First wave Irish migrants who established communities in Spain founded initial permanent settlements in the Crown of Aragon, Biscay and Galicia during the 1490s. These early settlements were based upon trading links, and also the desire to establish communities throughout the Iberian Peninsula. Initially, Irish marital practices, very different from those in Spain, prevailed. Over time, however, changes and gradual assimilation came about. The focus of this chapter is upon marriage negotiations because that is where we can see demonstrable evidence of expressions of emotion. Some emotions are expressed in negotiations, letters and contracts. Over time, there was a gradual move from the practice of endogamy to exogamy. Whilst first-generation Irish migrants were more likely to be married to another person of Irish descent, this began to change during the sixteenth century. By the seventeenth, many alliances were being consummated through marriage outside the Irish community with motivations varying from political and financial motives to love recorded in marriage negotiations. Additionally, there is some evidence of an active role within marital alliances of prospective Irish brides and grooms. The expressions of emotion such as “love” (“enamorarse”) and “happiness” (“felicidades”) were often restrained and discreet during the late middle ages and the early modern period. Furthermore, they do not correlate with modern expressions of emotion.
1 Irish Immigrants in Spain
This early wave of Irish migrants initially established a permanent base in Bilbao, in the province of Biscay. This was a very attractive area for a number of reasons. Pre-existing trade and pilgrimage links were already established, and Bilbao itself was well known to Irish traders, and was very close to the thriving ports of the Bay of Biscay.1 North-central Spain was reached from many of the
Second and third waves of Irish migration followed. These were distinguishable by a number of push factors creating later groups of economic and religious migrants. The second wave of migration was prompted by the introduction of the Protestant reformation along with the Henrician dissolution of the monasteries in Ireland from 1540 onwards. Henry viii’s actions included the closure of Catholic schools across Ireland, and the resulting vacuum meant that many continental Catholic countries drew educational orders from Ireland. Apart from trade and religious networks, there were also close links with the military and navy which buttressed the assimilation and acceptance of Irish communities in Spain.4 During this period, Irish settlement expanded to the Catalan Pyrenees, Old Castile, especially Valladolid, Salamanca, Madrid and Zamora.
Educational links were particularly close. Ireland had no university until the foundation of Trinity College Dublin in 1592, although this was a Protestant development. The lack of a university that Catholics could attend was a push factor, prompting many Irish to migrate to the continent. Irish colleges were established across the Iberian Peninsula from 1590 to 1649. However, convent
The third wave of Irish migration followed the period of Oliver Cromwell and the establishment of the English Commonwealth following the execution of Charles i. During the civil war between England and Ireland, English soldiers were paid with Irish land. Plantation policies stripped power from the Catholic population and led to Protestant ascendancy and the removal of Catholics from any kind of office or land ownership. These events were push factors and many of this third-wave were migrants for political and religious motives. In this wave, settlement occurred in Cadiz, Malaga, Seville, Tenerife and the Canary Islands, as well as Lisbon.
2 From Endogamous to Exogamous Marriages
The first wave of migration began in the late fifteenth century and led to permanent settlement, and, over time, adaptation to Spanish customs. Little scholarly attention has been paid to fifteenth-century migration with recent studies focusing on migration in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and emphasising that migration developed in earnest after the Flight of the Earls in 1607.5 Although the defeat of the Irish at the battle of Kinsale, and the subsequent encroachment and colonisation, undoubtedly marked a fundamental shift in Irish migration and exile to the continent, there is much evidence that migration existed earlier in the fifteenth century, and that it had a basis in pull as well as push factors. Additionally, although the native political power of the Gaelic nobility was broken and English royal authority was enforced, Ireland remained strategically important for other European powers, especially Spain, and later France. Furthermore, motives for migration to Spain were often calculated on a permanent basis of settlement, not a temporary home. Spanish sources reflect the value placed on Irish women and men, and plentiful archival sources detail financial support from Spain in the forms of pensions and other allowances.6 This is evidence of not just acceptance, but a level of reciprocity between Irish settlers and the Spanish state.
