IN THE PREVIOUS chapter, I demonstrated the continued acquisition of property through inheritance by noblewomen and that they, like their male peers, underwent some contraction of their independence vis-à-vis the king, who was increasingly able to enforce feudal obligations and royal lordship through the extension of bureaucratic institutions and establishment of written law. Elite women performed the duties of vassals and were legally capable during marriage. This chapter lays out my argument concerning the exercise of lordship within a countess's inherited lands (her iretage). Women's lordship and governance, I argue, was routine and exercised both during marriage and widowhood as direct lords for their inherited lands and as lord-consorts in their husbands’ lands. Since Church doctrine established men as the superior in the marital couple, governance of the countess's inherited lands was done by both the count and countess. However, count-consorts issued very few solo acta concerning their wives’ lands, nor did they issue acta validating the countess's solo acta. Like noblemen, women entered into the governance of their lands in their early twenties and exercised it increasingly as they aged. Inheriting countesses were married prior to their early twenties, at least in northern France, and therefore it is impossible to assess their access to official power before marriage. When there were large differences in the age of spouses, for example, the eighteen years between Henry the Liberal and Marie of Champagne, young countesses rarely play a role in the well-established administration of their spouses. Noble couples of similar age tended to rule jointly, although husbands issued more documents for their own inherited lands. This division of labour and lordrship is revealed through the scribal use of titles and seals.

Rightful Lords (droit seigneur)

Noblewomen's ability to govern within their lands was predicated first upon their legal inheritance of the land and its associated powers, and then upon their age, and to some extent their gender. While it is clear that women inherited their parents’ property, the degree to which their power was subsumed by their husbands is still debated. Ellen Kittell's analysis of Flemish women demonstrates that women were not under the guardianship or coverture of their husbands throughout the thirteenth century.