Testamentary practices and village courts in the Bailiwick of ’s-Hertogenbosch (c. 1470-1550)

This paper discusses the origin, function and uses of schepentestamenten, acts of last will registered before municipal courts of aldermen. From the second half of the fifteenth century, peasants and townsmen found recourse to these courts for the registration of acts of last will. At first these acts were primarily contracts among spouses mutually conveying to each other the property upon death, but especially after the secularisation of the notarial profession in 1531 the number of pious bequests and religious beneficiaries greatly increased. In general, three strategies prevail in the employment of the last will: overruling the customary dispensation to the surviving spouse and provide this person with additional resources, specifying the position of each of the children (especially when some were illegitimate or had received by life), and preventing loss of wealth from the family. For the legal instruments, the aldermen resorted to their standard formulary, although attuned to the peculiarities of the last will. The trust and authority the courts of aldermen enjoyed, in combination with their executive clout in enforcing compliance, allowed them to discard various formal elements required in notarial instruments, while also making them popular institutions for the registration of last wills.

本文探讨了shepentestamenten（羊皮纸遗嘱）的起源、功能及其在市政法院议员法庭上登记的使用情况。自十五世纪下半叶起，农民和市民开始求助于这些法庭以登记遗嘱行为。最初，这些行为主要是配偶之间的合同，相互在死亡时转让财产，但特别是自1531年世俗化公证职业之后，虔诚的遗赠和宗教受益人的数量显著增加。通常，遗嘱的运用主要遵循三种策略：超越对存活配偶的习俗性分配，并为其提供额外资源；明确指定每个子女的地位（特别是在某些子女为非婚生或已通过终身收养的情况下），以及防止家族财富的流失。在法律文件方面，议员们诉诸其标准格式，尽管其已适应遗嘱的特殊性。由于议员法庭所享有的信任与权威，以及其在执行层面上的强大执行力，使得他们得以摒弃公证文件中所需的各种形式要素，同时也使他们在遗嘱登记方面成为受欢迎的机构。