Law, Marriage, and Society in the Later Middle Ages: Arguments about Marriage in Five Courts

998 Pages·2008·3.53 MB·English

by  Jr.

This page intentionally left blank
Law,Marriage,andSocietyintheLaterMiddleAges
ArgumentsAboutMarriageinFiveCourts
This is a study of marriage litigation (with some reference to sexual
offenses)inthearchiepiscopalcourtofYork(1300–1500)andtheepis-
copalcourtsofEly(1374–1381),Paris(1384–1387),Cambrai(1438–
1453), and Brussels (1448–1459). All these courts were, for the most
part, correctly applying the late medieval canon law of marriage, but
statisticalanalysisofthecasesandresultsconfirmsthatthereweresub-
stantialdifferencesinboththetypesofcasesthecourtsheardandthe
results they reached. Marriages in England in the later Middle Ages,
thebookargues,weremoreoftenunderthecontrolofthepartiestothe
marriage, whereas those in northern France and the southern Nether-
lands were more often under the control of the parties’ families and
social superiors. Within this broad generalization the book brings to
lightpatternsoflatemedievalmenandwomenmanipulatingeachother
andthecourtstoproduceextraordinarilyvariedresults.
CharlesDonahue,Jr.,isthePaulA.FreundProfessorofLawatHarvard
Law School and immediate past president of the American Society of
Legal History. Among other books, he is the coauthor or coeditor of
SelectCasesoftheEcclesiasticalCourtsoftheProvinceofCanterbury,
c.1200–1301;YearBooksofRichardII:6RichardII,1382–1383;The
Records of the Medieval Ecclesiastical Courts; and Cases and Materi-
als on Property: An Introduction to the Concept and the Institution.
He is also the author of more than 70 articles in the fields of ancient,
medieval,andearlymodernlegalhistory.Donahueteacheslegalhistory
in both the Law School and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Har-
vardandhastaughtattheUniversityofMichigan,theLondonSchool
of Economics, the Vrije Universiteit te Brussel, Columbia University,
the University of California at Berkeley, Boston College, and Cornell
University.Donahueisvice-presidentandliterarydirectoroftheAmes
FoundationandacouncilloroftheSeldenSociety(UK).HeisaFellow
oftheRoyalHistoricalSocietyandapreviousGuggenheimFellow.

Law, Marriage, and Society in the Later
Middle Ages
Arguments About Marriage in Five Courts
CHARLES DONAHUE, Jr.
HarvardLawSchool
CAMBRIDGEUNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521877282
© Charles Donahue, Jr., 2007
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of
relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place
without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published in print format 2007
ISBN-13 978-0-511-37153-0 eBook (NetLibrary)
ISBN-13 978-0-521-87728-2 hardback (printed without supplementary material)
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls
for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not
guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Contents
ListofTables page viii
ListofAppendices xi
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xv
NotesAboutThisBook xvii
Introduction 1
1 TheBackgroundRulesandInstitutions 14
FormationofMarriage 16
Impediments 18
Divorce 33
ProcedureinMarriageCases 33
SecularConsequencesofMarriage 41
Conclusion 43
2 LyingWitnessesandSocialReality:FourEnglishMarriage
CasesintheHighMiddleAges 46
DollingcSmith 46
MertoncMidelton 49
IngolycMidelton,EsyngwaldandWright 52
TiryngtoncMoryz 57
3 Statistics:TheCourtofYork,1300–1500 63
YorkCausePapersoverTwoCenturies:TheBusinessofthe
CourtandClaimsandDefensesinMarriageCases 64
ResultsintheFourteenthCentury 73
ResultsintheFifteenthCentury 80
4 Story-PatternsintheCourtofYorkintheFourteenthCentury 90
Two-PartydepresentiEnforcementActions 91
DefuturoandAbjurationCases 112
v
vi Contents
Three-andFour-PartyEnforcementActions 123
DivorcefromtheBond 138
OtherTypesofActions 146
Conclusion 151
5 Story-PatternsintheCourtofYorkintheFifteenthCentury 152
DifferentReactionstoOldStory-Patterns 152
NewStory-Patterns 169
MoreArrangedMarriages 185
RuralVersusUrbanCases 201
Conclusion 215
6 Ely 218
TheBusinessoftheCourtofEly 218
CountingMarriageCasesintheCourtofEly 225
CasesInvolvingMalePlaintiffs 235
CasesInvolvingFemalePlaintiffs 260
TheOfficeCases 278
Conclusion 296
7 Paris 302
TheBusinessoftheCourtofParis 302
TheMarriageCases 307
Sponsaliadefuturoreintegra 311
Sponsaliadefuturocarnalicopulasecuta 345
SponsaliadepresentiandAmbiguoussponsalia;Miscellaneous
TypesofSpousalsLitigation 362
DivorcefromtheBond 371
Conclusion 376
8 CambraiandBrussels:TheCourtsandtheNumbers 383
Introduction 383
TheBusinessoftheEcclesiasticalCourtsofCambraiandBrussels 390
MarriageLitigationatCambraiandBrussels–ALookatthe
Numbers 395
RuralVersusUrban 417
9 CambraiandBrussels:TheContentoftheSentences 424
Two-PartySpousalsCasesNotAllegingcopula 424
Three-PartySpousalsCasesNotAllegingcopula 454
Two-PartySpousalsCasesAllegingcopula 464
Three-PartySpousalsCasesAllegingcopula 481
DivorcefromtheBond 505
MiscellaneousCases 506
Conclusion 518
10 Divorceamensaetthoroandsalvoiurethori(Separation) 521
TheCourtofYork 521
SeparationatParis,Cambrai,andBrussels 534
Conclusion 557
Contents vii
11 SocialPractice,FormalRule,andtheMedievalCanonLaw
ofIncest 562
TheRulesandTheirApplication 562
RicharddeClyveandtheCanonLawofIncest 566
IncestCasesatYork,Ely,andParis 570
IncestCasesatCambraiandBrussels 577
Conclusion 596
12 BroaderComparisons 598
TheDifferenceBetweenEnglishandFranco-BelgianMedieval
MarriageCases 598
WhereDoWeGofromHere? 622
EpilogueandConclusion 633
BibliographyandAbbreviations 641
PrimarySources 641
WorksofReference 645
SecondaryLiterature 646
SubjectIndex 655
TextsandCommentary 673
TableofCases 870
TableofAuthorities 914
IndexofPersonsandPlaces 917
Tables
3.1 YorkCausePapersbyTypeofCase(1300–1499) page65
3.2 YorkMarriageCases–Claims(1300–1499) 69
3.3 YorkMarriageCases–Defenses(1300–1499) 71
3.4 YorkMarriageCases–TypesofMarriages(1300–1499) 74
3.5 YorkMarriageCases–GenderRatiosandJudgments
(FourteenthCentury) 75
3.6 YorkMarriageCases–GenderRatiosandJudgments
(FifteenthCentury) 82
3.7 YorkMarriageCases–GenderRatiosandJudgments
(1370–1439) 88
5.1 ‘ParentalInvolvement’inYorkMarriageCases(1300–1499) 209
6.1 TheBusinessoftheCourtofElybyTypeofCase
(1374–1381) 223
6.2 YorkCausePapers(FourteenthCentury)andElyActBook
(1374–1381):ComparisonofProportionsofTypesofCases 225
6.3 York(FourteenthCentury)andEly(1374–1381)–Typesof
MarriageCasesCompared 227
6.4 York(FourteenthCentury)andEly(1374–1381)–Defenses
inMarriageCasesCompared 230
6.5 GenderRatiosandJudgmentsinMarriageCasesatEly
(1374–1381) 232
6.6 Ely(1374–1381)andYork(1300–1499)–GenderRatios
andJudgmentsinMarriageCasesCompared 233
6.7 ExofficioCitationsinMarriageMattersatEly(1374–1381) 279
6.8 Parties’PlaceofResidenceinMarriageCasesatEly
(1374–1381) 299
7.1 TheBusinessoftheCourtofParisin1385 304
7.2 YorkCausePapers(FourteenthCentury),ElyActBook
(1374–1381),andParisRegister(1384–1387)–
ComparisonofProportionsofTypesofCases 306
viii