Nicholas L. Syrett
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781469629537
- eISBN:
- 9781469629551
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469629537.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
This chapter revisits the laws documented in the first chapter and demonstrates that even though they prohibited marriage below certain ages, many children continued to marry, often extralegally. ...
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This chapter revisits the laws documented in the first chapter and demonstrates that even though they prohibited marriage below certain ages, many children continued to marry, often extralegally. When parents objected to these marriages, as in the case of Susan Hervey to the marriage of her daughter Sarah to Thomas Parton, they may have done so not because their children were too young for marriage (reflecting the growth of age consciousness), but because such a marriage would deprive parents of the labor of their children. When judges decided the cases brought by aggrieved parents, they almost always upheld the marriages so as not to create single, non-virginal girls, some of whom might be pregnant. They also wanted to hold men to the promises they had made to the state regarding the permanence of marriage.Less
This chapter revisits the laws documented in the first chapter and demonstrates that even though they prohibited marriage below certain ages, many children continued to marry, often extralegally. When parents objected to these marriages, as in the case of Susan Hervey to the marriage of her daughter Sarah to Thomas Parton, they may have done so not because their children were too young for marriage (reflecting the growth of age consciousness), but because such a marriage would deprive parents of the labor of their children. When judges decided the cases brought by aggrieved parents, they almost always upheld the marriages so as not to create single, non-virginal girls, some of whom might be pregnant. They also wanted to hold men to the promises they had made to the state regarding the permanence of marriage.
