Aristocratic Marriage, Adultery and Divorce in the Fourteenth Century

Name: Aristocratic Marriage, Adultery and Divorce in the Fourteenth Century
Brand: Boydell Press
Availability: OutOfStock
Rating: 5 (1 reviews)

By Bridget Wells-Furby

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Description

The Yorkshire heiress, Lucy de Thweng, was married as a child to her first husband but later divorced him, entered into an adulterous relationship with another man, was forced into marriage to a second husband, and then, after a period of widowhood, married for the third time to a congenial partner of her own choice. This sounds a remarkable and unusual story - but was it? This book uses the episodes of Lucy's life to explore how far she was exceptional in her time and rank and highlights aspects of personality and personal relationships which are not often recognized. It undertakes extensive investigations into divorce in contemporary aristocratic families and extra-marital sexual relationships by women, as well as discussing the marriage of heiresses and the pressures to remarry which widows endured. These show that the theoretical religious and secular restraints on marriage and sex were often ignored, by both men and women, and how women, particularly if they were heiresses, were able to make their own decisions in these matters. As the legitimate procreation of children within the licensed environment of marriage was the forum for the succession to landed estates, the book also considers how this behaviour affected those estates. BRIDGET WELLS-FURBY is an independent scholar whose interests lie chiefly in late medieval landed estates and their context.

Product details

Number of Pages:: 260
Release Date:: 2019-02-15
Publication Date:: 2019-01-18
Publisher:: Boydell Press
Languages:: Original: English
ISBN10:: 1783273674
ISBN13:: 9781783273676
GPSR Manufacturer Reference:: [email protected]
Weight:: 558 g
Height:: 16.1 cm
Width:: 24 cm
Thickness:: 1.9 cm

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