ABSTRACT
The Assises d'Antioche is a treatise on the law of the principality composed at some point between the end of the twelfth century and the year 1219. That makes it roughly contemporary with the Norman Tres Ancien Coutumier and with the earliest of the treatises from the kingdom of Jerusalem, the Livre au Roi, which on internal evidence belongs to the years 1198-1205. The chapter goes on to explain that if the woman has an adult male son by a previous marriage, then this son acquires the patrimony immediately and the widower is excluded. If, however, there are daughters by both marriages and no sons, then the court will make provision for sharing her patrimony equally among the half-sisters, with the surviving father retaining his own daughters' portions during his lifetime. The detail covering these various contingencies suggests that the whole issue had been the subject of lively debate and, no doubt, litigation.
