Short answers, pulled from the story.
Solon, an Athenian lawgiver, invented the written will as a device intended solely for men who died without an heir. Before this legal innovation, the disposition of a dead person's estate was a matter of social custom rather than written law.
The English phrase will and testament is derived from a period in English law when Old English and Law French were used side by side for maximum clarity. This legal doublet ensured that the document was understood by all parties regardless of their linguistic background.
Cecil George Harris carved a will into the fender of his tractor while trapped under it, stating that his property should go to his wife. The fender was probated and stood as his will, now displayed at the law library of the University of Saskatchewan College of Law.
The longest known legal will is that of Englishwoman Frederica Evelyn Stilwell, probated in 1925. It was 1,066 pages long and had to be bound in four volumes, covering an estate worth $102,000.
Julius Caesar's will named his grand-nephew Octavian as his adopted son and heir, funding and legitimizing Octavian's rise to political power in the late Republic. Antony's officiating at the public reading of the will led to a riot and moved public opinion against Caesar's assassins.
The Convention is in force in Australia, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Ecuador, France, Italy, Libya, Niger, Portugal and Slovenia. The Holy See, Iran, Laos, the Russian Federation, Sierra Leone, the United Kingdom, and the United States have signed but not ratified.