Widows at the nexus of family and community in early modern Castile Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Fink de Backer, Stephanie Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 30/09/2021 10:13:59 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/289931 WIDOWS AT THE NEXUS OF FAMILY AND COMMUNITY IN EARLY MODERN CASTILE by Stephanie L. Fink De Backer Copyright © Stephanie L. Fink De Backer 2003 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2003 UMI Number: 3106985 Copyright 2003 by Fink De Backer, Stephanie Louise All rights reserved. ® UMI UMI Microform 3106985 Copyright 2004 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 9 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA ® GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Final Examination Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by StGphaniG L. Fink De Backer entitled Widows at the Nexus of Family and Community in Early Modern Castile and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Hnrtnr nf Phi1n<;nphy \JAA. O -^(c 'O 3 7 Helen Na^ J ) Susan C. Karant-Hunn Date Alan E. Bernstein Date Date Date Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate's submission of the final copy of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. Dissertation Director Date Helen Nader 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgement of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the William J. Fulbright Association for major research funding for this dissertation. Additional support came fi-om the Program for Cultural Cooperation between Spain's Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports and United States' Universities. Funds for microfilm and photocopies were supplied by the University of Arizona's Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Institute and the University of Arizona Final Project Fund. Major financial support for writing the dissertation came from the American Association of University Women, American Scholars Grant. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES 6 ABSTRACT 7 INTRODUCTION 8 I. NORMATIVE BOUNDARIES 24 II. MATRIARCHS OF THE CASTILIAN FAMILY 51 III. PATRONAGE OF RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS 81 IV. POOR WIDOWS AND CHARITABLE RELIEF 113 V. SOCIOECONOMIC ROLES 149 CONCLUSION 185 WORKS CITED 196 6 LIST OF TABLES Table I, Known Marital Status of Entrants into the Hospital of San Juan Bautista 133 Table II, Marital Status by Sex of Entrants into the Hospital of San Juan Bautista drawn from sub-sample of 795 entrants, 1595-1608 133 Table III, Aggregate Totals of Entrants into the Hospital of San Juan Bautista 133 Table IV, Aggregate Percentages of Entrants into the Hospital of San Juan Bautista 134 7 ABSTRACT Widows as individuals and as a social group held fundamental importance to both the family and civic life of early modem Castile. Archival sources indicate that widows' influence throughout all levels of Castilian society was magnified by their relative degree of legal autonomy, combined with a tacit acceptance of women's activities in many areas of familial and municipal life. The use of documents more closely reflecting women's daily activities allows for contextualization of the complex impact of moral and legal rhetoric on the social construction of widowhood, providing concrete examples of widows' practical and often highly tactical employment, evasion, and/or manipulation of patriarchal and moral norms. The experience of widowhood both forces a re-examination of gender boundaries by questioning current theories of female enclosure and demands a re-evaluation of gendered patterns in expressions of patronage and parentage. Marital status and social class become more important that the gendered moral and legal strictures of an apparently patriarchal society in terms of early modem women's ability to take part in a wide range of activities normally not considered possible for their sex. Toledo's widows challenge public/private spheres models by giving evidence of the public nature of private lives and the private ends of public acts. Examining widows' lives provides insight into the complex mechanisms lying behind the formulation of gender boundaries in the early modem world and the pragmatic politics of everyday life at the nexus of family and community. 8 INTRODUCTION On 15 October 1560, Toledan chronicler Sebastian de Horozco received a disturbing letter from a priest in Roa, a small village in the vicinity of Valladolid. The events revealed in the letter were so shockingly memorable that Horozco found himself compelled to forward the account to the king. The chronicler moved swiftly to the scene of the crime, the village of Hora, where a spate of disappearances had recently been resolved by the discovery of 17 corpses buried under the bedroom and kitchen floors in the home of the widow Teresa Delgado. Recounting both the unearthing of bodies in multiple stages of decomposition and the rationale behind the homicides, Horozco spins a story of bloodthirsty, grisly murder undertaken for the sake of personal gain; the widow Delgado, it would seem, was doing more than run a little village inn for passers-by.' But beyond the bizarre particulars of the homicides, the story that unfolds reveals details of Teresa Delgado's life that parallel the position of many widows in Castilian society. Just as widows routinely appeared as participatory members of their communities, Teresa Delgado found acceptance by the villagers of Hora as a female head of household who took responsibility for her family's welfare and capably ran a business to achieve these ends. The erstwhile innkeeper's integration within her community neatly summarizes the ' Sebastian de Horozco, "Memorial y relation de un estrano caso agora aconte^ido y descubierto de una mala y cruel muger," in Noticias curiosas sobre diferentes materials, BN Mss 9175, f. 255r-256v. Portions of this manuscript, but not the case of Teresa Delgado, appear in edited form in Sebastian de Horozco, Relaciones histdricas toledanas, ed. Jack Weiner (Toledo, 1981). 9 experience of other women in the widowed state; a homicidal rampage remains as the only thing truly extraordinary about Teresa Delgado. According to Horozco, for the past five or six years, the 50 or 60-odd residents of Hora had harbored reservations about some of the business transactions of their neighbor, the irmkeeper widow Delgado. The untimely demise of her husband at the hands of unidentified thieves while on his way to do pilgrimage in Burgos provoked speculation of foul play. Then there was the workman who went off without his "lame" stud, only to see the beast "cured" and sold off by Delgado a few days later, the widow exclaiming to her neighbors how strange it was that the man never returned for his beast nor the proceeds from its sale. The culminating case of the traveling saleswoman whose clothing turned up by the banks of the river, an unfortunate instance of drowning, the night after lodging with Delgado, finally triggered closer investigation. But the inquest only commenced after being prompted by the deceased's husband, who arrived to look for her and demanded it. Up until this final event, only highlighted by the urging of the bereaved husband, the innkeeper's activities over the years were never so outrageous or atypical that they brought official attention to her situation. Neither Delgado's acumen in operating a self-supporting business, nor her ability to raise her sons without the oversight of another male family member or other guardian stood out as unusual. In fact, Delgado's decision to remain single accorded well with the experience of many other widows.^ Not finding herself denounced, ostracized or even openly challenged, the ^ See Chapters 2 and 3 for fuller discussion of widows as matriarchs and working widows. ' The state of demographical studies in Castile is not advanced enough at the current time to produce definitive figures for remarriage rates. General studies treating Castile include the following; Armie Molinie-Bertrand, Au siecle d'or I'Espagne et ses Hommes: la population du royaume de Castille au XVIe 10 widow Delgado enjoyed integration into and acceptance by her community, despite the potential power of local suspicion. Thus, just as the villagers in Hora