At the beginning of modernity, and after the Council of Trent (1545-1563), the Church considered that Catholic marriages were based on the freedom of choice of the contracting parties. In effect, the marriage union was to be ratified by the man and the woman without coercion and under their own motivation. However, acceptance could be, and often was, conditioned by the family environment. The promulgation of the canon law of freedom of marriage was accompanied by legal remedies which, under ecclesiastical protection, made it possible for a woman engaged to a man to run away from home in order to marry against the wishes of her parents: this was “kidnapping”. This resource was used in Spain to extract the bride and groom safely. For this purpose, while waiting for the union under the altar, the woman was taken to another place for the protection of her decision. The resource shows the encomiendas of women “abducted”, or manifested by word of marriage, in the Diocese of Saragossa between 1700 and 1810. The main place to which they turned was to households of equal honour and social status to the abductee’s natural family (61% of cases); followed by the protection of local authorities (26%), religious institutions or the home of “honourable widows” (3% in both cases), or other relatives (3%). what did the parents do about the abduction? Of the 233 cases analysed, 3% were resolved by forced return to the parental home, 2% by infra-judicial arrangements and a remarkable 95% by marriage consolidation of the abducted maiden.

Collection: Graphics

Project: 4. Family, daily life and social inequality in Europe., 8. Women and the change for gender equality in Europe.

Chronology: XVIII, XIX

Scope: Secondary Education, Baccalaureate, University

Link: https://revistas.usal.es/index.php/Studia_Historica/article/view/shhmo2016381155192/14890

Resource type: Graph

Format: Pie chart

Source: Baldellou, D. (2016). "Transgresión y legalidad en el cortejo del siglo XVIII: el secuestro de mujeres en la Diócesis de Zaragoza", en Studia Historica, vol. 38, nº 1, p. 178.

Language: Spanish

Date: 2016

Owner: Pablo Ballesta Fernández (Modernalia)

Copyright: ©Studia Historica ©Daniel Baldellou

Abstract: Graph showing the custody fate of women "abducted" as a legal formula for marriage against the will of the parents

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