A History of Matrimonial Institutions, Vol. 1 of 3

by George Elliott Howard

[1199] "In an ancient manuscript (No. 1042 in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth Palace) the methods of contracting espousals are thus described: Contrahunt^a sponsalia iiij modis—Aliqu^a promissione, aliqu^a datis arris sponsalitiis interveniente anuli subarra[~c]oe, aliqu^a interveniente jura[~m]to. Nuda promissione cum dicit vir, Accipiam te ī meā uxorem, et illa respondet, Accipiā te in meū maritū. Vel alia verba equipollencia, et ista [~s]t vera sponsalia [~q]ndo sit per [~v]ba de futuro cont^ahuntur."—Burn, Parish Registers, 139. On sworn espousals and the other forms see Swinburne, op. cits., 213 ff., 193 ff., passim.

[1200] Ibid., 193.

[1201] Burn, Parish Registers, 139, citing Lyndwood's Provinciale, 271. "In an Almanack for 1665, certain days (January 2, 4, etc.) are pointed out as 'good to marry, or contract a wife (for then women will be fond and loving).'"—Ibid., 139 n. 2. See also Wood, The Wedding Day, 235-60, for an account of the superstitions and folklore on this subject.

[1202] Thus in the rituals of Edward VI. and Elizabeth, when the priest says, "Wilt thou have this woman to thy wedded wife?" or "this man to thy wedded husband?" we have the case of espousals. Thereafter, when each party says, "I, N., take thee, N., to my wedded wife" or "husband," we see matrimony contracted, though the form is precisely that of sponsalia per verba de praesenti. See the Parker Society Liturgical Services, Edward VI., 128, 129; Elizabeth, 218, 219. The same forms are retained in the existing ritual of the English church: Bingham, The Christian Marriage Ceremony, 163, 164.

[1203] In Nichols's Progresses of King James the First (London, 1828), II, 513 ff., "will be found two accounts (one by Camden) of the ceremonial of the Affiancing of the Princess Elizabeth in 1612. It took place in the Banquetting House at Whitehall, before dinner; Sir Thomas Lake, as Secretary of State, read the words from the book of Common Prayer, in French, 'I Frederick take thee Elizabeth,' etc., after which the Archbishop gave his Benediction: 'The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, bless these Espousals, and make them prosperous to these Kingdoms, and to his Church.' This appears to have been the whole of the office, and the service was probably not longer in ordinary cases. In the Contract for the Princess's marriage, executed the same day (Dec. 27), is a clause, 'Quòd Matrimonium verum et legitimum contrahatur inter eos in Angliā ante initium mensis Maii, et interim Sponsalia legitima de praesenti.' 'It would be no difficulty,' remarks Mr. Anstis, Garter [Leland's Collectanea, V, 329-36], 'to show the antient custom of such Espousals by the daughter of the Crown of England as distinct acts from the office of Matrimony, and that they frequently were performed some months or years before the marriage was actually celebrated.'"—Burn, Parish Registers, 140 n. 2. As shown in the case of Princess Elizabeth, even the banns followed the public betrothal: Nichols, II, 524, 525. In the fifth year of Henry V., the espousals of Thomas Thorp and Katerina Burgate were publicly celebrated: Napier's Swincombe, 65; Burn, op. cit., 144. "We find, under date 1476, that a certificate was given by the minister and six parishioners of Ufford, in Suffolk, to the effect that since the death of a certain man's wife he had not been 'trowhplyht' to any woman, and that he might therefore lawfully take a wife."—Wood, The Wedding Day, 212.

[1204] In a breach of promise suit before the common pleas, 1747, the plaintiff proved that she had been publicly betrothed, and received £7,000 damage: Gentleman's Magazine, 1747, p. 293; also Gent. Mag. Library: Manners and Customs, 54.

[1205] Burn, op. cit., 144. The author has evidently transposed the dates. "The Eastern Emperor Leo, surnamed Philosophus (in order to prevent the mischiefs arising from Espousals to be concluded by marriage at a distant period) commanded that the Espousals and Weddings should be performed both upon one day. Alexius Comnenus endeavoured to restore the old custom."—Alex. Com. Novel. de Spons., 1, 2.; Burn, loc. cit., n. 1.

[1206] Douce, Illustrations of Shakespeare (London, 1807), I, 108. Douce discusses the more interesting references to the betrothal in Shakespeare's plays: ibid., 107-14, 403. Cf. also Burn, op. cit., 140, 143. On the mediæval English practice of spousals, private and in church, see Palmer, Origines liturgicae, II, 211, 212; and in general Jeaffreson, Brides and Bridals, I, 60-87; Brand, Popular Antiquities, II, 87 ff.

[1207] Douce, op. cit., I, 113, 114. See also Wood, The Wedding Day, 211, 212; and compare the Greek betrothal ritual in Burn, op. cit., 141, 142, taken from the Euchologion sive rituale graecorum, 380. On sponsalia jurata see Swinburne, Of Spousals, 213-21; Kling, Tr. mat. causarum, 2, 3; Beust, Tr. de spons. et mat., 219 ff.

[1208] Douce, op. cit., I, 112, 113. Compare the interesting passage in Bullinger, Der christlich Ehestand, lvs. 60 ff.