A Guardian Taking Care of the Orphans? Jewish Familial Disputes on Parents’ Inheritance (Castile, Late Fifteenth Century)

Abstract

The scarcity in Castile of last will documents made by Jews throughout the fifteenth century would apparently suggest that most Jews were not concerned with the need to issue one at the last moment before dying. This assumption would be reinforced by the fact that communal ordinances issued by Jewish aljamas during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries had regulated the devolution’s regime in case of lack of any other document. However, legal proceedings litigated before the Jewish courts and the Castilian judicial authorities at the end of fifteenth century confirm that the existence of a legal framework did not guarantee the accurate distribution of inheritance among heirs. Based on this assumption, the aim of this study is to analyse two Jewish intra-familiar conflicts preserved at the Archivo General de Simancas in Valladolid (Spain). In particular, I will focus on the difficulties that Jewish orphan siblings experienced when they tried to recover their parents’ inheritance from their stepfather. Through the detailed analysis, it is possible to figure out the assets contained in the deceased’s estate, as well as the strategies developed by the stepparents to retain in their hands said assets.