MARRIAGE, PEACE, AND ENMITY IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY

To claim that marriages at the upper levels of premodern societies were arranged for purposes of diplomacy, peacemaking, and economic gain may appear so obvious that it hardly needs stating. Nonetheless, the value of marriage as a tool of policy merits further examination. Several earlier items in the current symposium have referred, in passing, to the institution of dynastic marriage as a fundamental resource of peacemakers both in the premodern West and in the non-Western world.1 The assumption appears to be that uniting representatives from two warring parties in a powerfully symbolic bond could be enough to overcome earlier hatreds or at least to represent and embody a peace agreement already reached. The realities of dynastic marriage in premodern Europe, however, were rather complicated. My aim here is simply to point out that we cannot assume uniformly positive ambitions among those negotiating marital alliances, let alone uniformly positive outcomes, even while I wish to reinforce the view that the personal and family connections encapsulated by individual marriages could serve as guarantors of peace in certain circumstances. 1. James C. Scott, quoted in Jeffrey M. Perl, "Introduction: The Undivided Big Banana," 20, no. 3 (2014): 415, and Perl, "Introduction: Greco-Latin Findings," 21, no. 1 (2015): 11. 22:2 DOI 10.1215/0961754X-3464935 © 2016 by Duke University Press Published by Duke University Press Nowhere is the topic more relevant than in the twelfth-century European context. During this period, the rules of Christian marriage and their practical application in secular society were in flux, with an assertive papacy demanding the right to impose its vision of appropriate marital practices onto aristocratic families. In particular, a severe restriction on endogamous unions--those within seven degrees of relationship--remained in place until relaxed by Innocent III at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. So impractical was this...