Published in New Approaches in the Research on the Crown of Aragon

Keywords: 15th Century, Gandia, Power, Widows, Women’s history.

Throughout history, the figure of the widow has been perceived through a lens at some distance from reality. This has condemned them to historical passivity and has attributed to them a subordination which bears little relation to the reality of their lived experience. With the study of in a vila conducted in the Kingdom of Valencia at the end of the medieval period, and through the analysis of primary sources, the real situation in which they lived will be shown: the family and social contexts of which they formed part, and the capabilities they used to defend both themselves and their families’ property. We will thus be able to refute the claims that were socially constructed about them, and to consider them as agents of history, and not mere observers of it.