What were the motivations for these changes? Were marriage negotiations based upon business interests and political alliances, and if so, to what extent? Did families allow children to have a say in the decision-making process over marriage, and was this influenced by emotions? Further questions will address whether the nine different types of marriage permitted under Brehon law facilitated exogamy, or were alien to Spanish society.7 Within Brehon law, a legal text, the Cáin Lánamna, was the source that detailed the nine specific types of marriage in Ireland ranging from the first and primary type, the lánamnas comthinchuir, where a wife was of ‘joint input’, that is, they had financial equality.8 The second type occurred when a woman brought little or nothing to the marriage, and the third type was when the man contributed little. Other forms of marriage included previous cohabitation with the consent of a woman’s kin, another when the couple “eloped” (“fugarse”), and other models which included marriage as compensation for rape, and finally the marriage of two insane persons.9 Only the first three models of Irish marriage had an equivalent
The Irish legal text Bretha Crólige distinguished between ranks of female partner: a chief wife who was entitled to half her husband’s money and goods, and a concubine who could decide her own financial worth.12 This is distinct from other European traditions, and bears no relation at all to Spanish marital and partnership practices. Significantly, there was no old Irish Gaelic word for dowry (dote).13 Instead, the Irish husband gave a bride price to the bride’s father or head of her kin.14 This was a unique facet of Irish Gaelic tradition, where everyone had their hostage price. Depending upon their status, some Irish women had a hostage price above men of lower strata, placing some Irish women in a position of relative power in terms of marital negotiations. Irish society in pre-colonisation times was stratified and divided, but not along the lines found in European societies, and that certainly bore no relation to marital customs in the Iberian Peninsula. A person’s place in Irish Gaelic society depended upon the group or sept they belonged to, and their value within that. Furthermore, the Irish system of stratification was not feudal like that of England and Wales. Irish women appear to have had more rights in marriage than their Welsh sisters.15 Additionally, it was only in Ireland that divorce was available to both women and men.
Divorce (imscarad) in Ireland was allowed in a number of circumstances. The Cáin Lánamna was the legal text which cited how the couple’s property should be divided after divorce. Women of elite status had more power over their children. Women of lower orders had fewer property rights. Children, both boys and girls, had rights of inheritance. Kenneth Nicholls maintains that wives of Irish lords were entitled to receive money and goods set aside by
Divorce was granted to women on the grounds of a husband’s impotence, imbecility, incurable illness or religious vocation. It was also permitted on the grounds of violence, exposure to ridicule and failure to financially maintain her.17 Ellis has noted that, for those Irish women who did not wish to divorce, there were eleven circumstances in which a married woman could instigate a separation which did not involve financial penalties paid by either partner in the marriage.18 These rights existed in practice throughout the Middle Ages, from the sixth century through to the sixteenth. This meant that if a lack of emotion or affection developed between a couple, a separation or divorce was possible. At the time of English colonisation of Ireland, and the introduction of an Anglo-centric legal system in 1603, divorce remained part of Irish custom. Crucially, surviving traditions were still fully in place at the moment of the first wave of Irish migration to Spain. Even when divorce was being eradicated by reforming churchmen throughout Europe from the 1530s onwards, it was still initially retained within Irish communities.
