testamentary practices at the comital court in flanders and hainaut Usually, the testamentary process began with the recording of the testator’s last will in a sealed charter, which was attested by witnesses.23 In Flanders and Hainaut, the instrumentumwas commonly calledscriptum, littere, carta, or testamentum. Interestingly, this last term also appears in dorsal notes or is used in acts issued by testamentary executors when referring to the testator’s last will.24 Parallel to the language shift within the comital chancery from Latin to French, testaments began to be recorded in French from around 1260.25 Likewise, in French acts, a clearer distinction can be observed between the actual last will (darraine volentei, devise, ordenance) and the testament as instrumentum(testament, escript).26 Since each testament included a list of the movable and immovable goods the testator wished to bequeath and of the legatees who would benefit from them, many details had to be verified. In this context, we sometimes find copies of testaments with corrections written between the lines, suggesting that these copies were possibly draft versions of the final engrossment.27 Moreover, some of these ‘copies’ show an active use 454 23 Godding 1990, p. 285. 24 Although the termtestamentumwas commonly used to refer to different kinds of donations during the High Middle Ages, from the twelfth century onwards, parallel to the renaissance of the testament in its Roman sense, it acquired its exclusive meaning of ‘last will’ and became as such used in documents. Giry 1925, p. 10. See also Descamps 2011, pp. 52– 54. A thirteenth-century example of the use of testamentumby testamentary executors: DiBeID27060: sicut in suo [Joan’s] testamento plenius continetur. Examples of the use of testament(um) in dorsal notes: B446/1872; B446/1592; B445/1811; B444/808. In the Low Countries, however, which were subject to customary law (the so-calledpays de droit coutumier), the (re)appearance of testaments was due rather to ecclesiastical initiatives than to the influence of Roman law. Godding 1990, pp. 284, 296. This feature might also explain why the majority of the comital testaments were confirmed by ecclesiastical dignitaries throughinspeximus. 25 On the documentary language shift in the comital chancery in Flanders and Hainaut, see Stuckens 2020, pp. 55–71; Prevenier and de Hemptinne 2005; Van der Sypt 2015, passim. 26 In this study, the oldest surviving testamentary documents recorded in French are a copy or draft version of the testament (March 1259) and codicil (February 1261) of Countess Mahaut de Béthune, wife of Count Guy de Dampierre. In the following decades, both the testaments and codicils of Margaret (November 1273), Guy de Dampierre (April 1299, May 1304) and Robert de Béthune (September 1322) were drawn up in French. See notes 12–17. – The testament as instrumentum
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