Just finished watching the two seasons. Really had no interest in it, but a few friends told me that it was really good. A bit repetitive, but very enjoyable and entertaining.
I am surprised that Agnes allowed Oscar to have complete access to her money. She was such a control freak and the money was something she could definitely control. I hope the do something good with the role reversal between Agnes and Ada.
If the will of her husband leaves control of the Estate to their son, maybe Agnes had little to no control over what her son did with the money???
And since this story also takes place before women could vote, and they were legally treated for life "as if they had the same status of a minor child," that might also explain how the son could gamble away their fortune???
And perhaps her status as a "powerless female" in this GILDED SOCIETY may also place Ada in danger of having someone else challenge her (maybe a male relative of her deceased husband) and legally take control over the money that she's now inherited from her husband???
FOUND THIS:
https://www.econlib.org/archives/2010/04/how_free_were_1.html
Under traditional English common law an adult unmarried woman was considered to have the legal status of feme sole, while a married woman had the status of feme covert…
A feme sole had the right to own property and make contracts in her
own name. A feme covert was not recognized as having legal rights and
obligations distinct from those of her husband in most respects.
Instead, through marriage a woman’s existence was incorporated into
that of her husband, so that she had very few recognized individual
rights of her own.
As it has been pithily expressed, husband and wife were one person
as far as the law was concerned, and that person was the husband. A
married woman could not own property, sign legal documents or enter
into a contract, obtain an education against her husband’s wishes, or
keep a salary for herself. If a wife was permitted to work, under the
laws of coverture she was required to relinquish her wages to her
husband. In certain cases, a woman did not have individual legal
liability for her misdeeds, since it was legally assumed that she was
acting under the orders of her husband, and generally a husband and
wife were not allowed to testify either for or against each other.
Judges and lawyers referred to the overall principle as “coverture”.
One exception to the feme covert rule was in the instance of a
prenuptial contract. All colonies accepted these contracts, but few
couples signed them. Sometimes, parents
of wealthy daughters insisted on a contract to keep family property in
a trust for their daughter and her heirs (daughters had no control over
trusted property, however). Widows often drew up prenuptial contracts
before marrying again, but they had to obtain their new husband’s
consent in order to keep the property inherited from their first
marriage through a contract.
thank you. i didn't think of that. Remember how Downton Abbey started after Mary's fiancee died, the Entail required they had to find the closest living male relative.
shareNever saw Downtown Abbey, but a law called primogeniture is the reason why only a MALE RELATIVE could inherit property in England.
Jane Austen's book "PRIDE and PREJUDICE" is about a man who has 5 daughters and NO SON(s), therefore by law everything that he owns (his home, all of his property) goes to a distant cousin, and there's a struggle by his wife to find husbands to support the 5 daughters.