servants in medieval swedish testaments Apart from Elisabeth, two female stewards (villica) issued their testaments: Gytha in 1259 and Margareta in 1301. They both gave landed property; both were married, not widows. Their husbands are mentioned in the testaments, but the men have no active part concerning the gifts. Gytha gives her landed property to a monastery, and her mistress and her mistress’ son affix their seals to the testament, thus approving and making it legal; see Figure 10 (p. 350).79 Margareta’s testament is on behalf of herself and her husband Ragnar, but she issues it on her own. Margareta gives land she inherited from her father to a monastery and to two parish churches. Her testament is witnessed, among others, by her husband Ragnar (thus he approves the testament), her mistress, and her master’s chamberlain (Sw. kammarmästare) Jakob. Margareta’s master, her mistress, and two other persons are executors, but also affix their seals beneath the testament.80 Furthermore, in 1480 the priest Johan Jonsson testified that his faithful servant (Sw. trotjänare) Sverker, before he died, had made an oral testament. Sverker owned five silver spoons and he gave one each to the monasteries in Vadstena (Saint Bridget) and Eskilstuna, and to three persons, including one spoon to the priest Johan Jonsson himself. The priest affixed his seal to the testament to make it valid.81 These testaments imply a deep respect and care for the servants, but also, perhaps, a wish to include them in a tradition normally accessible only to a higher social rank. Not only did Elisabeth, Gytha, and Margareta all have their masters’ or mistresses’ approval of the testament, their superiors must also have been behind the arrangements of parchment and scribe. Thus, these writings had to be approved and supported to materialise. Therefore, the Swedish testaments written by medieval servants seem quite different from testaments written by female servants in, for example, urban Italy in the 16th and early 17th centuries,82 not only because they were written in another time, but also because the Italian 348 79 SDHK772. 80 SDHK1936. 81 SDHK39429. 82 Benadusi 2004.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=