maria helena da cruz coelho & maria do rosário morujão himself who makes the decisions, with the intermediary no longer at the centre of the legal act, but simply serving as its executor.5 Executors therefore emerged with this new legal instrument, the dissemination of which took some time. The terms mandatio– or, in Portuguese, manda– continued to be used throughout the twelfth century and could still occasionally appear until the second half of the thirteenth century, alongside the termtestamentum, as shall be seen (see table1). However, the change to the model of the will did not mean that the appointment of an executor became compulsory. In the nineteen wills analysed from the twelfth century, only one included such a figure. Dating from 1156, this was the last will and testament of a layman from Coimbra, made before he left on a journey (fig. 1).6 He left the document (mandationem) in the hands of the prior of the city’s cathedral and its canons, as well as a copy in the hands of his wife, so that they would faithfully carry out everything contained therein. During the first decades of the thirteenth century, this type of formulation increased. Several wills include the indication that they were to be left in the hands of certain people who were to execute them, or that they would be delivered to particular individuals, without, however, ever designating them by any specific term.7 Of the various such cases, one, dated 1268,8 stands out, as it was written in Portuguese (the adoption of the vernacular language, first decreed in royal documentation, only took place more than three decades later).9 In the wills of the archbishops and members of the chapter of Braga from the same period, it is more common for the fulfilment of last wishes to be entrusted to a particular person or entity, or for one or more heirs 277 5 Merêa 2007. 6 Will of Pedro Cortido, from 28 August 1156, published by Pedro 2013, doc. 57, pp. 313– 316: “et hanc mandationem relinquo in manus prioris Sancte Marie et canonicorum ejus et in manu uxoris mee Marie Gunsalviz ut omnia que hic continetur fideliter compleant”. 7 See examples in Morujão 2010, docs 2.12, 2.14, 2.15, 2.19, 2.21, 7.2, 7.3, 9.5. Gomes 2022a; Pedro 2013, doc. 60, pp. 322–324. 8 Will of Urraca Rodrigues, dating from 1268, published by Pedro 2013, doc. 60, pp. 322– 324. 9 On the adoption of the vernacular language in Portuguese written acts, see Gomes 2006.
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