Several case studies illustrate the power and confidence Irish women demonstrated in negotiating their own marriages and marriage settlements, and their own separations and divorces. Irish settlement was initially clustered around Bilbao, La Coruña, Santiago de Compostela, Ferrol, then later extended to Esterri d’Àneu, Tarragona, and areas in Old Castile and Andalusia and Malaga. Early Irish traders settled permanently in these areas. Additionally, some settled areas were hubs for pilgrimage. An early tax survey of Bilbao in 1490 recorded six Irish families involved in trade, and paying the higher level of tax.19 These were the Blakes, the Nolans, the Lynchs, the Gallwey family, and the O’Brien and the McSweeney families. Additionally, there were fourteen
Initially the sons and daughters of these Irish traders married partners of Irish heritage. However, over time, endogamy broke down and was replaced by exogamous marriages. The O’Brien and Mulcarey families illustrate early assimilative practices and the involvement of young Irish women in their choice of marital partner. Both the O’Briens and the Mulcareys were involved in the wool trade between Ireland and Bilbao, the Biscay province and the coast. Ties with Spanish merchants meant that Clara O’Brien and Brigid Mulcarey were involved in marriage arrangements in 1500 and 1501 respectively.21 They both married sons of Bilbao merchants, precisely from the Magra and Oleaga families. However, these were not simply arranged marriages for mercantile reasons, although those considerations certainly played a part in the betrothal negotiations (capitulations matrimoniales), which often lasted several months. Brigid and Clara were the first generation of Irish migrants to be involved in exogamous marriages, and both recorded their love (enamorarse) for their respective spouses.22 The Magra and Oleaga families had established trade links with the southern Irish ports, as well as Dunkirk and Saint-Malo. They then continued to develop the trade in wool and also leather goods.
3 The Meaning of Negotiated Marriages
A negotiated marriage did not mean an arranged marriage without the involvement of those entering the union. Parents were aware of the damage that an injudicious marriage might mean for their children’s happiness and the family bank balance. For many Irish families, the choice of marriage partner was often someone already close, such as a business partner, or the child of a business partner. A good marriage was important for the future flourishing of the business, or to cement joint business ventures.
The early census records demonstrate that whilst most household heads were men, about one in ten were women.23 This did not include female
Changes of intention did occur, and a number of Irish women did break their promises to marry. In 1556, Bibiana Lynch called off her marriage plans,
4 Irish Traditions and Spanish Forms
The first wave of Irish settlers in the 1490s was followed by later groups of migrants in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, many prompted by English colonisation of Ireland, and the outlawing of the Catholic religion. However, giving up marital and other family traditions, including control over dowries, did not happen quickly. Additionally, the much looser forms of marriage which had long been part of Irish Brehon tradition did not disappear overnight after Irish settlement in Spain. Irish marriage ceremonies which were conducted by Irish priests and held during the evening were suspected of falling into the category of clandestine marriages. Geronima Ley, an Irish widow, married Domingo de Jugo, a Spanish widower, in the evening.35 Whilst a priest was present, this was nevertheless considered a possible clandestine marriage, as ceremonies conducted in the evenings were sometimes cited when separation was later sought after a marriage broke down. It would appear that some Irish women chose to marry in the evening with the active calculation that if the marriage was not to their liking, they could file for a dissolution of the union later. Geronima and Domingo were an older couple, neither needed parental consent, and their parents were absent, or possibly dead. This meant that another certainty of irrevocable marriage was omitted from the actual ceremony. However, these customs ran counter to the Council of Trent (1545–1563), which attempted to enforce orthodoxy upon religious orders with an emphasis on enclosure, but also a new attempt to formalise marriage and introduce orthodoxy. Papal investigators would periodically make an example of couples involved in particularly scandalous cases. Similarly, the Inquisition, although tasked with religious reform, increasingly became involved in cases of “heresy of the body,” where jurisdiction was applied in relation to issues involving adultery, bigamy, fornication, clerical concubinage, prostitution and irregular marriages. The Trent decrees of 1545 coupled with the Inquisition forces often provided the perfect storm of orthodoxy that incomers could easily fall foul of.
The Tridentine reforms also placed increasing emphasis on baptism, marriage and extreme unction. However, the lack of formal registration of baptisms and marriages within Irish communities drew attention and criticism. Ciaran O’Scea has noted that Irish baptisms and marriages in Galicia during 1601 and later in 1608, a high point of Irish settlement, continued to be customary, and held in private households rather than in a local church with a priest officiating.36 Further Irish obfuscation continued in regard to the lack of formal agreement over marital separation.
