Thanks so much for having me, Maria Grazia! I love
getting to visit with you.
I’m so
excited to share with you and your readers about courtship and marriage in Jane
Austen’s day. Customs have changed so dramatically in
the two centuries since Jane Austen wrote her novels that things which were
obvious to her original readers leave readers today scratching their heads and
missing important implications. It’s amazing how much of Austen’s stories we
miss not understanding the context she wrote it.
One of the most bewildering aspects of
marriage in the regency era was the legal position of women in the era. Single
and widowed women enjoyed very different legal status than married women whose
legal personhood was subsumed into her husbands in a doctrine called coverture..
This excerpt from Courtship and Marriage in
Jane Austen’s World explains more about coverture and what it meant to women.
Married Women's Legal Position in the Regency
In 1765, William Blackstone presented a common man’s language interpretation of English law. He explains the law’s approach to women’s legal existence and rights in marriage which remained largely unchanged until the Married Women’s Property Act of 1884.
Blackstone said: By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law: that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband… and her condition during her marriage is called her coverture.… For this reason, a man cannot grant anything to his wife, or enter into covenant with her: for the grant would be to suppose her separate existence; and to covenant with her, would be only to covenant with himself: … a husband may also bequeath anything to his wife by will; for that cannot take effect till the coverture is determined by his death.… the chief legal effects of marriage during the coverture; upon which we may observe, that even the disabilities which the wife lies under are for the most part intended for her protection and benefit: so great a favourite
