“because of a certain woman… claiming these goods as her fief”. Women’s Fiefs in Saxon Diplomatic Sources in the High Middle Ages

The following text examines fief holding by women in the surviving charters from Saxony from about the 11th to the beginning of the 14th centuries. Specifically, these are the areas around Harz delimited by the five bishoprics of Meissen, Naumburg, Hildesheim, Halberstadt, and Merseburg. The basis for analysis is collections of charters from these dioceses supplemented by the collections of charters from the two most significant noble houses active in this area — the houses of Ascania and Welf. The selection of sources and region is not a coincidence: It is probably where Eike von Repgow lived most of his life and wrote his Saxon Mirror (Sachsenspiegel), which significantly influences the modern study of medieval law. Through an analysis of the terminology associated with fiefs and feudal institutions in general, as well as through specific examples of fief holding by women, this study attempts to show that the limitations on a woman holding a fief as defined by Eike in the Saxon Mirror and largely accepted in the contemporary literature are not entirely consistent with the testimony of these diplomatic sources.