PRAEFECTIO IN FILIUM IN HEREDEM MASCULINUM – A CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF WOMEN´S RIGHTS OF INHERITANCE

Abstract

The authors analyse the nobility’s rights of inheritance comprised in the Tripartitum and valid for the Hungarian-Croatian Kingdom. For the process of inheritance, it was relevant whether the property to be inherited was hereditary property (bona hereditaria) or acquired property (bona acquisita). Furthermore, it was important whether the property was acquired by the charter of enfeoffment (royal donation) as well as what the gender of a potential heir was. This was due to different limitations with regard to the exercise of rights of inheritance by a female offspring, particularly concerning the inheritance of landed property. In particular, rules of prefection are analysed. The prefection was a legal instrument stipulating that in case of the extinction of the male line, the estate of the nobleman could be inherited by the daughter who was “promoted” to a son by a royal privilege. This was an example of the so-called special inheritance right and was seen as an institution damaging the interests of collateral branches. When it was introduced, the prefection was contrary to the customary inheritance law but was, nevertheless, applied in practice providing the possibility of keeping the property within the (nuclear) family by the female line and excluding the collateral branches of family.