Dating elizabethan era
07-Apr-2020 14:21
The gentry, finding their coffers depleted, swallowed hard and married American heiresses in order to enrich their great estates.Winston Churchill’s mother was one of these American “buccaneers.” An upper class girl would have to wait for a formal marriage proposal until she came out (families could, however, have plans in the works before then). After that, she could receive proposals of marriage, but again, love wasn’t on top of the list of husbandly requirements.It is foolish to marry someone because of love even if love may occur sometimes in marriage.The matrimony is arranged by families of the bride and the groom in order for the two sides to benefit from one another. Families of landowners were expected to marry just to augment their land possession.Before courtship began, a man had to be very sure he wanted to marry the girl.There was no dating for fun back in the Edwardian era.Once a wife had given birth to the heir and the spare for her husband, she was free to take a lover, perhaps falling in love for the first time.Although taking a lover was accepted, discretion was required.
Her only choices would be to return home or to turn to a life of a dolly mop, the name for a servant turned prostitute.
For those “upstairs,” marriage was more about keeping blood within the aristocracy pure; for the newly wealthy industrialist, a good match gave social climbing parvenus standing within Society.