Wedding Customs and Marriage
Elizibethan Era
Wedding and Marrige Customs
They had to have a marriage contract that started with betrothal. At a betrothal, the two people join hands. He gives her a ring to be worn on the right hand. It changes to the left at the wedding.They seal the contract with a kiss, and signatures.If the husband breaks the marriage contract without good cause, he has to give back any tokens or gifts received.
Elizabethans didnt believe in the sybolizim in a ring. The Elizabethans didn’t believe that a ring was actually that important. Most people didn’t even wear their wedding rings while getting portraits done together. They didn’t believe it was sentimental. Puritans disapprove of them as intolerable Romish superstition.Scottish protestants don't use a ring in their ceremonies, and English Puritans resist it furiously.
Elizabethan women were expected to bring a dowry to the marriage. A dowry was an amount of money, goods, and property that the bride would bring to the marriage. It was also referred to as her marriage portion. After marriage Elizabethan women were expected to run the households and provide children. The law gave a husband full rights over his wife. She effectively became his property.