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After the Anglo-Norman invasion of 1169 two entirely different legal systems concerning women and their rights upon marriage co-existed within Ireland. One system was based on the principles and tenets of the English common law which the invaders brought with them in the later twelfth century. This legal system enforced coverture, that is, the basic premise that, legally, married women were under the rule of their husbands. In contrast to this, Gaelic Irish society functioned according to its own ancient legal code, commonly called the Brehon law, which had reached its apogee and received codification in the seventh and eighth centuries but which was still in use in the later medieval period. Under this system women's rights after marriage were often very different from those provided for under the imported English common law. Because the two co-existing legal systems and societies were so different, women's experiences after marriage varied greatly within Ireland. These systems flourished and evolved separately but did not integrate or amalgamate in any way successfully. Of course certain habits and practices were adopted by both sides, but not to a significant extent. Indeed there was no overwhelming desire on either side to accommodate the traditions of the other, and thus these two societies grew ever more separate and alien to each other. Problems also occurred when intermarriage took place, as often both the married couple and those around them were confused as to which legal system to follow when it came to the woman's rights at marriage.
There has been a tendency in scholarship on premodern women and the law to see married women as hidden from view, obscured by their husbands in legal records. This volume provides a corrective view, arguing that the extent to which the legal principle of 'coverture' applied has been over-emphasized. In particular, it points up differences between the English common law position, which gave husbands guardianship over their wives and their wives' property, and the position elsewhere in northwest Europe, where wives' property became part of a community of property. Detailed studies of legal material from medieval and early modern England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Ghent, Sweden, Norway and Germany enable a better sense of how, when, and where the legal principle of 'coverture' was applied and what effect this had on the lives of married women. Key threads running through the book are married women's rights regarding the possession of moveable and immovable property, marital property at the dissolution of marriage, married women's capacity to act as agents of their husbands and households in transacting business, and married women's interactions with the courts. Cordelia Beattie is Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Edinburgh; Matthew Frank Stevens is Lecturer in Medieval History at Swansea University. Contributors: Lars Ivar Hansen, Shennan Hutton, Lizabeth Johnson, Gillian Kenny, Mia Korpiola, Miriam Muller, S. C. Ogilvie, Alexandra Shepard, Cathryn Spence.
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