The Early Middle High German term ê (modern German Ehe, “marriage”) meant “law” and referred to the Old Testament. Only after 1000 did the term acquire other meanings, and only since the thirteenth century have those meanings included the political, social, and sexual bond between man and woman. Nevertheless, scholarship on early Germanic law identifies three forms of marriage practiced during the rise and fall of the Frankish empire (ca. 485–ca. 900): Muntehe, Kebsehe, and Friedelehe. Because women were thought to be unable to live independently in the world and thus to require guardianship, a marital union required the transfer of guardianship rights (Latin mundium, hence Muntehe) between a suitor and the woman’s father or other male guardian. This exchange took place in two public transactions: the betrothal, in which the suitor negotiated over the gift, or dower, he would make to the bride’s family (by the twelfth century, the dower is settled on the bride); and the wedding banquet, during which the bride’s kin ceremoniously handed her over to her new husband and then led her in a procession to her new home.

After the marriage was consummated, the groom gave his new wife the Morgengabe (morning gift), an acknowledgment of her legitimacy. Options beyond the Muntehe included the Kebsehe, in which free men could take a concubine from among their servants or slaves, and the Friedelehe, a relationship established on mutual agreement but that involved no exchange of guardianship rights. Historians suggest that couples favored the Friedelehe when a woman’s different social position presented obstacles to her joining the man’s family, and they debate about whether this arrangement offered women a degree of (financial) independence. These three customs were not universal throughout the empire, however, which at its height covered what is now France, Germany, and northern Italy. Indeed, rather than reflecting uniformity, the legal sources reveal the conflicts arising from practices that varied considerably among different social strata and by region.

In the twelfth century, Christian theologians turned their attention to this diversity as part of their efforts after the Gregorian reforms to involve themselves in the lives of the laity. This attention produced the doctrine of Konsensehe, a marriage made valid only if and after both parties consent to it. Hoping this requirement would combat both marriages by abduction and those made purely for political purposes, the church rejected Friedelehe and Kebsehe as forms of concubinage, brought the Muntehe ceremony to the steps of the church, and made marriage into a Christian sacrament.

In defining this new sacrament, theologians debated the relative importance of consent versus sexual consummation. While biblical authorities like Paul claimed that the marriage union both protected individuals from carnal sin and mirrored the mystery of God’s union with humanity, twelfth-century scholars cited Mary and Joseph’s chaste marriage as a model, concluding that consent was the defining essence. With the rise of mendicant piety among men and women in the thirteenth century, this doctrine engendered alternative forms of spiritual marriage: husbands and wives living together in chastity, and women religious becoming the brides of Christ.

Avowing not only the exclusivity of the marriage bond, but also its longevity, the church sought also to discourage polygamy, multiple marriages, and divorce. However, while divorce was forbidden, a marriage could be declared invalid in cases of incest, if one person were already married, if either partner had not consented, if the marriage remained unconsummated because of impotence, or if a Christian had married a Jew or heathen (Jewish marriage laws also forbade such intermarriages). In cases of adultery or other scurrilous crimes, partners could request separations, though men were more successful in such cases than women. Generally, canon law prohibited remarriage as long as the former spouse lived. Given high death rates, however, multiple marriages, especially among the nobility, were common.

In the world of literature, an ideal marriage involved not only consent but also love, particularly in Hartmann von Aue’s Iwein and Erec, and in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival. In Gottfried’s Tristan, however, the deep love felt by Tristan and Isolde occurs outside the arranged and very political marriage between Isolde and King Mark. Marriages “arranged” through deception lead to massive death and ruin in the Nibelungenlied. Divorce or separation is less common in Middle High German literature, although one thinks of Gahmuret, in Parzival, who leaves his first wife, the exotic Belecâne, because she is a heathen.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 
Bouchard, Constance Brittain. “Strong of Body, Brave and Noble:” Chivalry and Society in Medieval France. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1998. 

Brundage, James A. Sex, Law and Marriage in the Middle Ages. Aldershot, Great Britain: Variorum, 1993. 

Bumke, Joachim. Courtly Culture: Literature and Society in the High Middle Ages, trans. Thomas Dunlap. Berkeley: University of California, Press, 1991. 

Duby, Georges. Love and Marriage in the Middle Ages, trans. Jane Dunnett. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1994. 

Elliott, Dyan. Spiritual Marriage: Sexual Abstinence in Medieval Wedlock. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993. 

McNamara, Jo-Ann, and Suzanne F.Wemple. “Marriage and Divorce in the Frankish Kingdom.” In Women in Medieval Society, ed. Susan Mosher Stuard. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1976, pp. 95–124. 

Tallan, Cheryl. “Opportunities for Medieval Northern European Jewish Widows in the Public and Domestic Spheres.” In Upon My Husband’s Death: Widows in the Literature and Histories of Medieval Europe, ed. Louise Mirrer. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992, pp. 115–127.

By Sara S.Poor in “Medieval Germany – An Encyclopedia”,John M. Jeep (editor), Garland Publishing, New York,2001. Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.