Married life in the Middle Ages, 900-1300 / Elisabeth Van Houts.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Van Houts, Elisabeth M. C., author.

Series:

Oxford studies in medieval European history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Marriage--Europe--History--To 1500.

Marriage.

Marriage--Religious aspects--Christianity--History--To 1500.

Marriage--Religious aspects--Christianity.

History.

Europe--Social life and customs.

Europe.

Manners and customs.

Europe--Social conditions--To 1492.

Social conditions.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

viii, 298 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 24 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2019.

Summary:

Married Life in the Middle Ages, 900-1300 contains an analysis of the experience of married life by men and women in Christian medieval Europe, c. 900-1300. The study focusses on the social and emotional life of the married couple rather than on the institutional history of marriage, breaking it into three parts: Getting Married - the process of getting married and wedding celebrations; Married Life - the married life of lay couples and clergy, their sexuality, and any remarriage; and Alternative Living - which explores concubinage and polygyny, as well as the single life in contrast to monogamous sexual unions. In this volume, van Houts deals with four central themes. First, the tension between patriarchal family strategies and the individual family member's freedom of choice to marry and, if so, to what partner; second, the role played by the married priesthood in their quest to have individual agency and self-determination accepted in their own lives in the face of the growing imposition of clerical celibacy; third, the role played by women in helping society accept some degree of gender equality and self-determination to marry and in shaping the norms for married life incorporating these principles; fourth, the role played by emotion in the establishment of marriage and in married life at a time when sexual and spiritual love feature prominently in medieval literature.

Contents:

I Getting Married

1 Making of Marriage p. 29

Parents and Kin p. 32

Kings and Lords p. 52

Elopement and Abduction p. 57

2 Wedding Celebrations p. 63

Elite Weddings p. 64

Lower-Status Weddings p. 74

'Mantle' Ceremonies p. 77

Wedding Rings p. 80

II Married Life

3 Sexuality and Love p. 87

Sex and Married Couples p. 88

Beds and Bedrooms p. 103

Love and Affection p. 108

4 Authority and Collaboration p. 123

The Husband's Authority and Wifely Advice p. 124

Marital Violence p. 131

Collaboration and Sharing Responsibilities p. 133

5 End of Marriage and Remarriage p. 141

Ending and Beginning Again p. 143

Remarried Life and Sexuality p. 155

Children and Stepchildren p. 161

6 Clerical Marriages p. 170

Parma and Paris p. 173

Rhetoric and Domesticity p. 178

The Clergy's Perspectives on Their Married Lives p. 191

III Alternative Living

7 Living with One or More Partners p. 203

Elite Polygyny p. 204

Living Together p. 220

Jewish and Muslim Relationships p. 225

8 Single Life p. 229

Agency and Consent for Entry into Monastic Life p. 230

Single Women p. 243

Single Men p. 248.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780198798897

019879889X

OCLC:

1048122652