Gender and Divorce in Europe: 1600 – 1900: A Praxeological Perspective

Description

Getting divorced and remarried are now common practices in European societies, even if the rules differ from one country to the next. Civil marriage law still echoes religious marriage law, which for centuries determined which persons could enter into marriage with each other and how validly contracted marriages could be ended. Religions and denominations also had different regulations regarding whether a divorce only ended marital obligations or also permitted remarriage during the lifetime of the divorced spouse. This book deals with predominantly handwritten documents of divorce proceedings from the British Isles to Western, Central, and Southeastern Europe, and from 1600 to the 1930s. The praxeological analysis reveals the arguments and strategies put forward to obtain or prevent divorce, as well as the social and, above all, economic conditions and arrangements connected with divorce. The contributions break new ground by combining previously often separate fields of research and regions of investigation. It makes clear that the gender order doesn’t always run along religious lines, as was too often assumed. This book will be of interest to all scholars and students of economic, social, religious, cultural, legal, and gender history as well as gender and well-being in a broader sense. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Tables Acknowledgments List of Contributors Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 The Divorce of Marriage 1.2 Regulation of the Divorce Consequences 1.3 Making a Living 1.4 Well-Being 1.5 Organization of the Volume 1.6 Conclusions References Chapter 2: Women and Work 2.1 The Work Repertoires of Ever-Married Women 2.2 The Status as Wife 2.3 Conclusions Archival Sources Notes References Part I: Divorce from Bed and Board Chapter 3: Separated Beds – Interwoven Property: Separation and Divorce in the Habsburg Monarchy between the mid-16th and the mid-19th Centuries 3.1 Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction 3.2 Separation and Divorce Grounds 3.3 Regulation of the Consequences of Separation and Divorce 3.4 Marriage Property Regime 3.5 Secular Jurisdiction 3.6 Matrimonial Property and Inheritance Law 3.7 Marriage Contracts and Divorce Settlements 3.8 Conclusions Archival Sources Notes References Chapter 4: Separating Persons and Property in Early Modern English Marriages 4.1 Coverture and Continuities in Divorce Law through the Reformation 4.2 Support for a Separated Wife during Her Husband’s Life 4.3 Support for a Separated Wife after Her Husband’s Death 4.4 Case Study: The Two “Ladies Powys” 4.5 Conclusions Archival Sources The National Archives, Kew Parliamentary Archives Notes References Chapter 5: Divorce in Early Modern Bilbao 5.1 Divorce Cases in Bilbao 5.2 Witnesses and the Parish Priest 5.3 Types of Marriage 5.4 Matrimonial Property Regime and Marriage Contract 5.5 Families 5.6 The End of the Process 5.7 Conclusions Archival Sources Notes References Chapter 6: Judicial Separation and Its Material Effects in France during the 16th and 17th Centuries 6.1 Forms of Marriage Exchanges and the Judicial Interruption or Transformation of These Exchanges 6.2 Various Ways to Leave One’s Husband or Wife 6.3 The Effects of Separation on the Community of Property and the Dowry 6.4 The Case of the Separation: Pommereu v. Bernard 6.5 The Actors in the Marital Dispute and the Internal and External Context of Their Lineage 6.6 The Actors’ Strategies in Trial Settlements and Social Situations 6.7 Conclusions Archival Sources Notes References Chapter 7: Interwoven Ecclesiastical and Civil Divorce Trials: A Venetian Case Study (1785) 7.1 Exceptional Sources 7.2 A Complex Family and Financial Context: Aristocratic Discipline and Breaking Points 7.3 A Particularly (In)tense Legal Context: Jurisdictionalism v. Curialism 7.4 The Separation Procedure According to the 1782 Decree: Proceedings and Gender 7.5 The Wife’s Strategy: Voice, Virtue, and Wardrobe 7.6 The Husband’s Defense: Paper, Proceedings, and Progeniture 7.7 Conclusions Archival Sources Notes References Chapter 8: Divorce during the Concordat at the Marriage Courts of Prague and Trent (1857–1868) 8.1 The Concordat and Marriage Regulations 8.2 Data from the Archival Collections of Trent and Prague 8.3 Case Studies in Prague and Trent 8.4 1868: The End of the Ecclesiastical Marriage Courts of Trent and Prague? 8.5 Conclusions Archival Sources Notes References Chapter 9: Material Matters: Dissolution of Economic Ties in the Context of Divorces in Rural Lower Austria in the 1920s and 1930s 9.1 Juliane and Josef Grabler (1919–1935) 9.2 Marie and Johann Himmelbauer (1887–1922) 9.3 Barbara and Karl Fischer (1911–1920) 9.4 Katharina and Adolf Gassner (1914–1919) 9.5 Theresia and Martin Wimmer (1934–1937) 9.6 Conclusions Archival Sources Notes References Part II: Divorce with Dissolution of the Marriage Chapter 10: Enduring Animosity: Negotiating Post-Separation Conflicts in the German County of Lippe (17th and 18th Centuries) 10.1 Legal Contexts 10.2 Post-separation Conflicts in the Mirror of Legal Practice: The Case of Anna Dorothea Küster v. Johann Adolf Wippermann (1705–1706) 10.3 Custody of the Children 10.4 Maintenance and Property 10.5 Life after Separation 10.6 Conclusions Archival Sources Notes References Chapter 11: The Indistinct Line between Marriage and Divorce: The Ambiguous Nature of Marital Status in the 17th-Century Ottoman Empire 11.1 Married or Divorced?: Marriage in absentia 11.2 Ambiguity of the Marital Status: Use of Witnesses, Absence of Marriage Contracts 11.3 Ambiguity Due to Conditional Divorce 11.4 Ambiguity of the Divorce Type: Talâk or Hul’ ? 11.5 Conclusions Archival Sources Notes References Chapter 12: The Influence of Islamic Law on Greek Orthodox Divorce under Ottoman Rule 12.1 The Orthodox and Islamic Divorces 12.2 Orthodox Christians in Islamic Courts 12.3 The Orthodox Church Reforms 12.4 Conclusions Notes References Chapter 13: The Economy of Islamic Divorce in Habsburg Bosnia and Herzegovina (1878–1918) 13.1 Islamic Legal Architecture under Habsburg Rule 13.2 Divorce as an Economic Claim 13.3 Disputing Money and Goods 13.4 Regulating Divorce and Poverty 13.5 Enforcing an Economic Regime 13.6 Conclusions Archival Sources Notes References Chapter 14: New Possibilities – New Practices? Divorces of Jewish Couples under the Purview of the Austrian Civil Code in the 19th Century: Provisions, Agreements, and Property Issues 14.1 Legal Provisions 14.2 The Attractiveness of the New Model of a “Divorce from Bed and Board” for Jewish Wives and Husbands 14.3 The Dual Nature of Consensuality within Jewish Marriage Law and the Attempted Practices of Circumvention 14.4 Provisions in Marriage Contracts 14.5 Mutual Negotiation of the Consent to Dissolve Marriages 14.6 Conclusions Archival Sources Notes References Glossary Name Index Subject Index