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Marriage in Medieval England: Law, Literature and Practice
Author(s): Conor McCarthy (Author)
- Publisher: Boydell Press
- Publication Date: November 25, 2004
- Edition: First Edition
- Language: English
- Print length: 194 pages
- ISBN-10: 1843831023
- ISBN-13: 9781843831020
Book Description
A survey of attitudes to marriage as represented in medieval legal and literary texts.
Medieval marriage has been widely discussed, and this book gives a brief and accessible overview of an important subject. It covers the entire medieval period, and engages with a wide range of primary sources, both legal and literary. It draws particular attention to local English legislation and practice, and offers some new readings of medieval English literary texts, including
Beowulf, the works of Chaucer, Langland’s Piers Plowman, the Book of Margery Kempe and the Paston Letters. Focusing on a number of key themes important across the period, individual chapters discuss the themes of consent, property, alliance, love, sex, family, divorce and widowhood.CONOR MCCARTHY gained his PhD from Trinity College Dublin.
Editorial Reviews
Review
An ambitious, careful and well-researched account that introduces a new level of juridical subtlety to the analysis of a wide range of medieval marriage texts and provides an insightful characterization of specific tensions within marriage laws and theology. ― MEDIEVAL REVIEW
About the Author
Conor McCarthy lives in Newcastle, Australia. His other books are Seamus Heaney and Medieval Poetry and Love, Sex and Marriage in the Middle Ages: A Sourcebook.