It was not until 1753 that an act for the better prevention of clandestine marriage was passed. Where coercion was involved, the marriage could be dissolved because it had not taken place with all of the appropriate religious requirements present and consent had not been given. Marital negotiations between older couples where one was Irish were much more flexible when the parents were not in control of per verba de future and dowry considerations. Furthermore, re-marriage was also more frequent amongst older Irish women and men. Spanish women were rarely encouraged to re-marry after widowhood, revealing a continued emotional and customary difference in Irish and Spanish marital and separation traditions. Remarriage would also appear to have been more frequent in the merchant community. In Bilbao, Teresa Lynch married don Francisco de Lago after a previous marriage, with both claiming to have elite ancestry.37 Merchants in particular show evidence of arranging second and subsequent marriages. This was not simply because of high mortality rates at certain times, but because of the mutual benefit of the wider distribution of money within and between merchant families from both the Irish and Spanish communities. Merchant and middle strata marital alliances which were exogamous were increasingly understood to forge all types of alliances for Irish women and men. Exogamous marriages were negotiated with an element of consideration of trading and political alliances, and possible advancement. Trade between the two countries had a long and successful history, and not just between their respective ports. The islands of Spain and Spain’s provinces provided a fruitful ground for business links and assimilation,
Gregory Lynch, a relative of Bibiana and Teresa Lynch, settlers in La Coruña, married a local woman from Tenerife in 1660, strengthening ties to both Irish and Spanish merchant families.39 Katherine Donovan, an independent Irish woman, married a trader from Tenerife in 1662.40 In the same year, Anne Flavell, a teenage Irish girl, chose to enter a Spanish convent with her dowry.41 However, most provocative of all are the actions of two other independent Irish women, Apollonia Whitton and Elizabeth Savage, who both became traders in their own right during the 1660s.42 Apollonia and Elizabeth both invested in the shipyard (astillero).43 There is no record of either of them marrying, giving some indication that unmarried women had a greater ability to invest their dowry or other savings in business ventures. These Irish women were not unique, and many others across the peninsula appear to have made similar choices. The purposeful rejection of marriage for trade and enterprise indicates an awareness of alternatives to marriage, and knowledge of the dangers inherent in pregnancy and childbirth for all women in this period. Nevertheless, it is clear that choices were being made by Irish women on their
Irish families in Cadiz demonstrated a clear understanding of the importance of a good marriage for the future flourishing of business. Exogamy was good for assimilation, and it was often equally good for business. Irish communities may have been privately concerned that assimilation was altering the emotional ties within their communities, but increasingly formal betrothal negotiations (capitulaciones matrimoniales) were used in order to strengthen links with Spanish communities. A high degree of commercial success could be experienced in Cadiz. Irish merchants in Cadiz, both men and women, were granted the right to trade freely and to own property after residing in Spain for ten years. During the late seventeenth century, Cadiz overtook Seville as the headquarters for trade between Spain and its colonies. Seville was not a coastal city, and the river Guadalquivir proved increasingly small for the volume of ships needed for this trade. In 1717 a monopoly of all the American trade was granted to Cadiz. Even before this, many Irish incomers identified Cadiz as a more promising place for business ventures and marital prospects. Exogamy and endogamy were both practised by Irish families in Cadiz, the choice depending upon what was calculated to be most successful in business terms. Within the Irish community, two groups of women appear to have driven forward their own marital and financial choices.
