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Relict: Widows And Their Expressions Of Agency Through Personal Piety And Religious Devotion In Fifteenth-Century England, Mikkaela Beth Bailey

All Theses

Widows who lived in fifteenth-century England present an interesting case study for their exercises of agency through personal piety because they are underrepresented in the historiographical discussion on this topic. This thesis focuses largely on widowed laywomen and the different ways in which they could access agency through personal piety and the legal system. The examination of their choices in donations, bequests, and other pious actions reveals widows’ ability to express themselves. The chief focus of this thesis are the ways in which widows’ actions of personal piety provided them with access points to agency, authority, and power. While there …