14世纪早期英格兰寡妇产请愿探究

Widows’Petitions for Dower in the Early Fourteenth Century England

中世纪时代,英格兰与寡妇产相关的诉讼均由普通法庭按照既定程序予以处置,然14世纪早期,英格兰社会出现了向议会提交大量寡妇产请愿的现象,究其根源有二:法庭诉讼注重程序,诉讼周期长、经济成本高,严苛的法律规定限制了寡妇产的恢复;议会请愿程序简便、书写较灵活,多种文本修辞策略的采用可提升寡妇产恢复的几率。文本分析展现出寡妇产请愿多运用具有女性特质的策略,塑造符合社会文化规范的“好母亲”形象,善用叙事手法表达冤屈,并以“第一人称叙述手法”发出女性声音。寡妇产请愿样本的量化研究表明国王侵占是造成请愿大批涌现的最大原因,侵占则源于男爵叛乱和王权更替背后政治权力的争夺,王室借助寡妇产实现对地方和贵族的控制,寡妇则通过请愿参与公共政治生活。据统计近72%的寡妇产请愿得到积极回复,议会请愿的确为寡妇产权益的维护提供了另一种有效途径。

The lawsuits concerning widows'dower were supposedly handled by ordinary courts in Medieval England.By the early fourteenth century,however,a large number of widows'petitions about dower were dealt with by the Parliament.It happened mainly because that a lawsuit in the court commonly took higher cost and longer time to go through the complicated procedures while the chance to win was limited.In contrast,the procedure for a lawsuit in the parliament was simpler and the paperwork was flexible which actually increased the chance for a widow to win.Widows'petitions were commonly written following feminine narrative strategy such as in the tone of“good mothers”.Quantitative research on dower petitions indicates that king's encroaching was the largest reason of this type of suits,and behind that was the kings'efforts to control the local society and the aristocracy.Nearly seventy-two percent of the petitions obtained positively responses.It turned out to be a effective way for the widows to protect their rights.