A group of four Irish women who chose exogamous marriages included Leonor de Grados, who made a living will in 1620 leaving her money to Cadiz Cathedral, Catalina Calderon, whose will of 1654 sponsored the convent of Huertas, Maria de Zuñiga, whose will of 1654 sponsored Santa María de Madre, and Leonor Vela, whose will of 1657 also sponsored Santa María de Madre.48 Once again, the stated intentions of these Irish women were not interfered with by those women’s families. Whether marriage was endogamous or exogamous, Irish women had some authority over marital choice and cultural and religious matronage. Their wills were a contract of control. These documents expressly used the language of law and contract but also cited their choices in terms of inheritance and gifts. The pattern of female wills was in the form of a living will (testamento), which specifically ensured who would gain from the gift of money, buildings, land, trading rights or the moveable goods of the
One final Irish family group who displayed control over their marriages and a very successful degree of assimilation were the daughters of don Ignatio White. He was a minor Irish noble who had settled in Spain in the middle of the seventeenth century, then proceeded to purchase a minor title, affiliated to the order of Santiago, and joined the chamber of commerce in Madrid.49 Don Ignatio used as many old Irish titles as he possibly could, in effect, having himself re-ennobled. At various times, he was recorded as the Marquess of Albeville and Clancarty.50 However, it was Ignatio’s five daughters who dedicated themselves to assimilation within the royal court, all of them reaching powerful and elevated positions, including as companion to the queen, royal tutor, and adviser to the queen. By 1650, the royal court was based permanently in Madrid, and a number of third-wave Irish settlers chose to move there. All five daughters of Ignatio married well. Strikingly, very few families made up of women had such success of rising in court and operating at the centre of powerful political networks, as well as arranging their own, very lucrative, marriages. Ana Cristina White, the eldest daughter, became a criada, a lady-in-waiting to the Infanta Maria.51 Ana then proceeded to negotiate marriage to an Irish colonel and brigadier in the Alcantara regiment. This endogamous marriage meant that Ana was connected both intimately to the royal court, and to one of the most senior Irish figures in one of the Spanish regiments. Among Ana’s letters to her husband, one recorded the queen’s comment that Irish women made good companions.52 This may appear to be rather self-regarding, but, in time each of Ana’s four sisters gained a place in court. In addition, Ana’s husband, Colonel Joseph O’Callaghan, was at one stage appointed governor of La Coruña, Galicia. This meant that Ana was part of the court circle, and that her husband had overall responsibility for the area of north-west Spain that had long been central to Irish settlement.
Whilst Joseph’s sphere of influence was with the army, navy and trade, Ana’s sphere of influence was within court, and was focused upon allegiances between women that furthered family interests. Within months of Ana’s employment as an official in the royal household, she was instrumental in gaining a paid position for her sister Winifreda, who also became a lady-in-waiting
Technically, a lady-in-waiting would have to gain the permission of her queen and not her father for her marriage. Ignatio White’s daughters represent a generation fully aware that consorts could no longer be exclusively Irish, but
Education was one of the keys to assimilation at a very high level. The curriculum offered to royal children included the importance of having several languages. Another sister, Theresa, was also cited as a tutor to the royal household. Theresa negotiated a marriage to Guillermo de Lacy, Knight of Santiago, a Lieutenant General and a member of the Spanish supreme council of war.56 Theresa was recorded as having her own set of apartments and private chapel.57 This was undoubtedly elite living. The royal household employed the White family for a total of twenty-five years, illustrative of their success at assimilation at, arguably, the highest level. Both Maria and Simon were recorded separately as patrons, gifting books and manuscripts from their own collections to colleges and libraries.58 What is significant is that these actions demonstrated the workings of reverse acculturation. Multilingual texts, including works in Irish, were donated to the royal household for use by generations of monarchs and their families. This crucial success is evidence of reverse acculturation and shows that assimilation was understood not simply in one direction. Acculturation had a distinctive degree of reciprocity between the Irish elite and the Spanish royal family. The White sisters undoubtedly created a niche for themselves, and controlling their own marital negotiations helped to support that.
