ABSTRACT
Hanne Marie Johansen Despite the fact that private promises of marriage had no legal validity in Protestant marriage law, studies of marriage contract cases in early modern Norway have found that private marriage agreements retained their legal and social meaning after the Reformation of 1536/7. A promise of marriage or even just sexual intercourse made women expect marriage and take legal proceedings if marriage did not ensue. Researchers have argued that the main motive was to restore honour.1 In this article I will argue that the question of honour was central, but also that women had strong economic motives to sue their partners, and for a long period of time they had surprisingly much to gain.
