ABSTRACT
The evolving and labyrinthine nature of early modern law exercised powerful restrictions on the personal and property rights of women. Although dissenting voices against legal inequality were emerging, women’s rights in areas of marital choice, maternal authority, sexual and reproductive matters, and transfer and ownership of property were largely circumscribed by their gender. Nonetheless, many women managed to negotiate the legal system through skill, persistence, and sometimes desperation. Some of the women in this category found themselves in the courts as witnesses or accessories to criminal activities, but most of the litigation in which women were immersed involved inheritance issues, either for themselves or their children. In an age in which multiple marriages were common, widowed women in particular often had to wage fierce legal battles to ensure the financial welfare of their families. These cases often lasted several years, even decades, and often reveal a remarkable perseverance and familiarity with legal systems.
