Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Dedication
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Note on the references
- Introduction
- 1 Anglo-Saxon written wills: the nature of the evidence
- 2 The process of will-making
- 3 Politics, power and the bequest of land
- 4 Lay bequest of land: pious gifts and family strategy
- 5 The bequest of movable wealth
- 6 Wills, commemoration and lay piety
- Conclusion: Why make a written will in Anglo-Saxon England?
- 1 The corpus of Anglo-Saxon wills
- 2 The evidence for wills and will-making in the Liber Eliensis and Chronicon Abbatiæ Rameseiensis
- 3 The bequest of movable wealth
- 4 Local churches mentioned in wills
- 5 Note on unpublished material by Patrick Wormald
- Bibliography
- Index
- York Medieval Press: Publications
5 - The bequest of movable wealth
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Dedication
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Note on the references
- Introduction
- 1 Anglo-Saxon written wills: the nature of the evidence
- 2 The process of will-making
- 3 Politics, power and the bequest of land
- 4 Lay bequest of land: pious gifts and family strategy
- 5 The bequest of movable wealth
- 6 Wills, commemoration and lay piety
- Conclusion: Why make a written will in Anglo-Saxon England?
- 1 The corpus of Anglo-Saxon wills
- 2 The evidence for wills and will-making in the Liber Eliensis and Chronicon Abbatiæ Rameseiensis
- 3 The bequest of movable wealth
- 4 Local churches mentioned in wills
- 5 Note on unpublished material by Patrick Wormald
- Bibliography
- Index
- York Medieval Press: Publications
Summary
Since truncation of the text in the course of the transmission of wills is possible, and in one or two instances demonstrable, particularly in cartulary versions, it is more than likely that we do not have the full picture of donors' bequests of chattels, which were particularly vulnerable to omission. No doubt Bede's deathbed distribution of his ‘few treasures’ (quaedam preciosa) among the priests of his monastery was a typical scenario for both laity and religious, usually unrecorded. As the evidence stands, movable wealth features almost exclusively in multi-gift wills: three are royal wills, five are the wills of ealdormen, fifteen were made by thegns, nine by women, two jointly by husband and wife, and six by churchmen. The three multi-gift wills dated to the ninth century bequeath considerable wealth, but largely in the form of coin or stock; it is only in wills of the tenth and eleventh centuries that we find a wider range of movable wealth which might be characterised as personal property, including war-gear, clothing, furnishings, jewellery and items associated with hunting or travel. This chronological shift may be related to an increase in disposable wealth, but it is also likely to reflect the evolution of the written will, as tenth- and eleventh-century donors exploited its potential to encompass detailed and complex dispositions to a range of beneficiaries.
As Sheehan pointed out, the disposition of personal property was less damaging to the social group than the alienation of land.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Wills and Will-Making in Anglo-Saxon England , pp. 180 - 227Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2011