ABSTRACT
This chapter explores married noblewomen's role in property management in fifteenth-century Norway. Contrary to medieval Norwegian law, which designated the husband as sole manager of a marital estate, marriage can and should be considered an economic partnership, where both partners worked to secure both separate and common economic interests. Married in the late 1450s, Magnhild and Alv spent almost half a century managing and expanding their landed properties together. The marriage contract between Magnhild and Alv is not preserved, but since it was common practice among the landowning elite of the period to enter contracts, it is safe to assume that Magnhild and Alv also had one made. Magnhild's involvement in the expansion of the estates went, as earlier mentioned, against current law. According to the National Law Code, the husband was to govern the household's properties to the benefit of them both.
