El papel histórico de la mujer balear en el ámbito sucesorio como hija, esposa y madre, a propósito del principio de conservación de la casa

Abstract

Balearic women were almost always heirs by chance. The integrity of the family estate justified the preference of the first-born son to inherit, and the daughters’ early renunciation of paternal succession (diffinitio) constituted the other side of the coin. The traditional deferral of calls for inheritance contrasts with the attributions that, as wife and mother, a women held over her husband’s estate, especially when the husband predeceased her without having designated the most suitable male heir.