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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 May 2018
Although ownership of real property was crucial to the economic opportunities of medieval urban women, few studies systematically investigate the gender distribution of medieval real property over time. Using censiers (rarely used sources), this article approaches this question through a socio-geographical analysis of Brussels. The study finds that, despite the region's egalitarian inheritance laws, female ownership of real property was relatively limited, and it declined during the late Middle Ages. This decrease accelerated during economic crises, and especially affected the property of non-elite women. Further research on the changing economic opportunities of medieval women would benefit from a more explicit discussion of non-labour income sources and social status.
Posséder des biens immobiliers était crucial et commode pour l’économie des femmes des villes médiévales, pourtant la répartition par sexe des biens immobiliers urbains au fil du temps a suscité peu d’études systématiques. Utilisant les censiers (type de source historique rarement utilisé), l'article aborde cette question à partir d'une analyse sociogéographique du Bruxelles de l’époque. L'auteur constate que, malgré une législation locale imposant un système d'héritage égalitaire, la part des femmes était relativement limitée en matière de propriété immobilière et même qu'elle y a de plus décliné à la fin du Moyen Âge. Cette diminution s'est accélérée pendant les crises économiques et a surtout affecté la propriété des femmes qui ne faisaient pas partie de l’élite locale. Des recherches plus poussées seraient bienvenues sur les changements intervenus au cours de l’époque médiévale, qui réduisirent, pour les femmes, l’éventail de leur potentiel économique. En particulier, un débat plus explicite serait souhaitable sur leurs sources de revenu non liées au travail et mettant en jeu leur statut social.
Obwohl für die ökonomischen Möglichkeiten von Frauen in mittelalterlichen Städten die Verfügung über Grundbesitz entscheidend war, haben bislang nur wenige Studien die geschlechtsspezifische Verteilung des Grundbesitzes im Zeitverlauf näher untersucht. Unter Verwendung von censiers (einer selten benutzte Quelle) geht der Beitrag dieser Frage in Form einer sozialtopographischen Analyse Brüssels nach. Die Untersuchung ergibt, dass trotz des egalitären Erbrechts in dieser Region weiblicher Grundbesitz vergleichsweise begrenzt war und im Spätmittelalter noch weiter abnahm. Dieser Rückgang beschleunigte sich in ökonomischen Krisenzeiten und betraf vor allem den Besitz von Frauen, die nicht der Elite angehörten. Die künftige Forschung über die Veränderungen der ökonomischen Möglichkeiten mittelalterlicher Frauen würde sicher davon profitieren, wenn sie sich stärker als bisher mit den Einkommensquellen und sozialen Statusmerkmalen befassen würde, die nicht auf eigener Erwerbsarbeit beruhten.
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3 Some notable exceptions include Reyerson, Kathryn, ‘Women in business in medieval Montpellier’, in Hanawalt, Barbara ed., Women and work in preindustrial Europe (Bloomington, 1986), 117–44Google Scholar: Hutton, Shennan, Women and economic activities in late medieval Ghent (New York, 2011)Google Scholar.
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6 To my knowledge, three studies do offer quantitative information on the gender distribution of real property ownership in late medieval cities, but only for one moment in time. Wensky, Margret, Die Stellung der Frau in der Stadtkölnischen Wirtschaft im Spätmittelalter (Graz, 1980), 312–15Google Scholar; Smail, Daniel Lord, ‘Démanteler le patrimoine: les femmes et les biens dans la Marseille médievale’, Annales: Histoire, Sciences Sociales 52, 2 (1997), 343–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rollo-Koster, Joëlle, ‘The boundaries of affection: women and property in late medieval Avignon’, in Sperling, Jutta and Wray, Shona Kelly eds., Across the religious divide: women, property, and law in the wider Mediterranean (ca. 1300–1800) (New York, 2010), 38–51Google Scholar. For the high Middle Ages, two studies did quantify changes in women's landownership. David Herlihy charted evolutions in female landownership in the whole of continental Europe between 700 and 1200 based on samples of charters. See Herlihy, David, ‘Land, family and women in continental Europe, 701–1200’, Traditio 18 (1962), 89–120Google Scholar. In his study of the growth of Barcelona and its ruling classes, Stephen Bensch included a discussion of the share of female property holders in Barcelona between 1100 and 1290. See Bensch, Stephen, Barcelona and its rulers, 1096–1291 (Cambridge 1995), 258Google Scholar.
