question: Which noblewoman who inherited her title after the death of her father in the late 1400s signed an instrument that gave the provinces and towns such as Flanders local rights?
answer: Mary of Burgundy
context: Title: Mary of Burgundy
  Passage: Mary (French: "Marie" ; Dutch: "Maria" ; 13 February 1457 – 27 March 1482), Duchess of Burgundy, reigned over many of the territories of the Duchy of Burgundy, now mainly in France and the Low Countries, from 1477 until her death.  As the only child of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and his wife Isabella of Bourbon, she inherited the duchy upon the death of her father in the Battle of Nancy on 5 January 1477.  Due to the great prosperity of many of the territories that comprised the duchy, Mary was often referred to as Mary the Rich (though this is not usual in English).
  Title: Justina Szilágyi
  Passage: Justina Szilágyi de Horogszeg (Hungarian: "horogszegi Szilágyi Jusztina" ; before 1455 – 1497) was a Hungarian noblewoman, who became the second wife of Vlad the Impaler, Voivode of Wallachia.  She was the daughter of Ladislaus or Osvát Szilágyi and thus a cousin of Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary.  Corvinus first gave her in marriage to Wenceslas Pongrác of Szentmiklós.  Pongrác had inherited estates in Upper Hungary (present-day Slovakia), but was forced to renounce them in exchange for landed property he and Justina jointly received in Transylvania following their marriage.  After Pongrác died in 1474, the widowed Justina married Vlad, whom Corvinus acknowledged as the lawful voivode of Wallachia in 1475.  Vlad seized Wallachia in late 1476, but was soon murdered.  To strengthen her claim to her Transylvanian estates, she married Paul Suki, who was related to the former owners of those territories.  After the death of Suki, in 1479, Justina was married to John Erdélyi of Somkerék, until her death in 1497.
  Title: Lex Pompeia de Transpadanis
  Passage: The Lex Pompeia de Transpadanis was a Roman law promulgated by the Roman Consul Pompeius Strabo in 89 BC.  It was one of three laws introduced by the Romans during the Social War (91–88 BC) between Rome and her Socii (allies), where some of Rome's Italic allies rebelled and waged war against her because of her refusal to grant them Roman citizenship.  This law dealt with the local communities in Transpadana, the region north of the River Po, (and possibly some Ligurian communities south of this river, along its western course).  It granted Latin Rights ("ius Latii") to these peoples as a reward for siding with the Rome during the Social War.  This gave the inhabitants of the region the legal benefits associated with these rights, which were previously restricted to the towns of Latium (land of the Latins) which had not been incorporated into the Roman Republic and to the citizens of Latin colonies.  They included: A) "Ius Commercii" (right to trade), "a privilege granted to Latin colonies to have contractual relations, to trade with Roman citizens on equal terms and to use the form of contracts available to Roman citizens".  It also allowed contracts and trade on equal terms with citizens of another Latin towns.  B) "Ius Connubii" (right to marry), was the right to conclude a marriage recognised by law, "ius connubii" of both parties was necessary for the validity of the marriage.  Later it was extended to citizens of foreign communities "either generally, or by special concession".  In the case of Latin rights it made marriages between citizens of different Latin towns legal.  C) "Ius migrationis" (right to migrate), the right to retain one’s level of citizenship if the individual relocated to another city.  In other words, it facilitated migration by the acquisition of citizenship of another Latin town.  In addition to this, the law granted Roman citizenship to the magistrates (officials) of the local towns.
  Title: Arquebus
  Passage: The arquebus ( or ), derived from the German "Hakenbüchse", was a form of long gun that appeared in Europe during the 15th century.  Although the term "arquebus" was applied to many different forms of firearms from the 15th to 17th centuries, it originally referred to "a hand-gun with a hook-like projection or lug on its under surface, useful for steadying it against battlements or other objects when firing."  These "hook guns" were in their earliest forms defensive weapons mounted on German city walls in the early 1400s, but by the late 1400s had become handheld firearms.  A matchlock mechanism was added around 1475 and it became the first firearm with a trigger.  The heavy arquebus, known as the musket, was developed to better penetrate plate armor and appeared in Europe around 1521.  A standardized arquebus, the "caliver", was introduced in the latter half of the 16th century.  The name "caliver" is derived from the English corruption of calibre, which is a reference to the gun's standardized bore.  The caliver allowed troops to load bullets faster since they fit their guns more easily, whereas before soldiers often had to modify their bullets into suitable fits, or were even forced to make their own prior to battle.  The smoothbore matchlock arquebus is considered the forerunner to the rifle and other long gun firearms.  Heavy arquebuses mounted on wagons were called "arquebus à croc".  These carried a ball of about 3.5 oz .
