Courtship and Constraint

Download or read book Courtship and Constraint written by Diana O'Hara and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2002-10-04 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the first major study of courtship in early modern England. Courtship was a vitally important process in early modern England. It was a period of private and public negotiation, often fraught with anxiety. If completed successfully it brought respectability, the privileges of marriage and adulthood, and a stable union between socially, economically, and emotionally compatible couples. Using Kent church court and probate material dating from the 15th to the end of the 16th century, the book blends historical and anthropological perspectives to suggest novel and exciting approaches to the making of marriage.