Out of Love for My Kin

Aristocratic Family Life in the Lands of the Loire, 1000–1200

Nonfiction, History, Medieval, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Sociology
Cover of the book Out of Love for My Kin by Amy Livingstone, Cornell University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Amy Livingstone ISBN: 9780801457722
Publisher: Cornell University Press Publication: February 23, 2011
Imprint: Cornell University Press Language: English
Author: Amy Livingstone
ISBN: 9780801457722
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Publication: February 23, 2011
Imprint: Cornell University Press
Language: English

In Out of Love for My Kin, Amy Livingstone examines the personal dimensions of the lives of aristocrats in the Loire region of France during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. She argues for a new conceptualization of aristocratic family life based on an ethos of inclusion. Inclusivity is evident in the care that medieval aristocrats showed toward their families by putting in place strategies, practices, and behaviors aimed at providing for a wide range of relatives. Indeed, this care—and in some cases outright affection—for family members is recorded in the documents themselves, as many a nobleman and woman made pious benefactions "out of love for my kin."

In a book made rich by evidence from charters—which provide details about life events including birth, death, marriage, and legal disputes over property—Livingstone reveals an aristocratic family dynamic that is quite different from the fictional or prescriptive views offered by literary depictions or ecclesiastical sources, or from later historiography. For example, she finds that there was no single monolithic mode of inheritance that privileged the few and that these families employed a variety of inheritance practices. Similarly, aristocratic women, long imagined to have been excluded from power, exerted a strong influence on family life, as Livingstone makes clear in her gender-conscious analysis of dowries, the age of men and women at marriage, lordship responsibilities of women, and contestations over property.The web of relations that bound aristocratic families in this period of French history, she finds, was a model of family based on affection, inclusion, and support, not domination and exclusion.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In Out of Love for My Kin, Amy Livingstone examines the personal dimensions of the lives of aristocrats in the Loire region of France during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. She argues for a new conceptualization of aristocratic family life based on an ethos of inclusion. Inclusivity is evident in the care that medieval aristocrats showed toward their families by putting in place strategies, practices, and behaviors aimed at providing for a wide range of relatives. Indeed, this care—and in some cases outright affection—for family members is recorded in the documents themselves, as many a nobleman and woman made pious benefactions "out of love for my kin."

In a book made rich by evidence from charters—which provide details about life events including birth, death, marriage, and legal disputes over property—Livingstone reveals an aristocratic family dynamic that is quite different from the fictional or prescriptive views offered by literary depictions or ecclesiastical sources, or from later historiography. For example, she finds that there was no single monolithic mode of inheritance that privileged the few and that these families employed a variety of inheritance practices. Similarly, aristocratic women, long imagined to have been excluded from power, exerted a strong influence on family life, as Livingstone makes clear in her gender-conscious analysis of dowries, the age of men and women at marriage, lordship responsibilities of women, and contestations over property.The web of relations that bound aristocratic families in this period of French history, she finds, was a model of family based on affection, inclusion, and support, not domination and exclusion.

More books from Cornell University Press

Cover of the book Rewolucja by Amy Livingstone
Cover of the book The Pathological Family by Amy Livingstone
Cover of the book Power in Coalition by Amy Livingstone
Cover of the book From She-Wolf to Martyr by Amy Livingstone
Cover of the book Keepers of the Flame by Amy Livingstone
Cover of the book Imperfect Strangers by Amy Livingstone
Cover of the book Creating Kosovo by Amy Livingstone
Cover of the book Nabokov by Amy Livingstone
Cover of the book Representing the Holocaust by Amy Livingstone
Cover of the book Kodiak Kreol by Amy Livingstone
Cover of the book Gifts, Favors, and Banquets by Amy Livingstone
Cover of the book Spoils of Truce by Amy Livingstone
Cover of the book Banished to the Great Northern Wilderness by Amy Livingstone
Cover of the book Illocutionary Acts and Sentence Meaning by Amy Livingstone
Cover of the book Border Work by Amy Livingstone
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy