medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dunno if anyone fancies having a stab at this....
AFAIK the official "church" possition in the middle ages was that marriage
was a freely-entered contract between two people, but I presume it's not a
myth that (at least amongst the nobility) there were plenty of arranged and
political marriages where the parents mde the decisions - and the
Anglo-Saxon law codes seem pretty clear that if someone "abducts" a woman to
marry her (it's unclear whether this presumes that she is unwilling) that's
a crime.... So, my question...
If a noblewoman elopes with a commoner (someone who her parents wouldn't
have approved of, and who could afford a reasonable endowment for her
anyway), then has either SHE or HE committed a crime under cannon or secular
law? And does this situation change through the Middle Ages?
An obscure one, but I figured I'd see if anyone could help....
KevinH
_________________________________________________________________
Use MSN Messenger to send music and pics to your friends
http://www.msn.co.uk/messenger
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|