Married Life Both Before And After History Essay

Married Life Both Before And After History EssayClass certainly played a part in marri epoch ceremony in the 16th century, as ro troopstic love was non seen as a good occasion for espousals. The higher up the class scale a person was the more likely they were to have an arranged espousals. Marriage was considered rather important as it enhanced your standing in society, especially for the male as he would become a person of consequence and would gain the role of master of the house. Conscious of the responsibilities a husband assumed on brotherhood, parents of daughters favoured a man of means and maturity.1Arranged jointures were frowned upon by the church service but nevertheless many arranged marriages took place with the newlyweds often being in their wee teens and marrying through crush with some women felt forced into marriage by their circumstances, unwilling to remain a burden on their family.2However the lower class tended to marry individual they had spent a grea t deal of time with as they tended to socialise in groups, the lower class often married at an older age collectible to the need to save up and acquire some land to set up home.Marriage in 16th Century Britain was very antithetic to the marriages of todays world, as St star pointed out marriage among the property-owning classes in one-sixteenth-century England was a collective decision of family and kin, not an individual one.3This shows that class was an important part of marriage with rich families often arranging marriages for their children from a very young age as It was more common for the wealthier families to arrange marriages as it was a serious and perplex matter but, as Stephanie Coontz put it, If love could grow out of it, that was wonderful .4Poorer people could marry later and had more choice. Civil and ecclesiastical law enabled marriage at an early age 12 for a girl and 14 for a boy.Bottom of FormTop of FormThe legal requirements for a marriage before the Marri age act of 1753 was a simple process of promising to do so in the presence of a witness furthered by the forcible consummating of the relationship.Such inlump marriages were not approved by the church who wanted all couples to marry in church before a minister, after the general announcement of the intention to marry had been carried out for three weeks, this is also known as the reading of the banns but resorting to irregular marriage was evident in the sixteenth century.5This form of engagement was much stricter than those of today as such a promise was seen, as equivalent to a marriage and it would not be a rare occurrence for the brides to be carrying child.Most 17th century marriages were arranged weddings with accede being an important issue as love was not seen as a strong platform for marriage but was viewed as a foundation as this would mean the couple were both compatible and comfortable with one another.The brides family would often pay a sum of money known as a dowry to the groom to pay for the maintenance of the women who in return was promised her dowry which was a percentage of the brides estate that the wife would be entitled to on his death.However, love did begin to be used for marriage with the enlightenment train of horizon and the belief that the pursuit of happiness was the meaning of life. Marriage through love was now beginning to be considered more important than material goods. The Industrial transmutation would further consolidate this view as the middle class increased tenfold and young bachelors could afford to pay for their own wedding, parental approval and collection for marriage were no longer as important or needed.The Marriage Act 1753 or An Act for the Better Preventing of Clandestine Marriage to give it its unspoiled title gained Royal Assent in 1754 and came into force on March 25th of that year. It was the first statutory legislation to require a ceremony of marriage in England and Wales and revolutionized the po rt marriages performed.Consent to marry for anybody under the age of 21 was made law but a limit on age was not introduced. The wedding would also have to take place and be celebrated in church with an entry, signed by all parties, being determined in the parish records. It can be argued that the law was a response to the upper classes agitation at manner in which young heir were trapped in an non-water-soluble marriage and would lose their money.Furthermore, the Act made it a legal requirement for the reading of the banns to be carried out for three successive weeks prior to the wedding taking place if the parties wishing to marry did not have a license to do so. Marriages by under 21s were acceptable on licence if they had gained the parental consent they needed. However, marriages done so by the reading of the banns were valid unless the parent of the youngest had forbidden the banns. The Act was highly successful in its stated aim of putting a stop to clandestine marriagesBy the 18th Century, couples were increasingly given the freedom to choose their own partner and many relationships began being based on individualized preference and attraction rather than by the parents orders.Top of FormBy the 19th Century British women carried the expectation o becoming pregnant, however due to life expectancy being greater for girls than that of the boys, coupled with the number of males serving in the armed force resulted in a shortage of suitable spouses. incline law became based on the principle that the male would earn the money whilst the females stayed at home and kept the house. The few women that did work saw her wages passed immediately to their husbands under the 1882 Married Property Act.Womens rights had not really been affected by the Marriage Act with females from upper class families being the only ones who had access to education, albeit in typesetters cases viewed as necessary skills for women, such as embroideryThis inadequacy of education wa s seen as unbeneficial by women as it did not develop the women in any way other than menial tasks.In her book, A vindication of the rights of women, Mary Wollstonecraft, claimed that through education would come emancipation and that women had a right to be educated due to it being she who is primarily responsible for the education of the young.Furthermore, Mary Wollstonecraft stated that educating the women the same, as men would strengthen marriage, as the couple would have some topic to dole out and talk about and that a stable marriage is a partnership between a husband and a wife a marriage is a social contract between two individualsWollstonecraft goes on to argue that educating women will strengthen the marriage relationship. Her concept of marriage underlies this argument. A woman thus necessarily to have equal knowledge and sense, to maintain the partnership. A stable marriage also provides for the proper education of children.6It was impossible for a woman to be allow a divorce even if the male had committed adultery, as the ideal was that upper and middle class women were dependant on a male figure, father, and husband. custody were given the right to divorce if their woman had been adulterous under the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857, women, however could not divorce their husband if he committed adultery.If a divorce was granted the ownership of the children was passed to the father who had the power to banish the mother from the children if he so desired.Divorce became a less and less taboo subject due to the religious reformation and the way in which society began to question the validity of the church and God.Notwithstanding the ardour of religious reformers in Europe, the established church was brought into question during the reign of Henry VIII and in turn, Protestantism prevailed with the new church taking precedent.The role of the family became an important issue for theorists, none more so than Lawrence Stone, who, in 1977, put forwa rd his theory the three stages of movement within the family. Stone claims that a power shift in the attitudes towards marriage could be seen through the early modern period, with affective individualism replacing the cold patriarchal traits.Stones three movements can be summa advancementd asThe open lineage family 1450 1630. The attitude towards relatives would have been formal to a point of almost been cynical and callous. Upper class couples were distant to each other and as a result, their (often-arranged) marriage was akin to a handicraft relationship. The immediate family were held in the same regard as the lineage members.Restricted patriarchal nuclear family 1550 1700. The importance of kinship was replaced with a growing importance been placed on the immediate relatives. This coincided with The Reformation criticising arranged marriages and the coldness within them, along with stressing the importance of a close nit family.Closed domesticated nuclear family 1640 1800. L ove becomes anteriority with patriarchy in fast decline. Children were shown great affection and seen as a gift rather than a burden. Marriage for love became the norm and replaced the economic reasons to marry. The rise of the romantic novel allowed sex and passion to be legitimate in marriage and not just a tool for reproduction. Romantic love was the reason for marriage, not business.Stone did face criticism though, perhaps, none more so than at the hands of Alan Macfarlane who claimed that Stones thesis was flawed as it had overlapping periods, which gave no considerateness to the fact it created conflicting evidence.Stone was also criticised for using evidence associated with the Roman Catholics and using them to strengthen his argument about the Reformation, for example claiming sex was a guileless tool for procreation.Stones argument that people were discouraged from marriage and emotional attachment due to the high mortality rate is flawed, given that the mortality rates had carry on a high rate in the early eighteenth century, a time that Stone claims affection and love was growing and taking over as the main reason for marriageFinally, manuscripts and other medieval sources (Chaucer) did not back up, nor consolidate his argument that marriage was a loveless union with a lack of affection for the spouses. With romantic novels booming it was clear that people had an understanding and appreciation of love.