Original scientific paper

Women in Medieval Podravina

Ranko Pavleš ; Koprivnica, Croatia

Abstract

The paper endeavours, using available resource, to relate the situation of women in medieval society in the Podravina region. The first part cites several examples of the influence of the Queen, the Herceg«s Lady (the Duchess) and the Ban«s (Vicegerent«s) Lady on the situation in the Podravina region. This category of women is the only one in medieval society possessing political, administrative and judicial authorities. The second part describes the position of noblewomen. It speaks of the maiden«s fourth, exceptions in inheritance when sovereigns permit the inheritance of an estate through the female line, testaments that mention women or that were drawn up by women, and an analysis is made of how women are designated in tax censuses at the beginning of the 16th century. The cited examples show that noblewomen had the right, although limited, to gain property and dispose of it. Also cited here are rare examples of aspects of the lives of noblewomen outside affairs related to the estate. Chapter three analyses the scanty data concerning the inhabitants of the towns of the Podravina region. Urban women had more extensive rights than other classes, guaranteed to them by municipal privileges, but also likely by their importance in urban labour processes. The cited sources show only that urban women gained real property, but also that they for the most part did not endeavour to retain it. The fourth part cites only two documents that mention the members of the most numerous medieval women«s class, the peasants. They are listed as some of the robbed subjects of the aristocracy of Koprivnica and Đurđevac and as holders of the hamlets on the estates of the Paulist Fathers in Streza. In both cases a very small number of them are listed, probably as a result of the efforts of feudal lords to have men hold the hamlets, i.e. integral families, with the aim of increasing the efficiency of the land«s cultivation. In its conclusion the paper only mentions in passing the members of other social classes of women for which there is no confirmation in documents related to the Podravina region.

Keywords

women; medieval; Podravina

Hrčak ID:

78147

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/78147

Publication date:

1.12.2007.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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