testamentary practices at the comital court in flanders and hainaut By the second half of the thirteenth century, we observe an increasing bureaucracy in the execution of a testator’s last will, as illustrated by the use of administrative rolls, in which all payments of legacies and debts are listed and annotated with ‘P’ (for ‘Payés’) once they had been executed.40 As for Countess Margaret and her son Guy de Dampierre, several written and sealed receipts have survived in which both executors and legatees recognise having received the correct amount of money upon the execution of the ruler’s last will.41 Such documents were usually sealed through a horizontal incision, which is also the case in a mandate from the executors of Margaret’s testament, who in November 1281 ordered the Marshal of Flanders to pay ‘the carrier of this charter’ the sum of 1,500 pounds parisis due for the execution of the countess’s will.42 Although the institution of the testamentary execution already existed since the eighth century, it became especially important between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. The main tasks of the executors consisted in organising the testator’s funeral, to have masses celebrated in order to assure the salvation of the testator’s soul, to coordinate the giving of alms and bequests, and to pay the debts.43 Count Ferrand’s testament of 1231, made two years before his actual death, does not mention the names of the responsible executors, as they had probably not been appointed at that time. In August 1233, however, shortly after the count’s death, we see their names appearing in several sealednotitiae in which they, as appointedtestamentarii, made decisions about the allocation of annual rents and amounts of money or donations inkind44 to various religious and charitable institutions. In some cases, 458 The testamentary executors 40 Lille, ADN, B446/1214: testamentary roll of Mahaut de Béthune’s last will. 41 Lille, ADN, B445/2246 (June 1281); B449/4460 and B449/4461 (March 1305). 42 Lille, ADN, B445/2312 (November 1281). 43 Descamps 2011, pp. 58–59. 44 For example, DiBeID28218 (May 1236), in which Countess Joan, nomine testamenti [ofher husband, Count Ferrand] bestows oats, lambs, and cheese, among other things, on the abbey of Marquette.
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