I can't believe nobody before has remarked on this
- that the plot of My Cousin Rachel is based on a very dubious understanding of English testamentary law.
According to the plot summary of the original novel here, Ambrose had never changed the will he made before marrying Rachel, which left everything to Philip.
Ahem: marrying voids existing testamentary dispositions, so, unless he had made another will embodying the same provisions after marriage (which he could have done, since there was no automatic obligation to provide for wife and children), everything would go to his wife, i.e. Rachel.
But even if he had made a new will in the same terms as the old, given that there seems to have been plausible medical evidence that he was not in his right mind at the time of death, she would anyway presumably have had good grounds for contesting the will. This entry was originally posted at http://oursin.dreamwidth.org/2618935.html. Please comment there using OpenID. View
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