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distinct units within a settlement is important from the point of view of social history, as written evidence suggests that the household – a nuclear family, occasionally with further family members or ancillaries, associated with a homestead, land and rights to use resources – was the basic building block of early medieval rural societies. The units belonging to a single farmstead could be organised in many different ways. An early medieval rural settlement at Pacé, in Brittany, provides a nice example of the internal articulation of a farmstead. 9 The site was
be a key route for such dispersal. These themes have been developed in an analysis of private and royal charters as sources for the place of powerful noblewomen as landholders in twelfth-century society. This argued that it is essential to understand the fragmented nature of the discourse on women that charters articulate. In the process of committing land transactions to parchment, élites created a broken narrative which paradoxically both recorded and created custom, practice and procedure. Bloch argued that the twelfth century was one great writing lesson for
of land as her marriage portion.2 Of even greater significance, however, is the fact that this charter was sealed with two seals. The seal appended on the left of the charter, which is possibly that of Bertram, depicts a unicorn and is considerably smaller than the seal on the right. The other seal is possibly that of Mabel, since it is of similar dimensions to her extant seal, a specimen of which authenticates a charter granted by Mabel, and is similar to that affixed to the joint grant made with Bertram. Further, both charters have the same witness list, so they
the female life cycle.19 Ian Short stresses the competing multiple identities of the noble elite of twelfth-century England,20 and this way of viewing individuals’ identities as fluid and dependent on context will be considered here through the way seals vocalised women’s identities. Crucially seals identified women’s power in the context of land tenure, lordship, social status and the female life cycle. Further, any individual exerted power in contexts, not as absolutes: thus an individual could be powerful in their locality, such as on the manor, but weak at the
way the intervention of that government might affect their lives. The surviving records cover twelve counties in England: Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Rutland, Huntingdonshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Hertfordshire, Essex, Cambridgeshire and Middlesex. Women from all ranks of the landholding classes are represented in the rolls relating to the twelve counties surveyed: from the twice widowed Margaret duchess of Brittany and countess of Richmond and sister of the Scottish king, who is listed as holding land worth £55 2s and eight marks per
countergifts and affidation 6 Countergifts and affidation Countergifts he exchange of material and spiritual countergifts was a method of ensuring the security of the land transfers which charters record. Historians view their significance in differing ways. Emily Tabuteau’s pragmatic interpretation argues that contemporary society received both juridical and spiritual benefits through gift exchange and that material countergifts given to relatives of a donor represented a form of compensation for loss of land.1 According to John Hudson, countergifts re
, sometimes explanatory in the light of changes in vocabulary. Thus complexities within texts were subject to smoothing out in the light of local knowledge. The variety of documents that Hawise witnessed suggests that there may have been more to her participation as a witness than a legalistic device predicated on her potential claims to land. For example, she was sole witness to a charter in favour of Queen Eleanor which gave her the ivory dice that Elias the clerk owed. Such a small gift speaks of personal relationships rather than Hawise as threat to the integrity of the
-century women’s power can be achieved. Stafford and Nelson have done much to clarify the importance of the interactions of the female life cycle and gender in constructions of female power. Stafford convincingly dismissed models of society which seek improvements or decline in women’s position or place in society since this undermines important questions concerning the complexities of status measurement. Stafford further argued that the powers of the eleventh-century queens Emma and Edith had multiple bases, through land tenure and in ‘marriage and maternity’.4 Stafford is
tied to the female life cycle. Such power, like that of men, was rooted in land tenure. The definition of categories of women is fraught with problems, yet arguably countesses were a distinct status group.1 Andreas Capellanus, writing in the late twelfth century, recognised social gradations based on rank and distinguished countesses as a group which he placed amongst the high nobility.2 Charters relating to the honor of Chester demonstrate the formal public power, spheres of influence, land holdings, economic interests, and the religious and cultural roles of the
relationship could take a very practical form. The patronage of the church was intrinsic to aristocratic culture, and royal women were often involved in patronage of not only the fabric of the buildings through grants of land and emoluments but also interior furnishings, books and relics.9 For example, Countess Judith of Flanders presented a fine crucifix to Durham and sacred relics and objects of art to the abbey of Weingarten, including a relic of the holy blood that she had inherited from her father.10 Queen Matilda, the wife of the Conqueror, gave a richly decorated