Catalina White, another sister, married Antoine Sartine, a French national who held posts in the ministry of war and the navy. Catalina also worked for the queen, and was retained at court for twenty years. She even managed to secure a post for her son, Felipe, once again demonstrating a degree of nepotism and success.59 What is observable in relation to this particular family is that negotiated marriages with an undoubtable element of power were important. However, being in close proximity to the royal family was even more
5 Conclusion
The question remains over why Irish communities were allowed a degree of independence and considerable leeway in relation to some of their marital traditions. Initial settlement was supported by Spanish authorities who believed that the Irish always upheld Catholicism. Later, during the period of the Henrician reformation, the Irish were understood to have fought a war for Catholicism. Rewards went beyond straightforward remuneration however. Spain’s monarchs stated that, “The Irish are our special friends.”60 The evidence that Irish settlers as a group were accepted at the highest level was demonstrated in the naturalisation programme, and the granting of equal citizenship by Philip iii in a royal resolution in 1608.61
See: Amaia Bilbao Acedos, The Irish Community in the Basque Country, c. 1700–1800 (London, 2003), pp. 1–7.
Bilbao Acedos, The Irish Community, p. 7.
See: Andrea Knox, Irish Women on the Move: Migration and Mission in Spain, 1499–1700 (Oxford, 2020); Thomas O’Connor, Irish Voices from the Spanish Inquisition: Migrants, Converts and Brokers in early modern Iberia (Hampshire, 2016).
See: Eduardo de Mesa Gallego, The Irish in the Spanish Armies in the Seventeenth-Century (Suffolk, 2014).
See: Ciaran O’Scea, Surviving Kinsale: Irish Emigration and Identity Formation in Early Modern Spain, 1601–1640 (Manchester, 2015).
Simancas, Archivo General de Simancas, Estado, legajos 1757 and 1758 contain “allowances, pensions and grants-in-aid” (“entretenidos, ventajas y ayuda de costas”) paid to Irish women and men. Often these terms represented an award for services rendered, for example the Irish who served in the Spanish Armada. Women were sometimes awarded very generous pensions if they had served the Spanish crown in intelligence networks and as spies for Spain against the English. See: Knox, Irish Women on the Move, pp. 147–87.
For a discussion of the nine different types of marriage see: Peter Berresford Ellis, Celtic Women: Women in Celtic society and literature (London, 1995), pp. 122–23.
Ellis, Celtic Women, pp. 122–23.
“Fugarse” was cited when a couple escaped together in order to make their marriage a certainty, especially in cases where social pressure may otherwise have prevented them from following their will.
Graham Kew, ed., The Irish Sections of Fynes Moryson’s Unpublished Itinerary (Dublin, 1998), p. 37.
Kew, The Irish Sections, p. 37.
Ellis, Celtic Women, p. 122.
Ellis, Celtic Women, p. 122.
Ellis, Celtic Women, p. 123.
Ellis, Celtic Women, p. 123.
Kenneth Nicholls, “Irishwomen and Property in the Sixteenth Century,” in Women in Early Modern Ireland, eds. Margaret MacCurtain, Mary O’Dowd (Edinburgh, 1991), pp. 17–31, especially p. 19.
See: Patrick Leo Henry, ed. and trans., Dánta Ban: Poems of Irish Women early and modern (Cork-Dublin, 1991), p. 16.
Ellis, Celtic Women, p. 127.
Bilbao, Archivo de la Diputación de Bizkaia, Corregimiento, legajo 1988.
Bilbao, Archivo del Monasterio de la Encarnación de Bilbao, Libro de Fundación y de Profesiones, profesas desde el año 1499.
Bilbao, Archivo Histórico Diocesano de Bilbao, Libro de matrimonios, 1500–1510.
ahdb, Libro de matrimonios, 1500–1510.
For a broad discussion of female-headed households see: Jeff Fynn-Paul, Family, Work and Household in Late-Medieval Iberia: A Social History of Manresa at the time of the Black Death (New York-London, 2017), pp. 181–217.
London, The National Archives, Calendar of State Papers, Spain, sp 94, vol. 229, fol. 246.
