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There was no house without a marriage and there was no marriage without a house at the center of every household was a single married couple. The medieval times or the middle ages saw the fall of the western roman empire and the transition into the renaissance and the age of discovery. While it was a period of great growth and discovery, it also saw a lot of horrendous and brutal activity. Some of that just being a part of the ways of life at the time, while modern marriages still have some dark sides. Marriages in the medieval times were certainly no walk in the park from violence in the marriage to the impossibility of divorce. Let’S talk about this and more only in today’s video top 10 dark things. People did in medieval marriages starting off this list in our number 10 spot we have betrothal. Betrothal was a popular precursor to medieval marriages, as it was a promise to be married. Sort of like an engagement in these times, however betrothal was often just as legally binding as marriage is, even though it was quite common for betrothed couples to never even get a chance to meet until their wedding day. This was all because of the fact that marriage had truly nothing to do with love and the most important reason for it was the acquisition of wealth. The worst part of the betrothals, however, is that they could be arranged at the age of raisin. The age of reason should be a reasonable age, but of course it is not, as a patrol could be arranged at just 7 years old.
The redeeming part about this gross and weird rule is that the patrol, though, would not be legally binding until they became of age, but it’s still pretty messed up. When you really think about it. Coming in at number 9, we have the marital combat in medieval europe. If a husband and wife got into a dispute, they would settle it by fighting one on one medieval combat style. They both had to wear a special attire. While doing so. This was a tight fitted bodysuit with a hood. The wife would also carry a cloth, and inside was a couple of stones that weighed four or five pounds, so whoever won the fight would win the argument as long as the other person didn’t end up dead. This was particularly popular in germany and they had more rules than other places. For example, the husband had to stand in a hole waist deep with a hand behind his back, while his wife ran around him with that sack filled with rocks. The man had three wooden clubs with him. He could not leave his hole if he touched the edge of the pit with his hand or arm, then he would have to give up one club to the judges. If the woman hit him with a rock while she was running around him, then she would have to give up one of her stones. I don’t know how this solved anything, but they thought it was a good method back then, in our number eight spot today we have divorce divorce, wasn’t, necessarily a popular thing in the medieval times, which seems weird considering how little choice most people had in their marriage Partners divorce was much less common back then for the simple fact that there were only a few reasons that were considered good enough for divorce.
These were if either and the couple were not of legal age, which is a pretty good rule to have, and the other reason being if the husband or wife had previously made a religious vow or were not christian, then the marriage could be dissolved. Well, it’s, good! That there were a couple reasons, these being the only reasons, certainly didn’t leave the people who were forced into these marriages with a lot of options in our seventh spot. We have divorce by death. Now i know olivia just finished talking about how hard it was for people to get divorced and she’s right. It was, but in some places there is one way you could easily get a divorce and that’s if your spouse died, so let’s say there’s. Some dispute between the two – we all know that you duel it out but here’s the thing. If the woman won the duel, then the man was executed. If the man won the duel, then the woman was buried alive, doesn’t that sound extreme, so it’s either you kill or be killed. No thanks, i’m glad that this is not a thing anymore. In our number six spot today we have wards of the king in the medieval times since people were seen less as people and more as what they can provide orphans who were wealthy female heiresses and wealthy widows all became wards of the king. That is dark in itself, but since marriage is all about money, the king used these people to his advantage.
These women could be married off to the men of the court, who wanted to increase their wealth and land or a lord would also be able to sell her marriage to the highest bidder. In order to make up for the loss of income she would have provided. If one of these women went and married someone on their own accord, she would then lose the money that was rightfully hers. How absolutely backwards is that we’re, now at our fifth and halfway mark with the arranged marriages back in the day, women did not have a choice as to who they were going to marry. In fact, most of the time they didn’t even know the man before they got married to him, men, on the other hand, were sometimes allowed to choose their bride and the women had no say they got chosen. Then they were forced to wed, but back in the day, most marriages were political arrangements and not based on true love. This was typically set up by the bride and the groom’s parents and the women were often really young girls. The whole basis of the marriage was set upon how much the girl was worth. Every man wanted a girl that came from a wealthy family in our number four spot. Today we have the wedding wardrobe, of course, royals and high class people in these times would spend a fortune on their wedding outfits, which is truly not unlike our world. Today.
The garments would usually be embellished with jewels and they would have extravagant crowns, but this wasn’t the case for everyone – people who were lower class in these times, would often be unable to have any kind of wedding attire at all. It would be insanity to purchase a garment for one occasion and instead they would have to choose from the best and cleanest garment they owned, rather than crowns and tiaras. Women would wear a veil since it was common at the time for women to wear them in their everyday lives. So again, it would be something they already owned. If a woman didn’t have one. However, it was customary for them to wear a crown made of flowers over their loose hair, while this to them would be a symbol of their status in life. I think that they must have looked quite beautiful in our third spot. We have the marriage restrictions, so i know i talked about how a man could choose who he wanted to marry, but there were a couple of rules when it comes to that. For example, there were a number of reasons as to why a marriage could be prohibited. One of them being if the girl was related to him. Thank the lord for that one, the other one is if the boy or girl had taken a religious vow now here’s, where it gets wacky, okay, adultery and were reasons a marriage could be prohibited, but they were not grounds for divorce.
That is severely messed up. Also fun fact: you couldn’t be married by someone who was a killer, which i mean. Why would you want to anyways in our number two spot today we have purity. Of course women have been subject to this weird standard of purity for hundreds and hundreds of years. It was so bad in the medieval times, however, that it was very common for women to have to take a type of purity test in order to assure her new husband, we won’t get into the multitude of reasons why that is both horrible and extremely bizarre. As we would be here all day, but i will talk about the test, they felt necessary to do for royals. The wedding night was usually watched by observers, which is super weird, but in an even weirder turn of events. After the marriage was consummated, it was normal for the sheets to be checked. After for blood for people who were lower class, they usually didn’t have observers, but there was apparently a rule for these couples that would allow the local ruler to have sex with the bride. On her wedding night before the groom, but this is debated by some historians and i just truly hope that it is untrue and in our number one spot we have domestic violence. Sadly, back in the day, domestic violence was typical in households, even if a husband was abusive towards his wife, it was hard for her to leave him and get a divorce.
In fact, if a woman defied her husband’s authority, then he could punish her for it, and the wife would have to accept this punishment with no complaints. In fact, the system was so messed up back then that if a woman killed her husband, let’s say he was getting violent and physical with her and she defended herself and he ended up passing away while she would be found guilty of treason and abrogation of authority That is totally insane and highly messed up, alright guys that has been our list for today. Let us know what you think about these history: videos in the comments below also, let us know which one of these facts – uh creeped you out the most. Thank you. So much for checking it out make sure to give this video a big thumbs up and subscribe to most amazing top 10 for more amazing videos. I’Ve been your host today, olivia koslowski i’ve been your host.
