Entre costumbre y fuero: la condición jurídica de la mujer casada vizcaína (etxekoandrea) entre el Fuero Viejo (1452) y el Fuero Nuevo (1526)

Abstract

The consideration of the married woman as «incapable» for contractual purposes, present in certain 19th-century drafts of the Spanish Civil Code, would have clashed with the frequent involvement, from earlier times, of the etxekoandrea (married woman of Biscay) in the transfer of real estate as a deeply rooted legal tradition in Biscay. This article seeks to analyse the reasons for the development and persistence of this tradition, perceived in the 19th century as an exception, against the intentions of the Spanish codifiers to grant the husband full power of disposal over the family estate without the participation of the wife. The study therefore begins by establishing the legal status of the married woman in Biscay, both in criminal and civil matters, during the complex period of the formation of foral law between custom and fuero, namely, between the Fuero Viejo (1452) and the Fuero Nuevo (1526). A tradition that proves changeable and flexible and, for that reason, capable of formally adapting to the changes taking place in Castilian law, while maintaining its distinctive features.