Denna uppsats redogör för en ikonologisk bildanalys av fyra altarskåp i Strängnäs Stift. De utvalda altarskåpen för studien är Strängnäs domkyrkas altarskåp, Härad kyrkas högaltarskåp, Ytterselö kyrkas altarskåp och till sist Aspö kyrkas altarskåp. Genom en fältstudie för att analysera altarskåpens bildframställningar, en komparativ analys mellan altarskåpen i fråga, tillämpas även en analys av placering och betraktarperspektiv utifrån en receptionsestetisk teori. / This study presents an iconological analysis of four altarpieces in the Canonry of Strängnäs. The selected altarpieces for the study are Strängnäs cathedral’s altarpiece, Härad church’s altarpiece, Ytterselö church’s altarpiece and finally Aspö church’s altarpiece. Through a field study to analyze the imaging in the altarpieces, a comparative analysis between said altarpieces, an analysis of placement and viewer perspective based on reception theory is also applied.

This dissertation studies the economic partnership between husband and wife amongst the Swedish nobility during the fifteenth century. Medieval marriages have been seen as an institution that first and foremost was economically and socially beneficial to men. The dissertation aims to broaden this view by emphasizing the marriages’ importance to women’s economic agency within the prevailing patriarchal structure of medieval society.Through arranged marriages noble families formed political and social networks in order to uphold and secure their positions. In scholarly literature the role of women is often reduced to being a link between men, the father and the husband, enabling property transfers between lineages. This dissertation describes how spouses circumvented the regulations of inheritance to benefit each other and their conjugal family. Furthermore, it discusses how these strategies were economically advantageous for married women whilst sustaining the patriarchal structure. The legal status of women changed when they became widows, and it has often been pointed out that widows had opportunities and agency that neither unmarried nor married women had. The autonomy that women gained when they married was conditional on the guardianship of her husband. The widow had no guardian, thus being her own mistress. However, based on the high rate of remarriage amongst noble widows this dissertation argues that widow’s legal freedom to handle economic and juridical matters was considerably constrained within the existing gender system. Furthermore, it argues that remarried women’s freedom of action was larger than that of widows. Hence, marriage offered the possibility of forming an economic partnership with a man that represented their conjugal estate in economic transactions.

Minnesskapande, döendeprocesser och genus i Vadstena kloster: En kvantitativ innehållsanalys av dödsnotiser i Vadstenadiariet 1378–1544