marriage

marriage, the act of marrying and the ceremony by which persons are made husband and wife, establishes links between the families of the bride and groom and guarantees the legitimacy of any children born in wedlock. Traditionally, two major values underpinned marriage: moral commitment of the partners to each other; and contractual commitment in relation to rights of property and succession.

The institution of marriage was an integral part of both church and state, with the state accepting the jurisdiction of the church in the licensing of marriage and in regulating the conditions in which it could take place. Although it was not a sacrament, in the mid-12th cent. Pope Alexander III ruled that for all Christendom the vows partners made to each other should be in the presence of witnesses, preferably, but not essentially, at the parish church door. Within the protestant churches of Great Britain this pre-Reformation tradition remained the legal requirement for marriage until Hardwicke's Marriage Act (1753), which compelled all marriage ceremonies to take place before a minister within the parish church building. Since the Council of Trent (1545 to 1563) had declared marriage one of the sacraments of the Roman church, catholics received this from their priest. The Marriage Act (1836) formalized many of the customs of previous eras. A superintendent registrar of births, marriages, and deaths had the duty of registering all marriages. The superintendent registrar was also empowered to license religious premises, other than Anglican churches, for the conduct of marriages, so that nonconformists and catholics could marry in their own places of worship. Additionally, register offices were set up in all cities and towns, for the marriages of those not wishing to have a religious ceremony. The Marriage Act of 1995 extended the range of places which could be licensed for the conduct of marriage to any location which was appropriately seemly and dignified. A number of bizarre places soon followed.

Until recently, when the importance of romantic love and individual choice became a higher priority, the selection of a marriage partner was usually the prerogative of the family of the bride or groom. At all levels of society marriage partners were usually chosen from within the same social and religious group. Amongst the nobility dynastic considerations, particularly the potential succession to title and property, guided the selection of a suitable spouse. In addition, male relatives had the responsibility of finding suitable marriage partners for their female dependents, with its attendant dangers of the choice being made to benefit the guardian rather than the woman. There was also the problem of forced marriage, recognized by Magna Carta (1215), which included protection for wards and widows. In the Middle Ages there was no minimum age for entering into marriage, so that betrothal promises, which also had legal force, and marriage vows were sometimes exchanged by immature children. Such arrangements were recorded amongst aristocratic families, where their purpose was to secure dynastic alliances with a likely succession to title and property. The validity of such marriages was challengeable in the courts, where the marriage contract could be annulled if it could be established that the marriage had not been consummated. The testimony of witnesses present at the bedding of the married pair could be taken as evidence of consummation.

The establishment of a minimum age for legal sexual relations was relevant to the determination of who might enter into marriage. During the 19th cent. the ages of consent were fixed at 14 years for males and 16 for females and the ages were later raised to 16 years for both sexes, although marriage at such ages was very infrequent. In contrast, the age of majority for entry into all other legal contracts was 21 years, reduced to 18 years in 1968. It continues to be the case that all minors must seek parental permission to marry, and, for those without parents, permission must be obtained from a guardian, magistrate, or a person of standing.

The registration of marriages and the issuing of ‘marriage lines’ to be held by one of the spouses, usually the wife, were important procedures for establishing status and the legitimacy of children. Children born out of wedlock suffered discrimination, in that they could not inherit property or status as of right. In contrast to the rest of Britain, Scottish common law marriages, that is marriages which had not taken place in church, could be registered in the Sheriff Court office and subsequently had the standing of licensed marriages. Such documentation of the existence of a marriage became of greater importance for more and more people during the 19th cent. as growing numbers held property and as geographical and social mobility increased. In the 20th cent. such documentation was important for establishing the right to concessions on personal taxation. The promise to marry continued to have legal force and breach of promise cases could be brought by a fiancée whose reputation was deemed to have been tarnished by a broken engagement. Legal proceedings were costly and that, together with growing equality in the commitment to marriage in the 20th cent., meant that breach of promise cases were very infrequent.

Until the later 19th cent. husbands had virtually complete control over their wives and their property. The marriage contract was not an equal one. On marriage wives brought to their husbands total rights to their property and earnings, unless the wife's family had entered into a marriage settlement which limited what a husband might do with the wife's dowry. However, only far-sighted families with the money to pay for legal services made such arrangements. Wives' rights over their own property, earnings, and children began to be recognized by the Married Women's Property Acts of the later 19th cent. The rights of a wife to manage her own financial affairs and to be wholly responsible for them were achieved in 1988 with legislation to assess husbands and wives as separate individuals, rather than as a married pair for taxation purposes.

In spite of access to divorce and the removal of the social stigma of living together out of wedlock, marriage and remarriage after divorce remain highly valued, to the extent that marriage, often associated with expensive wedding ceremonies, continues to be part of the experience of the great majority of the population.

Ian John Ernest Keil

Bibliography

Brooke, C. N. L. , The Medieval Idea of Marriage (Oxford, 1989);
Gillis, J. , For Better, for Worse: British Marriages, 1600 to the Present (New York, 1985);
Stone, L. , The Family, Sex and Marriage in England, 1500–1800 (1977);
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Uncertain Unions: Marriage in England, 1660–1753 (Oxford, 1992).