What was the Elizabethan attitude to marriage?
Elizabethan Marriages and Weddings – Arranged Marriages Just as today a woman’s wedding was one of the most important days of her life. The major difference to Elizabethan wedding customs to a modern day Western marriage is that the woman had very little, if any, choice in who her husband might be. Elizabethan Women were subservient to men. They were dependent on their male relatives to support them. Elizabethan woman were raised to believe that they were inferior to men and that men knew better! Disobedience was seen as a crime against their religion. Marriages were frequently arranged so that both families involved would benefit. Marriages would be arranged to bring prestige or wealth to the family – a surprising fact is that young men were treated in a similar way as to women! Many couples would meet for the very first time on their wedding day! This particular Elizabethan custom usually applied to the nobility but the married or religious life were the only real options for the Eli
