ABSTRACT
The nature of marriage underwent demographic and intellectual changes that had profound effects on the lives of individuals. Late marriage and high mortality meant that the relationship was a more temporary arrangement. Amy Froide has argued that the large numbers of never-marrying women means that caution should be adopted in seeing marriage as the norm in social, economic, and cultural terms. An extreme form of marriage dissolution was murder. From the medieval period, marriages should have taken place only in the parish of one of the partners, most commonly that of the bride. Marriage was a state towards which most aspired and remarriage, after the death of a partner, was common. The act of marriage was more than merely a simple religious ceremony; it was also a collection of complex symbolic traditions. Late marriage and high mortality meant that the relationship was a more temporary arrangement.
