ABSTRACT
In early modern Castile, widows played a key role in creating, defining and perpetuating their families and, in turn, the social fabric of the urban environment. Unlike their counterparts in other regions of Europe, who did not necessarily enjoy the same potential legal and financial autonomy, widows in Spain were not marginalized figures, but rather highly visible, active and central members of their families and their society. Evidence from Toledo, one of the most populous, culturally vibrant and socially influential cities in the Kingdom of Castile during the mid- to late-sixteenth century, drawn from merely a fraction of the documents examined during the course of research, overwhelmingly demonstrates widows engaged in pious bequests and sponsorship of a wide variety of funerary devotions. While legal statutes formed an important framework for outlining a widow's access to property and her ability to employ it according to her desires, other normative principles also played their role in shaping patronage activities.
