ABSTRACT
The Gondi family was patriarchal and traditional in many ways. These attitudes are encapsulated in the will of Jean-Baptiste Gondi, who died in 1580. He stipulated that after his death, if his immediate male heirs died, rather than leaving his inheritance to his nieces and grand-nieces, it should first go to any male in the kingdom with the last name of Gondi. 1 After Jean-Baptiste’s death, his wife was to receive a pension of 800 écus per year, although she died later the same year. 2
