Testators and the Visigothic State: A “from the Ground Up” Approach to Inheritance Law

ABSTRACT Property structures, demographic patterns and political vicissitudes encouraged testators in the Visigothic kingdom to follow a wide range of testation strategies to bequeath their property. Testation law offered the propertied classes various possibilities for fine-tuning bequests to secure their economic strategies and class reproduction in the long run. Yet in the mid-seventh century, King Chindaswinth introduced new inheritance laws that limited the power of testation for those who had descendants. While Chindaswinth’s law was intended to secure military service, it collided with the landowning classes’ economic strategies for patrimony reproduction. The law created a new discussion over inheritance practices, which eventually led to a reform in the late seventh century to restore much, though not all, of the propertied classes’ testation powers. This article therefore provides a view of the law “from the ground up” that considers class interests and their collusion and collision with state demands.