Power and motherhood in the 16th century: Perpetuity and memory through architecture

Abstract

Traditionally, we associate motherhood with the practice of caring for children. And that is correct, but we must be cautious because in care we find a wide range of habits that encompasses desires and needs that vary greatly according to social class, gender, age and time. In general, in the mentality of the 16th century, the mother not only played her motherhood role through upbringing, but sometimes it was more important to bequeath a lineage, a surname, goods or a house. It is on this point that this text is based in the spirit of recovering the agency of elite women, but also of the ones belonging to other social classes. On the one hand, as women who are promoters and patrons of a heritage that empowers them in the city (matronage) while allowing them to protect their descendants and perpetuate the lineage of which they consider themselves the guardians. On the other hand, women who are not of high lineage but who defend the house in which they live, even if it is not their property; because they have children and ask for shelter to be protected under a roof. Both cases can be interpreted as expressions of power, although at very different levels, because if in one case they are moved by the desire of projection and promotion of that mother as the matron of a lineage; in the other, being a mother and having children in charge can be a burden but also an argument in favor of defending the tenancy or occupation of a house. For this study we make use of archival documentation of the sixteenth century, but specifically from Granada, with a view to focusing on the various cases observed in the same city.