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12 Many historians have pointed to the relationship between landownership and creditworthiness in the Low Countries. See, for example, Zuijderduijn, Jaco, ‘Assessing a medieval capital market: the capacity of the market for renten in Edam and De Zeevang (1462–1563)’, Jaarboek voor middeleeuwse geschiedenis 11, 1 (2008), 138–9, 148Google Scholar, and the cited literature there.
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22 Although they were not completely identical, a cens or cijns is best translated as ‘burgage rent’ or ‘socage rent’ as existed in urban England. To compare, see Harding, Vanessa, ‘Space, property, and propriety in urban England’, Journal of Interdisciplinary History 32, 4 (2002), 553–4Google Scholar.
23 Smail, ‘Démanteler le patrimoine’; Rollo-Koster, ‘The boundaries of affection'. Joëlle Rolle-Koster did combine gender analysis of a censier with social topography, but from the perspective of the cens collector. She reconstructed the lordship of a female convent in Avignon over properties throughout the city. See Rollo-Koster, Joëlle, ‘From prostitutes to virgin brides of Christ: the Avignonese Repenties in the late Middle Ages’, Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 32, 1 (2002), 125–6Google Scholar.
24 This overview is based on Philippe Godding, Le droit foncier à Bruxelles au Moyen Age (Brussels, 1960)Google Scholar.
25 All archival references are given in the overview table (see Appendix).
26 A complete overview and discussion of all censiers drawn up by institutions from Brussels can be found in Vannieuwenhuyze, Bram, Laatmiddeleeuwse Brusselse cijnsregisters (12de–15de eeuw): een schitterende bron voor de historische topografie van Brussel en haar omgeving (Brussels, 2014)Google Scholar.
27 An example: ‘Item, my lady Margriete, former wife of Henrix Sloesen, yearly and hereditary xxxix s. x d. to be paid at Christmas, for a plot in the Steenstraat next to lord Diederex Loesen’ (Free translation from: ‘Item joncfrouwe Margriete, Henrix Sloesen wijf was, xxxix s. x d. siaers erfleken te Kerssavont op een hofstat gheleghen in de Steenstrate bi tser Diederex Loesen’) (OCMW Archive Brussels, fonds Hôpitaux, no. 312, fo. 7r).
28 The cens paid by institutions such as the city of Brussels and religious or charitable institutions were not included in the analysis.
29 On methodological considerations for censiers, see Andrea Bardyn and Bram Vannieuwenhuyze, ‘Inleiding’, in Vannieuwenhuyze, Laatmiddeleeuwse Brusselse cijnsregisters, 9–33.
30 In some cases the plot was described with the name of the house; in others, the name of the payer was not written down, or a payer was described as ‘the children/heirs of X’.
31 Translation of ‘Lijsbet Zwerten ende Jan van den Driesche, haer man als hare monbore’ (OCMW Archives Brussels, Bienfaissance, no. 883, fo. 4r).
32 Hutton, Women, 49.
33 Judith M. Bennett and Ruth Mazo Karras, ‘Women, gender and medieval historians’, in Bennet and Karras eds., The Oxford handbook of women and gender in medieval Europe, 9. Specifically for Avignon, see Rollo-Koster, Joëlle, ‘The women of papal Avignon: a new source: the Liber Divisionis of 1371’, The Journal of Women's History 8, 1 (1996), 36–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar, here 49.
