TY - JOUR

T1 - "Twoo Muche Vayne and Idle Chardge": The Precision of Inheritance in the 1601 Will of Bess of Hardwick

AU - Kay Price, Vicki

PY - 2023/2

Y1 - 2023/2

N2 - In 1601 Bess of Hardwick, the wealthiest woman in Elizabethan England (second only to the Queen herself), began her final will and testament. The precision with which Bess bequeathed her monetary and material wealth is striking: her executors and beneficiaries were left little room for interpretation and no excuse for error. This article explores the language and rhetoric of inheritance, alongside specific bequests of money, jewels, property, and clothing present in the will of Bess of Hardwick in order to understand the document as an autobiographical expression of personal and dynastic achievement, status, and ambition.

AB - In 1601 Bess of Hardwick, the wealthiest woman in Elizabethan England (second only to the Queen herself), began her final will and testament. The precision with which Bess bequeathed her monetary and material wealth is striking: her executors and beneficiaries were left little room for interpretation and no excuse for error. This article explores the language and rhetoric of inheritance, alongside specific bequests of money, jewels, property, and clothing present in the will of Bess of Hardwick in order to understand the document as an autobiographical expression of personal and dynastic achievement, status, and ambition.

KW - Bess of Hardwick

KW - autobiography

KW - early modern

KW - inheritance

KW - life-writing

KW - precision

KW - rhetoric

KW - s writing

KW - wills

KW - women&#8217

U2 - 10.1080/1535685X.2021.1902639

DO - 10.1080/1535685X.2021.1902639

M3 - Article

VL - 35

SP - 55

EP - 71

JO - Law and Literature

JF - Law and Literature

SN - 1535-685X

IS - 1

ER -