medieval women were expected to bring a dowry into a marriage. this included what?
Here, Emerge explores how exactly medieval people got married...
Medieval spousal relationship practice continues to influence ceremonies today – from banns [the reading three times of your intention to ally] to declaring vows in the present tense. Indeed, the word 'hymeneals' itself even dates from the medieval flow. However, some things were very unlike...
1
Couples did not need to marry in a church – they could become married downward the pub, round at a friend'southward business firm or even in bed
In the Heart Ages, getting married was piece of cake for Christians living in western Europe. According to the church, which created and enforced marriage constabulary, couples didn't need the permission of their families or a priest to officiate. However, while tying the knot could take a matter of moments, proving that you were wed oftentimes proved difficult.
Although the church controlled – or tried to control – spousal relationship, couples did not need to marry in a church. Legal records show people getting married on the road, down the pub, round at a friend's house or even in bed. All that was required for a valid, binding marriage was the consent of the two people involved. In England some people did ally virtually churches to give greater spiritual weight to proceedings, often at the church door (leading to some rather fabulous church porches being added to earlier buildings), but this still did non necessarily involve a priest.
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You could get married every bit soon every bit you hit puberty – and parental consent was non required
Marriage was the only acceptable place for sex activity in the medieval period, and every bit a outcome Christians were allowed to marry from puberty onwards, mostly seen at the fourth dimension as historic period 12 for women and 14 for men. Parental consent was not required. When this law finally changed in England in the 18th century, the former rules still applied in Scotland, making towns but over the edge, such as Gretna Green, a destination for English couples defying their families.
Although the medieval church building upheld freely given consent as the foundation of marriage, in do families and social networks unremarkably had a corking bargain of influence over the choice and approval of marriage partners. Information technology was also normal at all levels of social club to make some 'pre-nup' arrangements to provide for widow- and widowerhood and for whatsoever children. It was besides expected that anybody would seek the permission of their lord, and kings consulted over their ain and their children's marriages. Matrimony betwixt people of different classes was particularly frowned upon.
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Having sexual practice created a legally binding marriage
There were various ways in which a medieval couple could use words or actions to create a marriage. Consent to marry could exist given verbally by 'words of present consent' – no specific phrase or formula was required. A 'present consent' marriage did not have to be consummated in order to count. However, if the couple had agreed to become married at some point in the futurity so had sex, this was seen as a physical expression of present consent.
So, for engaged couples, having sex created a legally binding marriage. Consent could too be shown by giving and receiving an item referred to English as a 'wed'. A 'wed' could be whatsoever gift understood by those involved to mean consent to marry but was often a ring. A 'wedding' where a man gave a woman a ring and she accepted information technology created the marriage.
It is clear that at that place were misunderstandings. It could be hard to know if a couple was married and they might even not agree themselves. The statutes issued by the English church in 1217–19 include a warning that no human being should "place a band of reeds or another material, vile or precious, on a young woman's hands in jest, so that he might more than easily fornicate with them, lest, while he thinks himself to be joking, he pledge himself to the burdens of matrimony". The vast majority of marriage cases that came up before the courts were to enforce or testify that a marriage had taken place.
Union mix-ups bothered the clergy since, after much argue, theologians had decided in the 12th century that matrimony was a holy sacrament. The union of a homo and a woman in wedlock and sex activity represented the union of Christ and the church, and this was hardly symbolism to be taken lightly.
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You didn't need witnesses
As God was the ultimate witness, it was not necessary to accept a marriage witnessed by other people – though information technology was highly recommended to avoid any uncertainty. There was also a church building service bachelor, merely information technology was non mandatory and the evidence suggests that only a minority married in church building. Many of those couples were already legally married by word or act before they took their vows in front end of a priest.
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Divorce was non an choice
Divorce equally we empathize it today did not exist. The only mode to end a marriage was to prove it had not legally existed in the starting time identify. Christians could only exist married to i person at a time and information technology was also bigamy if someone bound to the church by a religious vow got married. Also as existence single and vow-free, y'all likewise had to be marrying a beau Christian. Breaking these rules automatically invalidated the marriage.
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You couldn't marry a relative – even if you lot only had a great-great-slap-up-great-slap-up-grandparent in mutual
There were likewise a number of other 'impediments' that should preclude a marriage going ahead, simply might be waived in certain circumstances if the marriage had already taken place. Couples who were already related were not to ally. The definition of 'family unit' was very broad. Earlier 1215, anyone with a slap-up-swell-great-great-bully-grandparent in common was besides closely related to go married. Every bit this rule was hard to enforce and subject to abuse – the sudden discovery of a long-lost relative might conveniently end a marriage – the definitions of incest were changed by the Quaternary Lateran Council in 1215, reduced to having a corking-bang-up-grandparent in common.
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There was no 'speak now or forever hold your peace'
Reading the 'banns' was introduced as part of the 1215 changes to try to flush out any impediments before a marriage took identify. Nevertheless, until the Reformation there was no 'speak now or forever concord your peace'. In the Middle Ages problems discovered or revealed later on the marriage could take an enormous impact. For example, Joan of Kent (who subsequently married Edward the Blackness Prince and become the mother of the hereafter king Richard Ii) was married in her early teens with total publicity and a church service to an aristocrat, but after nearly eight years this matrimony was overturned in the papal court and she was returned to a knight she had secretly married without her family unit's knowledge or approval when she was 12.
It is difficult to know how many medieval people married for dear or establish dearest in their matrimony. There was certainly a distinction between free consent to marry and having a completely gratis choice. What is articulate is that the vast bulk of medieval people did marry and usually remarried after they were widowed, suggesting that matrimony was desirable, if only equally the social norm.
Sally Dixon-Smith is Historic Royal Palaces' collections curator at the Tower of London and has written a chapter on marriage for Ian Johnson's Geoffrey Chaucer in Context (Cambridge University Press, 2016).
To watch Sally's lecture on dearest and wedlock in the Middle Ages – plus other talks on medieval food, violence and organized religion – click here. These lectures were recorded as office of our complimentary virtual Medieval Life and Decease History Festival, which ran in May 2020
This article was outset published by HistoryExtra in 2016
Source: https://www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/love-and-marriage-in-medieval-england/
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