This paper analyses the factors of widowhood and remarriage amongst noble women in medieval Sweden. During the Middle Ages, marriages were often terminated prematurely due to the death of a spouse and remarriage was common. Factors such as the duration of the first marriage as well as the occurrence of ...
(Show more)This paper analyses the factors of widowhood and remarriage amongst noble women in medieval Sweden. During the Middle Ages, marriages were often terminated prematurely due to the death of a spouse and remarriage was common. Factors such as the duration of the first marriage as well as the occurrence of children and social status, influenced the widow’s opportunity to remarry. These factors and how they relate will be discussed.
Furthermore, changes in the remarriage pattern during the investigated period, from the late thirteenth century to the beginning of the sixteenth century, is visible. The paper will briefly discuss the possibilities, and the difficulties, in turning the information from genealogical tables for nearly one hundred medieval noble families into a statistically usable demographic material.
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