  Title: Tarabya of Ava
  Passage: Tarabya (Burmese: တရဖျား , ] or ] ; 22 December 1368 – 25 November 1400) was king of Ava for about seven months in 1400.  He was the heir apparent from 1385 to 1400 during his father King Swa Saw Ke's reign.  He was a senior commander in Ava's first three campaigns (1385−91) against Hanthawaddy Pegu in the Forty Years' War.  He was assassinated seven months into his rule by his one-time tutor, Gov. Thihapate of Tagaung.  The court executed the usurper, and gave the throne to Tarabya's half-brother Min Swe.
  Title: Sakharam Rao
  Passage: Sakha Rama Rao (Sakharam Rao) is an Indian musician credited with having re-introduced the south Indian chitravina (or "gotuvadyam") to the concert scene.  However, it was his father, Srinivasa Rao, who made the pioneering effort towards the reincarnation of the chitravina in modern times.  He was an ardent music lover and an amateur artiste himself.  He started experimenting with a slide on the tanpura (a four-stringed instrument, usually used as a reference drone in Indian music).  Sakha Rama Rao was drawn to this instrument since childhood.  He was able to perceive its tremendous potential to produce high-class music.  He re-designed this instrument as a fretless veena with its usual set of seven strings - four strings on the top and three in the side for drone and rhythm.  He put in arduous practice on this instrument and gave occasional performances.  Since he was not aware of the history of the instrument, he gave it a new name - gotuvadyam.  This is because, he used to casually refer to the slide as 'gotu'.  'Vadyam', in Sanskrit and many other Indian languages, means instrument.  Thus, 'gotuvadyam' was a literal name for an instrument played with a slide.  Several decades later, Ravikiran, along with a few other scholars, studied about the origins of the instrument and eventually restored the more traditional name, chitravina.  Sakha Rama Rao was a "musicians' musician" and trained many great artists like Gotuvadyam Narayana Iyengar and Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer.  Soon there were several others who started performing on the chitravina (gotuvadyam).
  Title: Jeanne de Béthune, Viscountess of Meaux
  Passage: Jeanne de Béthune, Viscountess of Meaux, Countess of Ligny (c.1397- late 1450), was a French noblewoman, the suo jure Viscountess of Meaux, having inherited the title upon her father's death in 1408.  Her father was Robert VIII de Béthune, Viscount of Meaux.  Jeanne married twice; firstly to Robert of Bar, and secondly John II of Luxembourg, Count of Ligny who held Joan of Arc prisoner following her capture by the Burgundians in May 1430.  Jeanne was one of the three women who cared for Joan during her imprisonment.
  Title: Great Privilege
  Passage: The Great Privilege was an instrument signed by Mary of Burgundy on 11 February 1477 which reconfirmed a number of privileges to the States General of the Netherlands.  Under this agreement, the provinces and towns of Flanders, Brabant, Hainaut, and Holland recovered all the local and communal rights which had been abolished by the decrees of the preceding dukes of Burgundy Charles the Bold and Philip the Good in their efforts to create a centralised state on the French model out of their separate holdings in the Low Countries.
  Title: Slavery in the Spanish New World colonies
  Passage: Slavery in the Spanish American colonies was an economic and social institution central to the operations of the Spanish Empire - it bound Africans and indigenous people to a relationship of colonial exploitation.  The Spanish colonists provided the Americas with a colonial precedent for slavery and influenced the development of modern racial ideologies, such as "limpieza de sangre".  Early on, however, opposition from the enslaved and from influential Spaniards moved the Crown to limit the bondage of indigenous people, and initiated debates that challenged the idea of slavery based on race.  Spaniards regarded some indigenous people as tribute under the "encomienda" system during the late 1400s and part of the 1500s.
citations: Great Privilege Mary of Burgundy