Marriage in 18th Century Europe
The major movement regarding marriage in the eighteenth century was from church to state. Marital laws and customs, once administered and governed by the church, increasingly came to be controlled by legislators who passed many laws restricting the circumstances and legality of marriages. These restrictions tended to represent the interests of the wealthy and uphold patriarchal tradition. Backlash to these restrictions produced a number of undesirable practices, including promiscuity, wife-sale, and divorce.
Before the eighteenth century, marriage was far less complicated. Verbal consent and consumation constituted legal marriage: "once the knot was tied by such verbal exchanges it could not be undone: a valid marriage was technically indissoluble. Such vows could be made, moreover, by boys the age of fourteen and girls of twelve" (Outhwaite xiii).
The laws that began to be passed in the 1700's were decidedly un-religious, designed mostly to protect patriarchy and wealth. Much of the marriage laws passed during this period reflect the prevailing opinion of women as childlike, frivolous, and simpleminded. As Rousseau put it, "little girls always dislike learning to read and write, but they are always ready to learn to sew." Custom made man "undisputed lord of the home" (Murstein 220) and laws were passed to solidify this position: "Upon marriage, husband and wife became one- and that one was the man. Her land became his, as did her debts."
The structure of eighteenth century society made this necessary, especially for the lower classes; a family's income would be totally based on the earning power of the man. Thus, logic dictated that he control all the finances. Even so, some of the l...
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...who could not afford several licences, and a big wedding or dowry. "Fleet marriages" were very common in the first half of the eighteenth century. These were marriages performed by "defrocked and disreputable" ministers for cash, often through the bars of a debtors prison on Fleet street. One such minister was so successful that "in the same one-year period that he performed 6000 marriages, only fifty regular contracts were solemnized in the neighboring St. Annes's church. Although this practice was banned by the Marriage Act of 1753, it just goes to show that marriage and love cannot be regulated by monetary concerns.
Works Cited
Murstein, Bernard I. Love, Sex, and Marriage Through the Ages. ????
Outhwaite, R.B. Clandestine Marriage in England 1560-1850. Hambledon Press, NY: 1995.
Stone, Lawrence. Road to Divorce Oxford University Press, Oxford: l990.
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