Danny Wander

In Medieval Western Europe, later marriage and higher rates of definitive celibacy (the so-called "European marriage pattern") helped to constrain patriarchy at its most extreme degree. One of the features of churches from the Middle Ages was to register marriages, which was optional. There was no state involvement in marriage and private standing, with these issues being adjudicated in ecclesiastical courts. During the Middle Ages marriages were organized, sometimes as early as birth, and these early pledges to marry had been typically used to make sure treaties between different royal families, nobles, and heirs of fiefdoms.