Historians of marriage have done much to redeem the ‘institution’ for medieval England in the past thirty years. Where once it was assumed that all marriages were loveless business arrangements, dominated by financial considerations, and imposed on daughters against their will, now, especially thanks to historians like Shannon McSheffrey, a much more complicated and nuanced understanding exists. Financial security and affection were not mutually exclusive propositions; and consent was certainly a part of the process, although as Gwen Seabourne cautions, it would be foolish not to recognize that consent existed on a spectrum … (more)
[Sara M Butler, Legal History Miscellany, 6 August 2026]
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