Overlooked Husbands: The Paradox of Unfree Marriage in the Carolingian World
Rachel Stone
Abstract Unfree people in the Roman world could not legally marry, while they Middle Ages. This paper explores marriage of unfree Carolingian empire (750–900 CE), a society with an intense moral concern about marriage. churchmen wrote extensively marriage, using strongly gendered discourse focusing on how men should approach and behave as husbands. However, these legal texts rarely discussed even though practice was common. It is argued that this silence reflects persistence late antique class‐based gender models, which masculinity reserved for married property holders. Although prohibitions marriages had ended, moralists continued to be influenced by patristic assumptions were valid relationships. These assumptions, combined Frankish social practices largely excluded from other key male roles, such arms‐bearing, meant husbands conceptualised sufficiently ‘manly’ have their discussed. only tenth century onwards, when images began fragment more along lines status, authors explicitly state Christian ideas applied all, free unfree.
Gender & History