Description: Traditional marriage was not the only option for couples in medieval Europe. Alternative forms of union could make lives precarious but also provided a degree of flexibility. The study draws on a wide geographical and chronological range of examples in order to illustrate local difference while bringing out broad patterns.
Review Quotes: "Karras challenges the modern notion that "traditional marriage" was the only acceptable sexual relationship between a man and a woman, and the only alternative to a life of solitude in the Middle Ages. . . . An impressive and complex undertaking."-- "Law and History Review"