The pearls were the joint property of three people: a Frau Kojowitz (who gave the necklace to Johanna to sell), Elisabeth Duchateau, and Josef Gessward.
It emerged that Johanna owed thousands of florins to various individuals; she complained that her husband (a government clerk) did not give her much money.
By this it was meant that she would be placed in leg irons, limited to a meatless diet, forced to sleep on bare boards, and not allowed to converse with anyone but her jailers.
[7] Through the intervention of her husband, the sentence was gradually reduced, first to two months, then to just one, and in the end (thanks to an appeal to the Emperor) to the time already served before her trial.
[8] In 1818, Johanna sold the house (including rental units) in the suburb of Alservorstadt that she had bought with her husband in 1813, but she remained in debt.
"[11] This wish was entirely in vain, as with Kaspar's death two days later there began what Lewis Lockwood calls "a tortured and emotional legal struggle between Beethoven and his sister-in-law for the custody of the boy that lasted for more than four years and entailed perpetual rancor, court appearances, seeming successes, reversals, and appeals.
[13] On 28 November, Beethoven filed legal proceedings, making the case that Johanna was unfit to serve as guardian.
On 2 February 1816, Beethoven enrolled Karl in a boarding school run by Cajetan Giannatasio del Rio.
This time, the Landrechte discovered that the "van" in the Beethoven family name was not an earmark of nobility, and that jurisdiction should be returned to a commoner's court, the Vienna Magistracy.
This court was considerably more sympathetic to Johanna, and also influenced by the fact that Karl had run away from Beethoven's home, fleeing to his mother (3 December).
The composer did not dig into his own pocket, but he agreed to return to Johanna the half of her widow's pension that had been devoted to the education of Karl.
Karl, who was the composer's sole heir, had not yet reached maturity and came under the guardianship of Johanna's relative Jakob Hotschevar, who had served as her legal counsel in the custody case.