of cash, valuables, clothing,
bedclothes, and in southern Moravia also of vineyards or their parts, which had
an added value in the form of their annual revenues. However, this does not
mean at all that women from burgher families would have no chance to possess
real properties such as houses, rural farmsteads, malthouses, butcher’s shops and
such like. On the contrary, they often acquired them in later stages of their lives
as the wives of affluent burghers. It is evidenced the best by the extant last wills
of men who were married when writing them down; as we have mentioned, they
comprise more than a half of the overall number of surviving testaments. In
those cases when the text does not mention children (approximately 30 % of the
last wills in the case of Brno), an overwhelming majority of husbands leave all
their movable and immovable property to their wives. Even if they make bequests
to children at the same time, the legacies earmarked for the wives are
usually also comprised of real properties. These brief statistics can be understood
as an insight into the mechanism that in its consequence led to the fact that
the property bequeathed by men and by women (widows) has a basically identical
structure. It has been confirmed for Znojmo that 70 % of all the testaments
originated by women until 1479 concern houses and vineyards.58
From this point of view, therefore, the decision of (grand)parents to provide
their daughters and granddaughters more often with movable items and their
sons and grandsons rather with real properties appears to be logical and need not
bear any witness at all about a cooler emotional relationship to daughters. This
grants even more weight to the documented examples of “democratic” family
testamentary strategies, which slightly prevail in the corpus under investigation
and attest to a strong status of female inheritors.
While in the case of real properties (including butcher’s shops, which are
most often described in the context of Brno and Znojmo as fleischpankh) we can
state a relatively even distribution of property in the male and female lines, certain
differences are visible among movable assets. The bequests of parts of armour
are significant: they comprised a typical part of herwêrde in the towns
following Magdeburg law, and were handed down almost exclusively within the
male line.59 For example, the burgher from Znojmo Petr of Čula left most of his
und wirtschaftliche Situation von Frauen im Spiegel spätmittelalterlichen Testamente
(Stuttgart: Metzler, 1998), 63-64.
57 In this context, we can cite two examples from the tax record of Brno founded in 1477: the
butcher’s Martin widow was taxed in the household of her mother (a widow herself), on the
half of the butchery, a quarter of a vineyard and on execution of trades, see Archiv města
Brna [Brno Town Archive], fond A1/3 (Sbírka rukopisů a úředních knih), manuscript No.
9, fol. 11r; a widowed daughter of Oswald Czach whose butchery was included in her
father´s property list, was in a similar situation, ibidem, fol. 22r.
58 Tlapáková, “Testamenty znojemských měšťanů,” 88.
59 Regarding concrete examples of Brno provenance and family patterns in transferring
specific types of property and goods see Michaela Antonín Malaníková, “Materiální kultura
62
property to his relative Hans in 1450, mentioning armour (harnasch) among
other things.60 Bedclothes, clothing, jewellery and household equipment (omnia
utensilia domus, que vulgariter Hawsgeret nuncupantur), in turn, were often
handed down in the female line, although not with a regularity that would allow
their assessment as a domain of women.61
Similarly unambiguous are the bequests of tools needed for the performance
of a trade, although they are not very frequent in testaments. A characteristic
example is the 1465 testament of the goldsmith Jakub, who left the same
amount in cash to his daughter Kateřina and to his son Filip, but the son moreover
received the tools needed for the performance of the trade (allen
wergczeug, der in der smeten ist und der czu dem Hantwerg gehortet).62 Mathes,
who made his living by producing kettles, divided his property among his children
in a similar way. All his five children – one daughter and four sons, an unusually
high number, as one to two children are usually mentioned in wills –
were to receive the same amount in cash, but the sons (along with his wife) also
got the tools (Werckzeug) in order to be able to make their living (domit sich
meine Suen mitsambt der mütter desterpas neren muegen).63
The bequests of craft tools may serve also as an indirect indicator of the
possibilities and forms of getting trained in a craft profession, which was organised
on the basis of guilds. As regards the basic knowledge of reading, writing
brněnských domácností 15. století v zrcadle testamentů” [Material Culture of the 15thcentury
Brno households as reflected in testaments], Brno v minulosti a dnes 25 (2012): 61-
75. Similar observations were presented by G. Jaritz with regard to the neighbouring
Archduchy of Austria: he described the bequests of books and weapons as a sphere
completely dominated by men; see Gerhard Jaritz, “Österreichische Bürgertestamente als
Quelle zur Erforschung städtischer Lebensformen des Spätmittelalters,” Jahrbuch für
Geschichte des Feudalismus 1984: 255.
