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RESUMEN: Gracias al análisis de diversos capítulos matrimoniales, testamentos, pleitos, poderes y otra documentación, hemos realizado una breve radiografía del proceso matrimonial nobiliario, con sus causas y consecuencias para la mujer, en el Reino de Valencia del siglo XVIII. Siendo estos acuerdos entre familias uno de los elementos clave en las estrategias de consolidación y ascenso nobiliario, reciben una atención especial y un trabajo hasta el detalle antes de las nupcias. La documentación muestra diversos procesos que reforzaban la autoridad paterna y la prioridad del ascenso del linaje. Asimismo, dada la dependencia de la mujer respecto al varón en el Antiguo Régimen, se aprecia, en los acuerdos nupciales, un gran esfuerzo por asegurar la posible viudedad de la esposa. ABSTRACT: Thanks to the analysis of several marriage contracts, testaments, feuds, powers and different documentation, we have built a brief summary of the matrimony process of the nobility, with its causes and consequences for women, in the 18th century Kingdom of Valencia. As these arrangements between families were one of the key elements in the consolidation and rise strategies, they gather a special attention and a detailed work prior to the wedding. The documentation shows different processes that strengthened the fathers’ authority and the lineage rise priority. Moreover, given the Ancien Régime women's dependency on man, it can be seen, in the prenuptial agreements, a great effort to ensure the ulterior survival of the bride turn widow.

Current research about old age during the Ancient Regime in Spain is insufficient. And the same is the case with women, despite the large number of studies about gender and family history in the past decades. Taking, as a starting point, the analysis of widow women which became heads of households, this paper aims to know which specific characteristics had those households during their old age, composition, size, typology and the tendency to solitude; which activities and livelihood they had, paying attention to those differences as an expression of inequality; and which mechanisms and social reproduction strategies they followed to deal with the effects of aging. This paper is geografically focused in a wide rural area of central-southern Spain and aims to review the assumption that single and widow women in preindustrial age had subordinted lives.

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