Elizabethan Marriage and Love

 

Betrothal and Wedding

http://elizabethan.org/compendium/9.html

1.  At what age did one “come of age” legally, allowing a man or woman to marry without parental permission?

2.  At what age could boys legally marry with parental permission?  What about girls?

3.  In non-noble families, what was the most common age for marriage?  Why?

4.  In noble families, did people marry earlier or later?  At what age did Katherine Dudley, countess of Huntingdon marry?

5.  In noble families, marriage between very young participants were usually for what purpose?  What was interesting about these “marriages”?

6.  A proper wedding was based on what three things?  What is consummation?

7.  Who pays for the wedding festivities?

Love and Marriage

http://elizabethan.org/compendium/10.html

8.  What was the Elizabethan opinion of marrying for love?

9.  Elizabethans believed that one should listen to whose opinion when marrying?  Why?

10.  Who was more likely to have a choice in who he/she would marry—a noble or a poor person? 

11.  Children were viewed as the ____________________ of their parents.  Their relationship is here compared to the relationship between a ________________ and his ____________________.

12.  Wives were viewed as the _____________________ of their husbands too.

13.  What two things should every woman in Elizabethan England expect?

14.  If a man is not noble, he must be married to be eligible to ________________.

Heirs and Inheritance

http://elizabethan.org/compendium/41.html

15. Who inherits everything, even if the oldest child is a girl?

More Wedding Customs (under Contract, Dowry, Jointure)

http://elizabethan.org/compendium/62.html

16.  For noble and other propertied families, what is the most significant part of a wedding day?  What does this document set the terms of?

17.  What is a dowry?

18.  What is a jointure?