Choice and consequence: Propertied women's economic agency in Norway c. 1400-1550

Abstract

Women performing ownership of landed property are found in abundance in sources from late medieval Norway. Still, women as economic actors have until now received little attention. As the first comprehensive study of women’s economic activities, this dissertation investigates elite women’s economic agency in Norway c. 1400-1550. More specifically, it explores the options available for elite women to make independent economic choices, the actual choices they made and what consequences these choices had for the women themselves and for others.

Central to the analysis is how women’s marital status affected their economic agency. In the period in question, women’s economic activities were regulated by the national law code from 1274 and the town law code from 1276. These law codes generally restricted married women’s activities due to their subordination to their husbands and gave unmarried heiresses and widows a large degree of economic independence. In this dissertation, I argue that the complexity of women’s economic agency and how it was affected by their marital status cannot be understood through a study of the law codes alone.

Based on medieval diplomas that gives insight to actual practice, such as transaction records and private correspondence, I have analysed women’s actions and priorities as they negotiated inheritance, marriage, bequeathed landed property to others, entered credit relations and as they purchased, exchanged and sold landed property. I argue that women’s marital status did affect their options and choices, but that it did not necessarily do so in the ways that legislation would lead one to believe. In fact, the lack of detailed regulation afforded women (and men) the chance to develop their own economic strategies, and I argue that elite women were capable of utilising the options available to them in all stages of life. Rather than viewing married women’s economic position as insignificant due to their subordination to their husband, this dissertation establishes that wives played crucial roles as partners and advisors to their husbands. I have found that elite women could face challenges as unmarried heiresses, wives and widows, but argue that they were well prepared to face these challenges, either alone or together with a husband.

Due to my findings, it is necessary to reconsider elite women’s position in late medieval Norway and to acknowledge that they, too, were able to make choices that had consequences for their own and others’ lives. By establishing that elite women were economic actors of significance, this dissertation does not only add to our knowledge of women in late medieval Norway but also contributes to a wider international debate about women as economic actors.