[ **up: [[Trial marriage]]** ] --- # Handfasting (Celtic trial marriage) [[Per oral tradition, 'handfasting' was a Celtic secular marriage custom allowing for temporary or trial marriages.]] [[Handfasting was an agreement probably conditional to the fulfillment of specific terms, very likely to have been concerned with the production of offspring.]] [[For clarity, it is better to use 'trial marriage' rather than 'handfasting' when discussing this type of Celtic secular marriage.]] [[The term 'handfasting' can promote confusion because it has also been used to define betrothal; it is likely the two terms were interchangeable.]] [[“The term ‘handfasting’ was also used to signify agreement to a variety of contracts in early times, much like shaking hands to seal a bargain today.”]] --- ## Handfasting studies [[In 2023, only two modern studies specifically sought to determine whether trial marriages had actually existed in Scotland.]] [[Alexander E. Anton, when analysing the concept of historical handfasting, concluded it did not exist; he was particularly focused on its legal basis and Canon law.]] [[W.D.H. Sellar advances the theory that handfasting did exist - and that Gaelic Scots mirrored the marriage customs of the Gaelic Irish.]] [[Domino. ‘He kept her the space of a year_ Celtic secular marriage in Late Medieval Scotland’, 2003.]] [[Trial marriages in medieval Scotland shouldn't be considered within the framework of canon law but, rather, in spite of it.]] [[Medieval Scots laws stating a women may not inherit her husband's property unless the union has lasted for more than a year and a day may reflect trial marriages.]] [[The custom of trial marriage could contribute to great violence with a family, as some men took trial wife after trial wife.]] --- ## Handfasting in literature (Scotland) [[2024-0730. In 'The Monastery', by Sir Walter Scott, a character explains 'we take our wives, like our horses, upon trial ... for a year and a day ...']] [[The late 17th-century author, Martin Martin, described a custom of 'marrying for a year' that was practiced in earlier times by the inhabitants of the Scottish Isles.]] [[2024-0731. Martin Martin writes, of handfasting, 'It was an Ancient Custom of the island, that a Man should take a Maid to his Wife and keep her the space of a Year without marrying her ...']] [[Genealogical accounts of the clans of the Highlands and Islands suggest that trial marriages were fairly common events during medieval times.]] [[2024-0731. Erskine Beveridge states that trial marriages might last 'twelve months and a day', with the birth of a child as a condition for continuation of marriage.]] [[Pennant, in 1772, wrote 'Unmarried men and women met each year at the Lammas Festival, at which time they selected a partner with whom they 'handfasted' themselves until the next Lammas festival, a year and a day later.']] --- ## Handfasting in law (Scotland) [[Trial marriages in medieval Scotland shouldn't be considered within the framework of canon law but, rather, in spite of it.]] [[The Statutes of Iona, signed in 1609, outlawed marriages 'contracted for certain years and then completely discharged'.]] [[According to Skene, although the offspring of Celtic secular marriages were considered legitimate by the Highlanders, they were often looked upon as bastards by the government and therefore, unable to succeed.]] [[Medieval Scots laws stating a women may not inherit her husband's property unless the union has lasted for more than a year and a day may reflect trial marriages.]]