Abstract
This article analyses early modern wills of aristocratic women and men using an emotional-historical approach. It takes a close look at both the material dispositions and emotive interjections in the wills and systematically relates them to each other. In this way, the relationships between men and women, characterised by one-sided reciprocity, between parents and children, between siblings, as well as other relatives come into view. Focusing on emotive references reveals first a tendency to legitimise and enforce the predominantly patrilineal social order and to make it acceptable to all actors. Second, it shows that women created a parallel wealth axis which could take on consistent dimensions and to which these women often referred by using emotive references.