From Queen to Captive – Witchcraft, Women and Power
Speaking with Shadows
00:00
Women and Landowners
The position of the wife of a significant landowner was that their son, if they had one, would inherit the bulk of the property. The widow would be left with one third of what her husband owned at his death. And that land would be hers for her life. She couldn't pass it on. If you married three or four times as many noblewomen did, and you clocged up a third of your husband's property each time they died, then you might end up a huge landowner. Women are not allowed to have official public power. They're not represented in parliament. They can't run local government, as justices of the peace, et cetera. But
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