What could a married man do? (fwd)

[clevin@ripco.com (Craig Levin)]

Poster: clevin@ripco.com (Craig Levin)

> Poster: Bob & Diana Cosby <cosby@erols.com>
> 
> A question please.  The setting 1290, England.  Can a knight who's wed
> and finds his wife being unfaithful send her away to a nunnary?  If not,
> what actions could he take?  *Note:  The woman in question was the kings
> ward.  Would the knight have to inform the king?  Thank you in advance
> for any assistance.

It was not unheard of for a knight to _kill_ the parties
involved-and to have it ruled justifiable homicide (doc's
available, but you'll have to wait). Since he has married the
woman, he has, canonically speaking, removed her from the royal
tutelage, and, therefore, she is under his tutelage-but I
wouldn't go about killing someone who was important enough to be
a royal ward out of hand (one notes that most people who were in
wardship often found that the throne had given their wardship
over to somebody other than the throne for a bagload of cash-if
you want to know about the economic aspects of wardship and
trading in wardship, let me know). 

One could have the marriage annulled-tough to do if there was no
possible blood connection, but doable for many matches. One could
certainly force the woman to take the veil-this is what happened
to Heloise, for example, despite her (invalid but binding)
marriage to Abelard. 

Pedro
-- 
http://pages.ripco.com:8080/~clevin/index.html 
clevin@ripco.com
Craig Levin
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