Exploring property law through the lens of disputed wills, this book offers an intriguing insight into seventeenth-century English society. It highlights evolving notions of property and inheritance, while poignant case accounts illustrate the law's challenges in addressing complex, real-life situations.
Exploring the evolution of familial structures, this book delves into the significance of family history and its impact on personal identity. It examines various cultural, social, and historical contexts that shape family dynamics, offering insights into how these relationships influence individual lives and societal norms. Through compelling narratives and research, it highlights the importance of understanding one's lineage and the broader implications of family heritage in contemporary society.
It is the aim of this collection of reports to establish a basis for comparing various seigneurial courts in pre-modern Europe. The contributors are largely medievalists. To come to terms with the subject, a defintion of courts which were seigneurial, given the variety of legal heritages, had to be set up. One of the first observations made was that on the Continent, where central courts were less prominent, there appears to be a more flexible notion of seigneurial jurisdiction. The contributors then look at the variety of jurisdictions in which lords in medieval and early modern Europe governed the legal relations of their vassals. Also the seigneurial jurisdiction is placed within its national context as one variety of courts which co-existed with other forums. Next the authors observe the origin and nature of substantive law which was implemented in the courts. Finally, focus is put on procedure. In England the medieval period witnessed considerable developments in the way in which cases came before the manorial court and how proof of the compainant's claim was ascertained. The reports provide a framework for further study. They demonstrate similarities and differences between seigneurial jurisdictions in England and on the Continent. One significant observation is that seigneurial jurisdictions seemed to have survived longer on the Continent than in England. Moreover, Continental seigneurial courts seemed to have serviced a broader strata of society. Yet, what is perhaps most striking are the similarities in procedure and in the process of custom making which the collected reports uncover.
InhaltsverzeichnisInhalt: P. Godding, Le Droit au Service du Patrimoine Familial: les Pays-Bas Méridionaux - R. Feenstra, Family, Property and Succession in the Province of Holland during the Sixteenth, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries - M. Bellomo, La Struttura Patrimoniale della Famiglia Italiana nel Tardo Medioevo - A. Romano, Successioni e difesa del patriomonio familiae nel Regno di Sicilia - M. C. Zorzoli, Della Famiglia e del Suo Patrimonio: Riflessioni sull'uso del Fedecommesso in Lombardia tra Cinque e Seicento - B. Clavero, Favor Maioratus, Usus Hispaniae: Moralidad de Linaje entre Castilla y Europa - M. Petitjean, Eléments d'une Politique Patrimoniale de l'Aristocratie à Travers l'Example Bourguignon - L. Bonfield, Property Settlements on Marriage in England from the Anglo-Saxons to the Mid-Eighteenth Century - R. H. Helmholz, The English Law of Wills and the „Ius Commune“ - M. M. Sheehan, The Bequest of Land in England in the High Middle Ages: Testaments and the Law - C. Donahue, Jr., English and French Marriage Cases in the Later Middle Ages: Might the Difference be Explained by Differences in the Property Systems?