Monday, May 29, 2017

Question from Peter - Age to make a will in Tudor England

Please could you advise what the earliest age is a person could make a Will in Tudor England?

1 comment:

PhD Historian said...

As a general rule, men could make a will at age 21, but few did so. Most waited until they were married and had living children that were likely to survive them.

Since you said "person" rather than "men," it should be noted that women could not make a will unless they were a widow. That is, women who had not yet married did not ordinarily make wills, and married women simply could not make wills, under normal circumstances (there were exceptions, especially among the very wealthy, but they were rare). Only widows who did not remarry could routinely make wills.