The making of marriage in fifteenth-century Valencia: canon law, civil law and community opinion

Abstract

This chapter gives a brief history of the city from its conquest from the Muslims in 1238 to its rapid rise as the centre of the Crown of Aragon, the wider polity of which it was a part. It then turns to consider the experiences of immigrants who moved to Valencia during the fifteenth century, exploring the various opportunities available to them and why women, in particular, came from other parts of the kingdom of Valencia, Castile, Aragon and Catalonia. The second part of this chapter sets the theoretical framework for marriage in late medieval Valencia by considering what made marriages valid in the eyes of the canon law, civil law and community opinion. It explores canonical legal strictures regarding marriage in the medieval period and then more specifically looks at synodal legislation. The next section of this chapter focuses on the civil marriage contract and examines the secular legal precepts that governed marital property. Lastly, this chapter analyses the social definitions of a marital union using witness testimony from dowry restitution cases. These criteria both complemented and differed from those defined by canon and secular laws.