34 Hutton, Women, 149; Kittel, Ellen, ‘The construction of women's social identity in medieval Douai: evidence from identifying epithets’, Journal of Medieval History 25, 3 (1999), 215–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
35 He analysed this by counting the owners of adjacent properties in 4,000 land transfers (Bensch, Barcelona, 258). Linda McMillen found a higher percentage of female landowners in the middle of the thirteenth century, but this is based on a small number of transactions concerning only leased property by one monastery. Of the 137 leaseholders of urban property, 27 per cent were women. See McMillin, Linda, ‘The house on Sant Pere Street: four generations of women's land holding in thirteenth-century Barcelona’, Medieval Encounters 12, 1 (2006), 62–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar, here 72.
36 Bensch, Barcelona, 244–60.
37 To my knowledge, the only studies that give the gendered distribution of property ownership (not market activity) in late medieval cities are those mentioned by Daniel Lord Smail and Joelle Rollo-Koster (which will be discussed further), and Margaret Wensky's study, giving a percentage of female property owners from a taxation source. However, the source only includes heads of households (and thus mostly only widows) above a certain wealth level. See Wensky, Die Stellung, 312–15.
38 Michaud, Francine, Un signe des temps: accroissement des crises familiales autour du patrimoine à Marseille à la fin du XIIIe siècle (Toronto, 1994), 83Google Scholar.
39 The exclusion of dowered daughters was the rule in most regions in southern Europe. Nevertheless, there was significant regional variation. In Barcelona, as mentioned earlier, dowered daughters were not disinherited. This was also the case in Lisbon. See, for a comparative study, Sperling, Jutta, ‘Dowry or inheritance? Kinship, property, and women's agency in Lisbon, Venice, Florence (1572)’, Journal of Early Modern History 11, 3 (2007), 197–238Google Scholar.
40 Winer, Rebecca Lynn, Women, wealth, and community in Perpignan, c. 1250–1300 (Aldershot, 2006), 256Google Scholar and the literature cited in note 57; Lightfoot, Dana Wessel, Women, dowries and agency: marriage in fifteenth-century Valencia (Manchester, 2013), 122–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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42 Claire Dickstein-Bernard, ‘Une ville en expansion (1291–1374)’, in Martens ed., Histoire de Bruxelles, 100; Despy, Georges, ‘La “grande peste noire de 1348” a-t-elle touché le Roman Pays de Brabant?’, in Centenaire du Séminaire d'Histoire médiévale de l'Université Libre de Bruxelles, 1876–1976 (Brussels, 1977), 195–217Google Scholar; Deligne, Chloé, Bruxelles et sa rivière: genèse d'un territoire urbain (12e–18e siècle) (Turnhout, 2003), 109–10Google Scholar.
43 For example, in Norfolk, all identifiable female landowners in the period 1500–1529 were widows: Whittle, Jane, ‘Inheritance, marriage, widowhood and remarriage: a comparative perspective on women and landholding in north-east Norfolk, 1440–1580’, Continuity and Change 13, 1 (1998), 33–72Google Scholar.
44 Godding, Le droit privé, 182–3.
45 For example, the censier of the poor table of the parish of the Chapel from 1376 was compared to several corresponding contracts from a charter book of the institution.
46 Howell, The marriage exchange, 124–43.
47 Dumolyn, Jan, ‘Patriarchaal patrimonialisme: de vrouw als object in sociale transacties in het laatmiddeleeuwse Vlaanderen: familiestrategieën en genderposities’, Verslagen van het Centrum voor genderstudies – Ugent 12, 1 (2003), 1–28Google Scholar.
48 Philippe Godding points to the possibility to use testaments to (partly) circumvent customary devolution, for example to preserve the unity of the patrimony by compensating other heirs. He underlines, however, that research on actual practice is necessary (Godding, Le droit privé, 381, 393–4). In Brussels, testators had wide latitude in formulating their wills, more than in many other cities in the Low Countries. See Godding, Philippe, ‘Dans quelle mesure pouvait-on disposer de ses biens par testament dans les anciens Pays-Bas méridionaux?’, Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis 50, 3 (1982), 279–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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50 Boone, Dumon and Reusens, Immobiliënmarkt, 346–8.
