Women and Property Relationships in Medieval and Early Modern England

Women and Property Relationships in Medieval and Early Modern England Concepts of property were fundamental to Judeo-Christian religion and to societies influenced by the concepts of 'mine' and 'thine'. These four papers discuss some ofthe meanings ofproperty in medieval and early modern England. What were the relationships of w o m e n as daughters, wives, widows and single women to property in its changing historical forms? Land was always significant in medieval and early m o d e m England, but how did the trend towards increasing male inheritance affect h o w w o m e n thought of themselves in relation to real estate? As England became a more commercial society, how did w o m e n relate to newer forms of property, such as credit? And what of women's bodies, and the doctrine ofownership by their husbands? Thefirstarticle raises some general issues, and the three that follow consider case studies of women's involvement with property at different stages in the life cycle and in diverse areas of England. Though some interpretations may vary between articles, all of them discuss how gender affected property relationships, and h o w property in turn affected the relationships between women, m e n and children. ...