Introduction: Women and property

The aim of this introductory chapter is to provide an overview of European legislation regarding women and property to act as a backdrop to the special studies included in the book. Legal regions have not always been identical with political borders, particularly those of today, which is why one finds similarities in property and inheritance law and custom in different countries and differences between regions in individual countries. One factor is however generally present. Women were entitled to inherit paternal property. Certainly, the rights of daughters could be circumscribed at times in various places, urban and rural law could differ, but the essential principle of property descending down the generations can be detected in the background. Although the property of husband and wife could be separated in one place and amalgamated in another, a security system for widows tended to be present in one form or another, either as inheritance or as usufruct and often a combination of both.