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1st Answer:
No.
2nd Answer:
There was no restriction in law, secular or religious, except for extraordinary circumstances. I cannot think of a case of a peasant who married an important member of the nobility, but I can think of other commoners who did.
Emperor Justinian I of the Byzantine Empire was already a very important man when he married Theodora. She was an actress, and is said to have been raised in a brothel and to have been involved in pornographic productions on stage. She was not a peasant, but socially a lot of people would have put her at a level below that of a peasant.
Owen Tudor was not a member of the nobility when he became steward to Queen Catherine of Valois, who was the widow of King Henry V and the mother of King Henry VI. They married illegally, because it was illegal for the mother of a minor king to marry without permission of parliament, but no one seems to have cared much. The law was intended to prevent a powerful faction from gaining power over a young king, and Owen Tudor had no power to worry about. They had several children together, and two were given titles by Henry VI. One of these was the Earl of Richmond, and was the father of a son named Henry, who became King Henry VII.
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Was there class mobility during the middle ages?
1st AnswerThere was limited class mobility during the Middle Ages. People did move from one class to another, but aside from serfs being liberated from their bondage to the land, it did not happen often. Serfs could be freed by running off the manor, and if they did not return within a year, they were regarded as free, effectively putting them into the middle class. The Church provided another avenue for advancement, as a bright young man could be educated by the Church, become a priest, and advance to being a bishop or even a pope. For example, Pope Leo III, who crowned Charlemagne as emperor, was the son of a farmer. Such advancement meant that other members of the family could profit from any connections that were formed.Upward mobility could also be achieved in other ways, such as through connections with members of the nobility. An excellent example of this is the case of Owen Tudor, who was a Welsh commoner with some connections to Welsh nobility. He was an educated man who took a position as the steward for the widow of King Henry V of England after she was widowed. They married, which was technically illegal, but they got away with it, and they had several children. The children were half siblings of King Henry VI, and so two of them were elevated to the nobility. One of these, Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond, had a son, Henry Tudor, who became King Henry VII of England in a compromise at the end of the War of the Roses. So the family went from commoners to nobility in one generation, and from nobility to royalty in the next.There are links below to articles on Owen Tudor and the Tudor Dynasty.2nd AnswerPerhaps, but not very common, if you joined the clergy as a priest or friar than essientially you can be moved up from a peasant or merchants, also some merchants and peasants joined the military and some time were able to own land or manors, it can possibly work the opposite as well, someone could be banished from court or excommunicated from the church which would move them down in rank, a woman can marry into a higher class, and could also marry into a lower class but was rare because women came with a dowery (money, estate, etc.,) from there father and would rarely be approved to marry below class, and a man could not marry into a higher class, but like I said, its all rare, and commonly doesn't happen
Could patricians and plebeians marry?
Yes and no. At first the two classes could intermarry, then a law was passed forbidding marriage between them. The laws was then changed again allowing intermarriage. By the mid to late republic both classes were the nobility so intermarriage was common.
Why were medieval women expected to bring a dowry into a marriage?
Most medieval women wanted to marry, and a dowry made a woman more attractive. Even the serf women had dowries, which were their hope chests and the money they could save as they waited to marry. The time that was used saving was often several years, and was one of the reasons why medieval peasant women tended to marry rather late, in their mid twenties. The benefit of the dowry was to the couple, and the dowry often included things that were mostly of interest to women; in later times this might have included table linen, curtains, china, and tableware. Peasant men brought to their marriage a proven ability to provide for a family, and this also meant they had to put off marriage to about the same age, mid twenties.
What is the origin of the surname Clarke?
The surname Clarke is an Irish occupational name for a scribe or secretary, originally a member of a minor religious order. Derived from the word clerc which signified a member of a religious order. In medieval Christian Europe, clergy in minor orders were permitted to marry and have families. In the Middle Ages it was virtually only members of religious orders who learned to read and write.
When did grace kelly marry prince ranier?
monaco in 1956
