Strong Willed Women

  Although Good Faith is based largely on legal records, it is not a legal history.  The book is a great example of how, by looking at daily life and experience (like in A Midwife’s Tale), we can learn about and better understand complex institutions and social customs / processes.  In Good Faith, as in the works this semester by Davis and Ginzburg, the lives of lesser known people (who probably would never have been known) are well documented in the court cases that were argued, in this case, before Spain’s Council of the Indies.  One of the key questions at the heart of this book by Cook and Cook is the question of whether or not an unconsummated marriage constituted a legal marriage.  Or, more simply, what in particular constituted a marriage at all?

  There is great detail of Francisco Nogeurol de Ulloa’s life on both sides of the Atlantic, and good portraits emerge of the women in Francisco’s life, all of whom appear as strong willed individuals with their own personal agendas and (seemingly) the resources to implement them.  For example, Beatriz never fully accepted the invalidation of her marriage.  She lived quietly until she heard of Francisco’s death in 1581, at which time she successfully appealed the ruling against the validity of her marriage.  She then filed suit to demand half of de Nogeurol’s estate.  In a way very familiar to us today, the wives settled to avoid a long battle – complete with Beatriz agreeing not to further pursue Catalina or her heirs.   This work made me wonder if one of the points was to highlight the ability of the rich to influence legal decisions.  Although I'm not sure the book is all about money;  I wonder instead - is Good Faith a 16th century love story, like Davis’s The Return of Martin Guerre?