#isabella bukerel

[ladyniniane]

“Isabella Bukerel and Johanna Vyel lived and moved in a society in which women of their class and station understood the law, especially as it pertained to their estates and inheritance, and knew how to use it. The methods by which women acquired this acumen are not explicitly recorded, but it seems to have been almost the rule, and certainly not the exception. Barbara Hanawalt finds that in London dower cases between 1301 and 1306, forty-five percent of widows in recorded cases represented themselves. Sue Sheridan Walker writes, “The control of property – as heiresses, landholders by their own acquisition, joint tenants, and doweresses – gave medieval women power, status, and a need to be familiar with land law. … Litigation about real property and appurtenant rights required that women, especially widows, be an active part of that pervasive legal culture.” Extant wills demonstrate that as they prepared for their deaths, late thirteenth-century London women capably prioritized not only their own material and spiritual interests, but also those of their family members and other loved ones, including other women. Walker writes, “The frequency with which women used the law courts and bureaucratic tribunals of the King, the church, and the town is one of the most striking features of medieval England.

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Extant wills demonstrate that as they prepared for their deaths, thirteenth-century London women capably prioritized not only their own legal, material, and spiritual interests, but also those of their family members and other loved ones, including other women. Thesewomen used their status as wealthy, influential movers in the City’s mercantile cultureto arrange their own postmortem affairs and those of their families and to advocatefor those concerns in the courts when it was necessary.”

Bohne Amanda : “Networks of influence: widows, sole administration, and unconventional relationships in Thirteenth-century London”, in: Women intellectual and leaders in the Middle Ages 

[ladyniniane]

“Bukerel was perhaps the most prominent woman in the Vyel and Bukerel families and one of the wealthiest women in late thirteenth-century London. Williams writes that she “owned most of the Drapery, Ropery, Saddlery, and Peltry in Cheap and Walbrook.” She exercised effectiveness in dealing with legal matters in a number of ways. In her lifetime, she strenuously advocated for the return of her confiscated property as well as administering her own estate and acting as her son’s executor after his death. In her will, she made bequests to establish and maintain chantries for the family at two churches and bequeathed property and income to address the material and spiritual needs of other family members and loved ones. Her will was enrolled in1280. Her husband, Stephen Bukerel, who died in 1268, supported Simon de Montfort in his rebellion against Henry III. The king confiscated his house on Aldermanbury Street in retribution and awarded it to Roger de Mortimer in October1265. Isabella successfully advocated to have the house returned to her.”

Bohne Amanda : “Networks of influence: widows, sole administration, and unconventional relationships in Thirteenth-century London”, in: Women intellectual and leaders in the Middle Ages