51 It is worth noting that the registers of St John's hospital contain larger numbers of women paying a cens together with their husbands, which might suggest involvement of the couple's communal property. However, the share of women paying a cens independently did decline: from 21 per cent in 1356 to 9 per cent in 1409.
52 Tiffany A. Ziegler, ‘I was sick and you visited me: the hospital of Saint John in Brussels and its patrons’ (unpublished D.Phil. thesis, University of Missouri-Columbia, 2010), 392; Kusman, David, ‘Le Rôle des hôpitaux comme institutions de crédit dans le duché de Brabant (XIIIe–XVe siècles)’, in Pauly, Michel ed., Institutions de l'assistance sociale en Lotharingie médiévale (Luxembourg, 2008), 366–73Google Scholar.
53 See, for example, Boone, Dumon and Reusens, Immobiliënmarkt, 196–9.
54 See, for an overview, Van der Wee, Herman, The growth of the Antwerp market and the European economy (fourteenth–sixteenth centuries) (The Hague, 1963), 9–18Google Scholar.
55 Spufford, Peter, Money and its use in medieval Europe (Cambridge, 1989), 349Google Scholar with specific reference to Brabant; van der Wee, Herman and Materné, Jan, ‘De muntpolitiek in Brabant tijdens de late Middeleeuwen en bij de overgang naar de nieuwe tijd’, in van den Eerenbeemt, Henricus ed., Bankieren in Brabant in de loop der eeuwen (Tilburg, 1987), 43–50Google Scholar.
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57 Free translation of ‘de stad mids crancker neringen, die lange daerinne es geweest ende in lanc soe meer continueert …, alsoe de de menichte van den volke zeer vermindert, de huyse vervallen ende andersins de voirseide stad grotelic declineert’. See Marez, Guillaume Des, L'Organisation du travail à Bruxelles au XVe siècle (Brussels, 1904), 472–3Google Scholar.
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59 A small section of the Chapel parish, which was located within the first city wall, has been excluded from the analysis.
60 They were identified with a title, or could be linked to elite families through their names and family members.
61 One woman was definitely linked to Brussels patrician linages. The other woman paid a cens for no less than four houses and her husband came from an important, albeit non-patrician, family (van Bolenbeke).
62 OCMW Archive Brussels, Bienfaissance, no. 216, fos. 73r, 75r.
63 For the relationship between economic trends and real estate and capital markets in the Low Countries, see among others, Soly, Hugo, ‘De schepenregisters als bron voor de conjunctuurgeschiedenis van Zuid – en Noordnederlandse steden in het Ancien Régime: een concreet voorbeeld: de Antwerpse immobiliënmarkt in de 16de eeuw’, Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 87, 1 (1974), 521–44Google Scholar; Boone, Dumon and Reusens, Immobiliënmarkt, 86–9.
64 The difficult economic situation of the inhabitants of Brussels has been discussed in the introduction of section 7. For additional discussion of the increased impoverishment in the city, see Dickstein-Bernard, Claire, ‘Paupérisme et secours aux pauvres à Bruxelles au XVe siècle’, Belgisch tijdschrift voor filologie en geschiedenis 55, 2 (1977), 390–415Google Scholar. The selling of real estate by people without sufficient financial reserves during times of economic difficulties has been observed in late medieval Ghent; see Boone, Dumon and Reusens, Immobiliënmarkt, 154–6. See also, in general for the Low Countries, Uytven, Raymond van, ‘La Flandre et le Brabant, “terres de promission” sous les ducs de Bourgogne?’, Revue de Nord 43, 3 (1961), 312–13Google Scholar.
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67 State Archives of Belgium – Anderlecht, Fonds Kerkelijk archief van Brabant, no. 6926, fo. 12r.
68 Boone, Dumon and Reusens, Immobiliënmarkt, 312–13.
