The Courtship And Marriage In The Elizabethan Era

Improved Essays
The Elizabethan Era, also known as the reign of Queen Elizabeth, was considered the “golden age” of English history because it encompassed the English Renaissance, a movement that introduced literary and musical works. In addition to this, the English Reformation, a religious settlement between the Protestants and the Catholics, popularized the purpose of religion. Although the Elizabethan Era represented a modern age of artistic expression and innovation, courtship and marriage was simply perceived as a business deal and nothing further. Marriage was an excuse for men to achieve a higher status in wealth and for women to obtain a partner to bear children with. It was adamant in this time period that love did not coincide with marriage. This …show more content…
Peasants were generally free to choose their partner and were often influenced by their parents and neighbors. However, the upper class were refrained from choosing their spouse because the decision was dominated by their parents. Parents usually searched for a spouse that shared the same financial and family class status because it represented financial security for the couple. This phrase, “Love, or being in love, was not given much consideration” (Hinds, 45) represented the mentality of the nobility considering that their marriages were arranged. Rare cases in which the individual was able to choose their own spouse occurred only if their parents were deceased, or if they were not tied to their parental inheritance. Secret romances and affairs were also rare and strictly forbidden because the punishment consisted of banishment and imprisonment. Opportunities for upper class individuals to meet their spouse were arranged by the parents, usually on the day of the marriage. In contrast, opportunities for peasants to meet their potential spouse included bundling (the process of a courting couple having sexual intercourse in the woman’s bed), dancing at village gatherings, and the exchange of love sonnets. In order for peasants to marry, both spouses had to possess their own independent household and prove that they were financially stable to raise a family. Thus, both the peasant and upper nobility classes were …show more content…
Once the ideal partner was found by the parents, the groom expected a dowry which usually included a marriage bed, utensils, linens, and a healthy cow from the bride before the marital relationship could be official. Since both spouses usually owned property before marriage, the bride was not obligated to provide large estates in the dowry. In order to symbolize the financial bond between the bride and groom, couples of the nobility usually exchanged marriage rings during the official marriage ceremony. Diamond marriage rings grew popular during the Elizabethan Era and they were strictly worn on the third finger, referred to as the ring finger, of the left hand. The marriage ring is worn on this distinct finger because a vein originates from the fingertip to the heart which embodies the bond between the spouses. Since people believed that the ring represented such a deep connection, they kept it preserved for safekeeping and passed it down to further generations. Although love was never considered a factor when arranging two individuals together for marriage, parents hoped that the arranged relationship would blossom into a romantic one after marriage. For this reason, upper class individuals would acquire marriage rings with interlocking bands designed with inscriptions of romantic phrases. Rings consisting of three to eight interlocking bands made of either

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    When researching daily life in the Elizabethan Era, there were two prominent social classes throughout most of England. The upper or noble families were akin to today’s upper class. However, the lower-class families were much different from today’s low-class families. The gap between the two classes was a huge and a majority of England was poor. Most of the low class was orphans, abandoned wives, and elderly.…

    • 1084 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In “Puritans and Sex”, Edmund S. Morgan states that the Puritans were not a very strong religion as they may have seemed. They were perceived to be a strict and harsh religion even though they were persecuted from The Anglican church in England for not having the same beliefs. The Puritans were actually the complete opposite as explained in the reading. They believed in many different teachings, even when it came to sex. It’s a very informational reading that can give someone a different perspective on the Puritans.…

    • 464 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A main portion of this section of the book, showed how the father’s role impacted a couple’s marriage as during this time period, honor did not involve keeping their word but rather honor meant the status and social position one held in the community. It was not uncommon for people to marry solely to gain social status in this time period and daughters would listen to whom their fathers wanted them to marry, often resulting in a higher social status. The third and final section of the book focusses on the time period from 1779-1819. Seed attempts to analyze and explain the outcomes of the new system, royal bureaucracy, which was put in place for marriage selection. This new system awarded the new officials with the power to limit the individual couple’s freewill for who they wanted to marry and ultimately increased the parent’s role in deciding who their children should be wed to.…

    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I always watched the movies where the daughter or son was basically given to the most eligible bachelor or prince and assumed it was only what the wealthy people participated in. The parents did not care if they were in love or had any desire of being with one another. Love had nothing to do with marriage and it's so hard to fathom how life would be throwing out love in today’s society meaning of marriage. Watching Professor Stephanie Coontz's lecture made me realize the life and the importance of love on multiple levels.…

