A presente dissertação tem como objetivo analisar em que medida os documentos com características testamentárias da Gália merovíngia refletem estratégias de transmissão de bens, ou seja, as ações planejadas pelos testadores para definir o caminho que devem tomar seus bens após sua morte, no reino merovíngio entre os séculos VI e VIII. A transmissão de bens é um ato importante da vida em sociedade. Para estudá-la, são analisados 12 testamentos do período, ou seja, todos os que sobreviveram até os dias de hoje, além da fórmula 17 do livro II do Formulário de Marculfo, que variam tanto no tempo quanto no espaço. A princípio, essa análise nos ajuda a visualizar as semelhanças entre os testamentos laicos e episcopais. Assim, podemos nos aproximar da compreensão dessas práticas legais no período, bem como da organização dos grupos sociais. A análise dessa documentação com o auxílio da historiografia é importante para que também notemos as variações dos testamentos ao longo do tempo e do espaço e como eles auxiliavam no cumprimento das últimas vontades dos aristocratas. / This dissertation aims to analyze how testamentary documents from Merovingian Gaul reflect strategies for transferring goods in the Merovingian kingdom from sixth to eighth centuries. These strategies are actions planned by testers to define what will happen to their goods after their death. The transfer of assets is an important practice of social life. To study it, 12 wills from the period are analyzed, all those which survived to the present day, plus the formula 17, book II from the Formulary of Marculf. All these testaments vary both in time and in space. At first, this analysis can help us visualize the similarities between the secular and the episcopal type of testaments. Therefore, we can understand these legal practices in the period as well as the organization of the groups. The analysis of this documentation and the aid of historiography are important to note the variations of the wills over time and space and understand how they helped the fulfillment of the aristocratic last wills.

A presente dissertação tem como objetivo analisar em que medida os documentos com características testamentárias da Gália merovíngia refletem estratégias de transmissão de bens, ou seja, as ações planejadas pelos testadores para definir o caminho que devem tomar seus bens após sua morte, no reino merovíngio entre os séculos VI e VIII. A transmissão de bens é um ato importante da vida em sociedade. Para estudá-la, são analisados 12 testamentos do período, ou seja, todos os que sobreviveram até os dias de hoje, além da fórmula 17 do livro II do Formulário de Marculfo, que variam tanto no tempo quanto no espaço. A princípio, essa análise nos ajuda a visualizar as semelhanças entre os testamentos laicos e episcopais. Assim, podemos nos aproximar da compreensão dessas práticas legais no período, bem como da organização dos grupos sociais. A análise dessa documentação com o auxílio da historiografia é importante para que também notemos as variações dos testamentos ao longo do tempo e do espaço e como eles auxiliavam no cumprimento das últimas vontades dos aristocratas. / This dissertation aims to analyze how testamentary documents from Merovingian Gaul reflect strategies for transferring goods in the Merovingian kingdom from sixth to eighth centuries. These strategies are actions planned by testers to define what will happen to their goods after their death. The transfer of assets is an important practice of social life. To study it, 12 wills from the period are analyzed, all those which survived to the present day, plus the formula 17, book II from the Formulary of Marculf. All these testaments vary both in time and in space. At first, this analysis can help us visualize the similarities between the secular and the episcopal type of testaments. Therefore, we can understand these legal practices in the period as well as the organization of the groups. The analysis of this documentation and the aid of historiography are important to note the variations of the wills over time and space and understand how they helped the fulfillment of the aristocratic last wills.

This thesis explores the extent to which elite women of the eighteenth century commissioned architectural works and the extent to which the type and scale of their projects was dictated by their marital status. Traditionally, architectural historians have advocated that eighteenth-century architecture was purely the pursuit of men. Women, of course, were not absent during this period, but their involvement with architecture has been largely obscured and largely overlooked. This doctoral research has redressed this oversight through the scrutinising of known sources and the unearthing of new archival material. This thesis begins with an exploration of the legal and financial statuses of elite women, as encapsulated by the eighteenth-century marriage settlement. This encompasses brides’ portions or dowries, wives’ annuities or ‘pin-money’, widows’ dower or jointure, and provisions made for daughters and younger children. Following this, the thesis is divided into three main sections which each look at the ways in which women, depending upon their marital status, could engage in architecture. The first of these sections discusses unmarried women, where the patronage of the following patroness is examined: Anne Robinson; Lady Isabella Finch; Lady Elizabeth Hastings; Sophia Baddeley; George Anne Bellamy and Teresa Cornelys. The second section explores the patronage of married women, namely Jemima Yorke, Marchioness Grey; Amabel Hume-Campbell, Lady Polwarth; Mary Robinson, Baroness Grantham; Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough; Frances Boscawen; Elizabeth Herbert, Countess of Pembroke and Montgomery; Henrietta Knight, Baroness Luxborough and Lady Sarah Bunbury. The third and final section discusses the architectural patronage of widowed women, including Susanna Montgomery, Countess of Eglinton; Georgianna Spencer, Countess Spencer; Elizabeth Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort; Elizabeth Home, Countess of Home; Elizabeth Montagu; Mary Hervey, Lady Hervey; Henrietta Fermor, Countess of Pomfret; the Hon. Charlotte Digby; the Hon. Charlotte Boyle Walsingham; the Hon. Agneta Yorke and Albinia Brodrick, Viscountess Midleton. Collectively, all three sections advocate that elite women were at the heart of the architectural patronage system and exerted more influence and agency over architecture than has previously been recognised by architectural historians.