anders leegaard knudsen There was a way around this problem, though. At the public assembly, their legal guardians could act on their behalf. The guardian would then perform the necessary procedure with his right hand while the woman held his hand or arm with her right hand.10 Feasible, but cumbersome, and many things could go wrong: all sorts of objections might later be raised concerning the validity of the transaction, thus jeopardizing the donation. It is my hypothesis that thedispositio mortis causaby way of the testament offered medieval women a way out of this predicament. Oddly, this possibility has to do with the fact that Danish law made few regulations about testaments, other than regulating the maximum amount. Otherwise, it merely assumed that a man could make a testament.11 The law did not explicitly forbid women from acting independently at the public assembly; it merely assumed that only men were active. And that is how it was: women did not act independently of men at the public assemblies. Likewise, in Danish law it was simply assumed that a man would make a testament; the possibility of a woman making one was not contemplated. And yet, women did! Apparently, the law did not in this case exclude women from acting on their own behalf. Women could, according to law, sell (or pawn) things of small value − though not lands − without the permission of their husbands or guardians, but they were not in this respect equal to men. Their testaments, though, are like those of men. This is true regarding the diplomatics but also regarding the legal effects. The testament was an import in Danish law, and its influence probably came predominantly from the Ars notariae. Roman law was not used directly in Denmark, and the form of the testaments was suitably changed to be in accordance with Danish law.12 10 Tamm & Vogt 2016, pp. 19–20. In the fifteenth century, it seems that women in some instances could grant power of attorney to, e.g., stewards, but no study has been made of this phenomenon. 11 Vogt 2017, Tamm & Vogt 2016, p. 285. 12 On the influence from the Ars notariae on Danish diplomatics, see Knudsen 2011. 153
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