60 SOkA Znojmo, AM Znojmo, sign. II/96, p. 58. According to the dictionary of medieval
German, this term refers to the chest armour, see Václav Bok, Slovník středověké němčiny
pro historiky [Dictionary of Medieval German for historians], (České Budějovice:
Jihočeská univerzita, 1995), 76. However, it seems that it was used more broadly referring
to all parts of the armour, which is best illustrated by the uniquely preserved inventory of
property of a wealthy burgher Hanuško des Sczepans from 1421, which includes a very
long and detailed list under the heading harnasch, see SOkA Znojmo, AM Znojmo, sign.
II/96, p. 22. In this broader sense, this term is also interpreted by Tlapáková, “Testamenty
znojemských měšťanů,” 64.
61 Cf. Thomas Krzenck, “Pražské a vídeňské testamenty pozdního středověku – pokus o
komparaci” [Prague and Viennese testaments of the late Middle Ages – an attempt at comparison],
in Pozdně středověké testamenty v českých městech, ed. Jíšová and Doležalová,
90. In Brno and Znojmo, as in Olomouc, the situation is not so clear, see Eva Glogarová,
“Hmotná kultura pozdně středověkých měšťanských domácností ve světle testamentů
olomouckých měšťanek” [Material culture of the late medieval urban households in the
light of testaments of the townswomen of Olomouc] (unpublished MA thesis, Department
of History, Faculty of Arts, Silesian University in Opava, 2009), 87.
62 Pamětní kniha II, 293, No. 672.
63 Ibidem, 358, No. 746.
63
and arithmetic, for boys we can expect the possibility of education in so-called
particular schools, which are documented in towns, whereas the possibility of
home education by relatives or through private lessons given by professional
teachers, in convents or by Beguines is the most likely for girls.64 Unfortunately,
no direct evidence documenting the possibilities of the education of girls in the
analysed town communities have survived. The so-called German (teutsche)
school, which taught the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic in the native
tongue and where girls from imperial towns most often received their education
in the 15th century,65 is only documented in Brno from the beginning of the 16th
century, and it functioned on a private basis.66 The increase in the number of
educational institutions and their diversified nature at the end of the Middle
Ages are along with laicisation of education and the emphasis on vernacular
languages generally regarded as trends favourable to female education.67 As specific
tools can be best used by one who engages in a certain trade, we can also
encounter bequests earmarked for a craftsman apprentice in the testaments. In
1483, the barrel maker Maternus left most of his property to his daughters and
his wife, money in cash and a winery to his stepson, while bequeathing all that
appertained to the acquisition and performance of the barrel-making craft (alles,
was zu einem man gehört auff vnserem Hanntwerch, so er das Hantwerch awslernen
vnd arbaiten wil) to his apprentice Toman.68 Identical examples of bequests
to apprentices, who were in some cases relatives, are recorded also for the
medieval Znojmo.69 If journeymen and apprentices are explicitly mentioned in
the examined testaments, they are always boys (the used terms include Knabe,
knecht or lerknecht). However, the more frequently documented maids (Mägde)
also need to be perceived more widely than as auxiliary staff. It is possible, or
even likely that these women also actively participated in the operation of the
craftsman’s workshop or trade, thus being able to improve their skills in the craft
64 Hanawalt, The Wealth of Wives, 35-49.
65 Margaret Wensky, “Mädchen- und Frauenbildung in der spätmittelalterlich-frühneuzeitlichen
Stadt,” in Mitteleuropäisches Städtewesen in Mittelalter und Frühneuzeit, ed.
Wilhelm Janssen (Cologne, Weimar, and Vienna: Böhlau, 1999), 27-28, Andrea Kammeier-
Nebel, “Frauenbildung im Kaufmannsmilieu spätmittelalterlicher Städte,” in Geschichte
der Mädchen- und Frauenbildung, Bd. 1, Vom Mittelalter bis zur Aufklärung, ed.
Elke Kleinau and Claudia Opitz (Frankfurt am Main and New York: Campus-Verlag,
1996), 79.
66 See Hana Jordánková and Ludmila Sulitková, “Možnosti vzdělání v předbělohorském
Brně” [Educational opportunities in Brno before 1620] in Nový Mars Moravicus, ed.
Bronislav Chocholáč, Jan Libor and Tomáš Knoz (Brno: Matice moravská, 1999), 323.
67 See Barbara A. Hanawalt and Anna Dronzek, “Women in Medieval Urban Society,” in
Women in Medieval Western European Culture, ed. Linda E. Mitchell (New York and
London: Garland, 1999), 35.
68 Pamětní kniha II, 447, No. 847.
69 Until 1479 summarized by Tlapáková, “Testamenty znojemských měšťanů,” 64.
64
or trade.70 Hans-Dieter Loose reached the same conclusion based on his research
into testaments from Lübeck and Hamburg.71 Like for instance in the medieval
York, the role of a maid was probably a usual life experience for many girls on
the threshold of adulthood72 also in the Moravian towns of the Middle Ages.
