Luther knew his enemies would be especially vicious if he took a wife and would question the validity of his marriage. Luther had so many enemies who not only wanted him dead but who spread malicious rumors about him and undermined everything he did. However, Luther and his advisors likely came to the conclusion that witnesses were essential. Katharina was of the noble class, but Luther was not, so one would assume that such a practice wouldn’t be necessary for them. They weren’t even wealthy.ĭuring my research, I learned that the practice of witnessing consummation of marriage was practiced in the German culture, particularly among nobility. Why, then, you might be asking, did Martin Luther and Katharina von Bora need to have their consummation witnessed? They weren’t royal. If the bride became pregnant on the wedding night, the witnesses also helped to defend the legitimacy of the heir. Thus witnesses could testify to the validity of the marriage, especially if anyone later questioned it. Without consummation, the marriage could later be declared null and the couple could be granted an annulment. In such cases it was important that the marital act signal an unbreakable union. The practice of having witnesses applied primarily to royalty or important people who used marriages to form alliances and strategic advantages in wealth and power. It was common for families and friends to bring the couple to their bed as a way of endorsing the couple’s marriage (even when they didn’t stay to witness the consummation). In general, the act of bedding on the wedding night was not considered a private affair, but rather a public investment in a couple. Therefore most people were unabashed or unembarrassed by something considered natural and good between a husband and wife. Poor married couples very rarely had their own bedrooms, and wealthy couples had servants coming and going from their chambers (often sleeping on pallets on the floor). Privacy was not as common as it is today. While we can’t fathom a new bride and groom agreeing to having company on their wedding night, people during the Middle Ages wouldn’t have found the practice all that strange. While the writers of the show have taken great liberty with the facts in order to make a riveting plot, they did depict the witnessing of the wedding night consummation between Queen Mary and Francis, the Dauphin of France. In fact, just this week I was watching the show Reign (on Netflix) which is about Mary Queen of Scots. But having witnesses at the marriage bed to make sure the marriage was consummated was indeed practiced during the Middle Ages. The practice seems very strange to modern readers. And if it is, why in the world would anyone do it? That’s so strange! I can hear you saying: Ick! You’ve got to be kidding, right? That can’t be true. Witnessing of a marriage consummation? What is that? Essentially the newly married couple had sex in the presence of witnesses, usually with the bed curtains closed and the observers discreetly waiting on the outer fringes of the room. Reviews are pouring in and invariably readers are commenting on the strangeness of one particular tradition in the book: the witnessing of the betrothal night consummation. My new historical, Luther and Katharina has released.
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