Steven Ozment, When Fathers Ruled: Family Life in Reformation Europe (Cambridge, Mass., 1983, 1985).
tna, csps, sp 94, vol. 229, fol. 246.
This demonstrates that, between 1490 and 1526, an Irish woman’s money and goods did come to be described as a dowry.
La Coruña, Archivo del Reino de Galicia, Genealogías, legajo 4, núm.. 6.
arg, Genealogías, legajo 4, núm. 6.
Sevilla, Archivo General de Indias, Santo Domingo 111, fol. 67.
“Que faltó a su promesa de matrimonio.” agi, Santo Domingo 111, fol. 67.
agi, Santo Domingo 111, fol. 1322.
ameb, Libro de Fundación y de Profesiones, sección beatas.
For a discussion of legal disputes over convent dowries see: Elizabeth A. Lehfeldt, “Convents as Litigants: Dowry and Inheritance Disputes in Early Modern Spain,” Journal of Social History, 33/3 (2000), 645–64.
La Coruña, Archivo Histórico de Protocolos Ilustre Notarial de La Coruña, Protocolos 311.
O’Scea, Surviving Kinsale, pp. 108–09. Although data is scant, O’Scea estimates that only fifty per cent of the Irish in Galicia formally registered baptisms, and he considers the registration of marriages to be negligible.
arg, Genealogias, legajo 2.
tna, csps, sp 94, vol. 229, fol. 245.
tna, csps, sp 94, vol. 229, fol. 247.
tna, csps, sp 94, vol. 229, fol. 247.
tna, csps, sp 94, vol. 229, fol. 247.
tna, csps, sp 94, vol. 229, fol. 248.
tna, csps, sp 94, vol. 229, fol. 248.
About one in ten wills were made by women. This was a significant figure for this period. What is even more interesting is that very few Irish wives had their husbands countersign their wills which, as married women, they should have done. Unmarried women and widows did not have to do this, and only needed two or sometimes more witness signatures.
See: Samuel Fannin, “The Irish Community in Eighteenth-Century Cadiz,” in Irish Migrants in Europe after Kinsale, 1602–1820, eds. Thomas O’Connor, Mary Ann Lyons (Dublin, 2003), pp. 135–48.
Cadiz, Archivo Histórico Provincial de Cádiz, Protocolos 1300; 1425; 1563; 2520.
A living will was made a few years prior to death, usually when a women had decided upon her chosen project of sponsorship. It was not a testimony made on a woman’s deathbed, or even during a final illness. This meant that the stated intentions were very clear. Women also appear to have selected their own notary and witnesses. In Spain, any female over the age of ten could make a will provided there was no mental impairment.
ahpc, Protocolos 320; 5150; 5156; 5150.
Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Ordenes Militares, Santiago 4739.
ahn, om Santiago 4739.
ahn, om Santiago 336.
ahn, om Santiago 336.
ahn, om Santiago 336.
Malaga, Archivo Histórico Provincial de Málaga, Cortes, legajo 959.
ahn, om Santiago 2047.
ahn, om Carlos ii, 318.
ahpc, Protocolos Cádiz 1593, fol. 180.
ahn, om Santiago 2047.
ahn, om Santiago 2047.
“Los Irlandeses a nuestro amigos especiales.” ahn, Sección Nobleza, Frias, caja 66.
“The Irish in these dominions shall keep and maintain the privileges which they have, by which they are made native Spaniards, and that the formalities of the oath, to which other nations have been forced to submit, shall not be exacted from the Irish due to their settling in Spain. They are accounted Spaniards, and enjoy the same rights.” (“Los irlandeses en estas tierras conservan e mantendrán los privilegios que corresponden, según los cuales se les considera como a los españoles aquí nacidos; e las pruebas e juramentos que cabe exigir a los como españoles, e tendrán los mismos derechos”). ags, Estado, legajo 840.