Female craft apprentices are not directly documented in the investigated
towns, although there is much evidence that Moravian woman burghers participated
in the operation of workshops and trades alike. The number of female tallage
payers in a wide range of documented craft professions and also the analogy
with the situation in other European towns73 make it evident that we must
expect “initial training” (although probably modified) also in the examined milieu.
Many girls might have simply been trained in the workshops of their fathers
without ever gaining the status of an apprentice,74 which is probably the
main reason why most of them remain hidden to the eyes of historians. Unlike
boys, girls more often received their training in the crafts informally, similarly to
their learning of the basics of literacy. Moreover, their knowledge of the operation
of a workshop or trade and specialisation in a craft undoubtedly increased
the girls’ chances and “value” on the marriage market. Marriages within one
trade might not have been conditioned only by a more interconnected social
network among the guild companions, but perhaps also by the practical assumption
that the daughter of a craftsman will be able to provide experienced help
also to her husband within the framework of the same profession.
Based on the analysis of the extant testaments from Brno and Znojmo of
the Late Middle Ages, seen through the prism of gender, we have investigated
70 In Moravian context, maidens are often also addressees of testamentary bequests. In many
cases they obtained the pieces of clothing. As shown by Katalin Szende on the example of
medieval Bratislava, bequests of clothing can be considered as the most personal gift and as
an expression of positive relationships. As such, they are frequently given to friends and
servants, scilicet persons outside the family, see Szende, “From Mother to Daughter, from
Father to Son? Intergenerational Patterns,” 218-19.
71 “Fraglich ist dabei allerdings, ob es sich bei den als ancilla oder Magd bezeichneten Frauen
in jedem Fall um Angehörige des Gesindes handelte, das Hausarbeit verrichten musste. Der
Begriff ancilla oder Magd scheint auch für Gehilfinnen im Geschäft gebräuchlich gewesen
zu sein.” See Hans-Dieter Loose, “Erwerbstätigkeit der Frau im Spiegel Lübecker und
Hamburger Testamente des 14. Jahrhunderts,” Zeitschrift des Vereins für Lübeckische Geschichte
und Altertumskunde 60 (1980): 15.
72 Peter Jeremy Piers Goldberg, Women, Work, and Life Cycle in a Medieval Economy:
Women in York and Yorkshire c. 1300-1520 (Oxford, New York, and Toronto: Clarendon
Press, 1992), passim; idem, “Marriage, Migration, and Servanthood: The York Cause Paper
Evidence,” in Women in Medieval English Society, ed. P.J.P. Goldberg (Phoenix Mill: Alan
Sutton Publishing Limited, 1997), 1-15.
73 Marry Wiesner-Hanks, “Ausbildung in den Zünften,” in Geschichte der Mädchen- und
Frauenbildung, ed. Kleinau and Opitz, 93.
74 This explanation is considered to be plausible also for medieval London, see Hanawalt, The
Wealth of Wives, 40; or for imperial cities Wiesner-Hanks, “Ausbildung in den Zünften,”
93.
65
the conditions that the societas urbana created for their offspring. Although it is
evident by definition that a wide range of diverse factors reflected in the distribution
of legacies in every individual case, we can formulate several conclusions.
Both male and female testators (the latter being most often widows) regard
their children as significant social capital. Apart from the practical need to
secure a safe existence above all for minor children, this fact is stemming also
from the fact that the children of burghers took over into their hands not only the
care for the material assets, but also the care for the posthumous memory of the
testators, which was a necessary condition for spiritual salvation – a category
that was crucial for a medieval person regardless of his or her social status. This
role was fulfilled in both examined towns by sons and daughters alike; this corresponds
to the period legal norm, which unambiguously preferred the nuclear
family at the expense of collateral kinship bonds. In practice, the composition of
the property bequeathed to daughters tends to be very similar to the bequests to
sons, which corresponds to a trend observable in Western European towns,
where girls and boys had almost equal entitlement to the family property, in
stark contrast to the legal practices of the Mediterranean, where the patrilineal
pattern of the transfer of property was strongly preferred. Although we do see
certain disproportion in favour of immovable property bequests rather in the
male line in some families, it is to a great extent the outcome of a difference in
the life trajectories of sons and daughters and in the level of their mobility
within the family structures. The most significant gender differences manifested
themselves in the group of bequests of movable items, particularly as regards the
tools necessary for the performance of a trade, as a consequence of the less formal
character of the training of burgher daughters in this sphere.75
75 This study was written as a part of the project POST-UP II., CZ.1.07/2.3.00/30.0041, cofinanced
by the European Social Fund and the state budget of the Czech Republic.