    • 684 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Additionally, in Miguel Helft’s piece “Matrimony with a Proper Stranger”, he shows that arranged marriage, which is considered oppressive and archaic in America, is thought of very differently in other cultures. It is true that in the past, arranged marriages were agreed on from childhood, and possibly even before the birth of the children in question! In previous times, the bride and groom themselves had no choice in the happenings, and often, the woman was thought of as the man’s property. However, in more recent times, the couple is allowed much more freedom and choice in the event. As an example, consider Helft’s “Matrimony with a Proper Stranger”.…

    • 998 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Weddings in the twenty-first century are quite different than what would have taken place in the time of Romeo and Juliet. Marriage has changed tremendously since Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet; arranged marriage has vanished, marriage customs have changed, and how much goes into preparing a wedding. In the fifteenth century most marriages were arranged by parents or relatives not by marriage. The purpose of arranged marriage was to transfer land and ownership or peace treaty between two families or groups.…

    • 599 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Heartbreaking, romantic, and riveting The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare and its’ reality counterpart, The Price of Young Love by Jack Healy both tell a story of what love can do when Cupid’s arrow has struck one’s heart. There are quite a number of similarities between the script and the article, such as the way love can sometimes result in disastrous consequences, like the case of Romeo and Juliet. Another main similarity that both of them share is the idea that feuding families can cause chaos to ensue and cause many troubles. As aforementioned, a comparison between both articles would be how two feuding families/groups can always cause chaos to ensue between them. In Romeo and Juliet, the feud between the Montagues…

    • 699 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Engagement Ring Analysis

    • 209 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Matthew O’Brien describes in the “The Strange Economics of Engagement Rings” the evolution of engagement rings popularity and the increased of sell of the engagement ring. Will you marry me? Those are the four words every women is dieing to hear her man say, but do not forget the big fat diamond engagement ring. Matthew O’Brien explains how engagement rings used to be an virginity insurance as much as it was a gift and how over time the engagement rings sells went up over time. In the “1940’s nearly half of engaged couples reported being intimate before the big day” if the groom decided to leave the soon-to-be bride after they were intimate she would be left in debt.…

    • 209 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Weddings during Elizabethan Times had many laws and customs surrounding them and a wedding service that is quite different from what occurs in modern day. Betrothals were the first step in a marriage: “At a betrothal, the two people join hands. He gives her a ring to be worn on the right hand. It changes to the left at the wedding.” (Ros1).…

    • 385 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The lowest class was the slave women, who did the menial domestic chores and helped to raise the children of the wife. Male slaves worked in the trade arts, including pottery making, glass working, and wood working, or educating the sons of a house. The second class of women was the Athenian citizen woman, who could pass the right of citizenship to her sons. The third class was known as the Hetaerae. Unlike the slaves and the citizens, they were given an education in reading, writing, and music, and were allowed into the Agora and other places that were off limits to citizen and slave women.…

    • 2257 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Reformation, Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment are all intertwined. The Reformation was about religion, the Scientific Revolution was about proving that the Sun was the center of the Universe, and the Enlightenment was an intellectual and cultural movement. The Reformation movement in the fifteen-hundreds changed the way Europeans looked at themselves. The Protestant Reformation was an important development that shifted the way marriage and family life was viewed.…

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The nature of male friendship in Elizabethan England can be described as a different type of male friendship than the one used today. One reason that male friendship in Elizabethan England can be described as a different type of male friendship than the one used today was as a result of male friends who kissed each other even though not having sexual feelings for each other. An incident involving two male friends who holded hands together in public in Elizabethan England further illustrates that male friends were not questioned of their sexuality or their rapport. For example, other people in Elizabethan England did not judge the manners that the male friends exposed in public. In fact, male friends hugged each other, in research conducted…

    • 181 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Coontz’s article, she explains the concept of marriage for different cultures. Some of the areas were China, Europe, Africa, Greece, Alaska and etc. She gives a brief description of how the parents and sometimes the government play a…

    • 1127 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In the late 16th century, it was common for couples to marry in their teen years. Modern day teenagers are still in their dating phase, which created the difference in each story’s outcome. We see this shift happen based on societal rules in relationships and people getting married for love rather than…

    • 1037 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Courtship in the Early modern society was a consequent part of life for men, women and families. Reading the work of Cressy , who did extended research on this particular topic in Courtship and the Making of Marriage, one can brings forth a pattern in the way courtship worked in the upper spheres of the society. He says that: Serious courtship knew one goal, the achievement of holy matrimony. Though conducted in accordance with widely understood rules, courtship was no mere game. No idle dalliance.…

    • 1674 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays

Related Topics