Law, marriage, and society in the later Middle Ages : arguments about marriage in five courts / Charles Donahue, Jr.

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2007.

1 online resource (xix, 672 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

This is a study of marriage litigation (with some reference to sexual offenses) in the archiepiscopal court of York (1300́ђأ1500) and the episcopal courts of Ely (1374́ђأ1381), Paris (1384́ђأ1387), Cambrai (1438́ђأ1453), and Brussels (1448́ђأ1459). All these courts were, for the most part, correctly applying the late medieval canon law of marriage, but statistical analysis of the cases and results confirms that there were substantial differences both in the types of cases the courts heard and the results they reached. Marriages in England in the later middle ages were often under the control of the parties to the marriage, whereas those in northern France and southern Netherlands were often under the control of the parties' families and social superiors. Within this broad generalization the book brings to light patterns of late medieval men and women manipulating each other and the courts to produce extraordinarily varied results.

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English

9780511511776 ebook
9780521877282 (hardback)

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