Abstract
This is a study of rich archival material treating marriage in London during the second half of the fifteenth century. It draws most heavily on litigation records of the Consistory, the bishop's highest court in London, but it makes use as well of records from lower church courts and some secular jurisdictions along with testaments kept by various ecclesiastical institutions. Shannon McSheffrey intends the study as an exploration of the way marriage and associated issues surrounding sexuality were related to conceptions of social order in that city. The book's great strength is the material itself. McSheffrey has mined these sources carefully, providing readers detailed accounts of the processes by which marriage took place, the role of family and friends in managing the marriage decision, the ways public authorities (mostly represented by church officials, although joined by city fathers, guilds, and the like) sought to govern marriage, and the issues that threatened the completion of a marriage pact or created tensions among married couples. Armed with this evidence, she is able to add texture to and sometimes to correct existing historiography.
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