Parents' Choice
IN medieval England the notion of courtly love did not percolate down very far. The amours of the Court of Henry II were of a surpassing cynicism, qualifying for scandalized mention in A History of Crime in England, by the Victorian historian Luke Owen Pike. Not only, it seems, did courtiers traffick in their daughters, but they also set a price on their wives' dishonour. Since adultery could not be prevented, it might as well be made to yield a profit. Queen Eleanor, who had so often expounded the principle of adulterous love, violently resented the king's attachment to the Fair Rosamond. (This mistress he installed, so legend says, in the Bower of Woodstock, in a secret chamber of a 'house of wonder', built in the pattern of a maze.)
An heiress did not remain long uncourted. She might be earmarked for disposal at His Majesty's pleasure, as a reward for a favourite; or she might find herself wooed by ultimatum. Pike tells how, in the year before the Black Death, an adventurer broke into the house of a lady on whose estates he had designs, and gave her the alternative of being raped on the spot or being married to him on the following Saturday (it was then Wednesday). To gain time, she agreed to the marriage. After putting her on oath not to betray him, he withdrew-to keep watch on the house from a distance. The statute banning abduction of heiresses was not passed until the reign of Henry VII.
If such was the lot of heiresses, what could serfs expect? They at least could marry whom they liked, subject always to a toll being levied by the feudal lord if the proposed union was likely to alienate land or labour. In accordance with ancient rural custom, marriages (and even betrothals) were often delayed until it was clear that the union would be blessed. What irked a feudal lord was not the fertility of his serfs, but their occasional reluctance to pair off; there are instances of men being given a time limit in which to find themselves brides.
When William the Conqueror invaded Britain, the old Saxon practice of wife-purchase still persisted, though in theory a woman could reject a proposed husband who was obnoxious to her. The Church condemned the manner in which the moneyed classes arranged marriages with scant reference to the parties concerned, ruling that marriage should be a matter for the individual voluntary consent of both parties. Equally, the Church disapproved the way in which the poor were content to betroth themselves and cohabit without benefit of clergy. Rich and poor had to be taught that marriage was a sacrament. It was a point they were singularly reluctant to concede.
On top of all this, the Church kept a wary eye on sexual morals. The ecclesiastical courts authorized by William the Conqueror showed considerable zeal in arraigning fornicators and other incontinents. Bishops employed their 'inquisitors' to smell out and report misdemeanours. A peccant male might find himself standing barelegged in a white shirt at the altar, holding a candle of specified weight, reciting a specified number of psalms on a specified number of occasions; additionally, he might be put on bread and water, or sent on pilgrimages to distant shrines, at each of which he would be expected to offer up stipulated sums (often 3s. 4d. or multiples thereof) and to bring back evidence that he had done so. An erring woman would not expect to escape so lightly as a man; a series of brisk floggings was more likely to be her lot. At York a woman abjured the offence of fornication under penalty of twelve floggings before the procession in the cathedral church, twelve more in her parish church and twelve round the marketplace, plus a levy of 20s. to the fabric of the cathedral.
Often, however, punishment could be avoided by the system of computation. That is, if the suspect was able to produce a stated number of his equals to say that he was of sober and virtuous behaviour the charge would be dropped. Many of the offenders named in the Act Books seem to have been hardy recidivists, whose sins look no better in Latin than in English. There is little to suggest that young lovers who had overstepped the mark were seriously harried by the ecclesiastical courts; but the Church strove hard, if hopelessly, to discourage the idea that intercourse between the betrothed was no sin. The laity increasingly resented the authority of the Church courts, but there was no escaping their jurisdiction-unless one went for a soldier, or became a tramp.
As chivalry crumbled, England's landed middle class used marriage as a means of extending and consolidating its possessions. Just as kings had acquired provinces and kingdoms by marriage, so the squires acquired manors and rich grazing. In these operations courtship consisted of finding out how much wealth a woman possessed (including ready cash, linen and plate), how much she could expect to inherit, and then trying to squeeze a little more out of her guardian. If a man had not the time or the taste for such negotiations, he could leave it to a third party, but most men were ready to do their own bargaining. It was a game at which the whole family could play. Fathers sold their daughters, even their sons, in marriage (sometimes in order to pay off debts). Brothers trafficked in their sisters, and sons urged matches on their widowed mothers. Even sisters put pressure on sisters to contract useful alliances. Wardships were bought, as investments, and sold at a profit. On the whole women accepted their disposal calmly, and often gratefully. To be left husbandless was a dire fate in those times, and not every unwanted girl could hie her to a nunnery. There was always the chance that a husband would turn out to be more indulgent, more easily handled, than a father. Some young women were able to exercise a limited choice, but many accepted husbands of whom they knew next to nothing. In such marriages, courtship began after the wedding ceremony, in the oriental fashion. Many of these unions appear to have been perfectly happy.
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