\[ **BT: [[marriage laws and customs#trial marriage]] | [[history--Europe#late medieval Scotland]]** ] --- # trial marriages in late medieval Scotland [[According to oral tradition, ‘handfasting’ was a Celtic secular marriage custom that allowed for temporary or trial marriages.]][^1] [[The term ‘handfasting’ can promote confusion because it has also been used to define betrothal; it is likely the two terms were interchangeable.]][^2] [[For clarity, it is better to use ‘trial marriage’ rather than ‘handfasting’ when discussing this type of Celtic secular marriage.]][^3] > [[In late medieval Scotland, the term ‘handfasting‘ was used not only for trial marriages, but to ‘signify agreement to a variety of contracts in early times, much like shaking hands to seal a bargain today.’]][^4] [[Handfasting was an agreement conditional to the fulfillment of specific terms—very likely to do with the production of offspring.]][^5] ## the historicity of handfasting [[Anton, who was highly focused upon analysing ‘the legal basis for trial marriages, particularly with regard to Canon law’, concluded that handfasting probably wasn't historically real.]][^6] [[W. D. H. Sellar theorised handfasting was a historical reality—and that the Gaelic Scots mirrored the marriage customs of the Gaelic Irish.]][^7] [[Trial marriages in medieval Scotland shouldn't be considered within the framework of canon law but, rather, in spite of it.]][^8] [[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.]][^9] [[The Statutes of Iona, signed in 1609, outlawed marriages ‘contracted for certain years and then completely discharged’.]][^10] [[Genealogical accounts of the clans of the Highlands and Islands suggest that trial marriages were fairly common events during medieval times.]][^11] ### customs and norms [[According to the Old Statistical Account of Scotland, the annual Lammas Festival was the loci for trial marriages.]][^12] [[According to Thomas Pennant (1772), unmarried men and women met annually at the Lammas Festival; they would be 'handfasted' for a year and a day in the format a trial marriage.]][^13] [[The custom of trial marriage could contribute to violence with a family, as some men took trial wife after trial wife.]][^14] [[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.’]][^15] ## handfasting in fiction ### Martin Martin’s *A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland* (1703) [[The late 16th-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.]][^16] > [[Martin (1703), writes ‘It was an Ancient Custom in the Island, that a Man should take a Maid to his Wife and keep her the space of a Year without marrying her, and if she pleased him all the while, he married her at the end of the Year …’|‘It was an Ancient Custom in the Island, that a Man should take a Maid to his Wife and keep her the space of a Year without marrying her, and if she pleased him all the while, he married her at the end of the Year, and legitimated these children, but if he did not love Her, he return’d her to her Parents and her Portion also, and if there happened to be any Children, they were kept by the Father, but this unreasonable Custom was long ago brought into disuse.’]][^17] ### Pennant’s *A Tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides* (1772) > [[Per Pennant (1772), ‘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.’]][^18] ### Sir Walter Scott’s *The Monastery* (1860) > [[Per. Scott’s Monastery (1860), ‘We Border-men are more wary than your inland clowns of Fife and Lothian … we take our wives, like our horses, upon trial.’|’We Border-men are more wary than your inland clowns of Fife and Lothian—no jump in the dark for us—no clenching the fetters around our wrists till we know how they will wear with us—we take our wives, like our horses, upon trial. When we are handfasted, as we term it, we are man and wife for a year and day—that space gone by, each may choose another mate, or, at their pleasure, may call the priest to marry them for life—and this we call handfasting.’]][^19] [^1]: Lynda Pinney Domino, ‘[[Domino, ‘He Kept Her The Space of a Year’, 2003|He Kept Her The Space of a Year: Celtic Secular Marriage in Late Medieval Scotland]]’ (Master’s thesis, University of Iowa, 2003), p. 1, <https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/2703c3a5-758e-42d4-b854-bcdc3a8cb0a5/content>. [^2]: Lynda Pinney Domino, ‘[[Domino, ‘He Kept Her The Space of a Year’, 2003|He Kept Her The Space of a Year: Celtic Secular Marriage in Late Medieval Scotland]]’ (Master’s thesis, University of Iowa, 2003), p. 8, <https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/2703c3a5-758e-42d4-b854-bcdc3a8cb0a5/content>. [^3]: Lynda Pinney Domino, ‘[[Domino, ‘He Kept Her The Space of a Year’, 2003|He Kept Her The Space of a Year: Celtic Secular Marriage in Late Medieval Scotland]]’ (Master’s thesis, University of Iowa, 2003), p. 10, <https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/2703c3a5-758e-42d4-b854-bcdc3a8cb0a5/content>. [^4]: Lynda Pinney Domino, ‘[[Domino, ‘He Kept Her The Space of a Year’, 2003|He Kept Her The Space of a Year: Celtic Secular Marriage in Late Medieval Scotland]]’ (Master’s thesis, University of Iowa, 2003), p. 8, <https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/2703c3a5-758e-42d4-b854-bcdc3a8cb0a5/content>. [^5]: Lynda Pinney Domino, ‘[[Domino, ‘He Kept Her The Space of a Year’, 2003|He Kept Her The Space of a Year: Celtic Secular Marriage in Late Medieval Scotland]]’ (Master’s thesis, University of Iowa, 2003), p. 8, <https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/2703c3a5-758e-42d4-b854-bcdc3a8cb0a5/content>. [^6]: Lynda Pinney Domino, ‘[[Domino, ‘He Kept Her The Space of a Year’, 2003|He Kept Her The Space of a Year: Celtic Secular Marriage in Late Medieval Scotland]]’, Master’s thesis (Iowa State University, 2003), pp. 4–5, <https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/2703c3a5-758e-42d4-b854-bcdc3a8cb0a5/content>. [^7]: Lynda Pinney Domino, ‘[[Domino, ‘He Kept Her The Space of a Year’, 2003|He Kept Her The Space of a Year: Celtic Secular Marriage in Late Medieval Scotland]]’, Master’s thesis (Iowa State University, 2003), p. 1, <https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/2703c3a5-758e-42d4-b854-bcdc3a8cb0a5/content>. [^8]: Lynda Pinney Domino, ‘[[Domino, ‘He Kept Her The Space of a Year’, 2003|He Kept Her The Space of a Year: Celtic Secular Marriage in Late Medieval Scotland]]’, Master’s thesis (Iowa State University, 2003), p. 6, <https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/2703c3a5-758e-42d4-b854-bcdc3a8cb0a5/content>. [^9]: Lynda Pinney Domino, ‘[[Domino, ‘He Kept Her The Space of a Year’, 2003|He Kept Her The Space of a Year: Celtic Secular Marriage in Late Medieval Scotland]]’, Master’s thesis (Iowa State University, 2003), p. 6, <https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/2703c3a5-758e-42d4-b854-bcdc3a8cb0a5/content>. [^10]: Lynda Pinney Domino, ‘[[Domino, ‘He Kept Her The Space of a Year’, 2003|He Kept Her The Space of a Year: Celtic Secular Marriage in Late Medieval Scotland]]’, Master’s thesis (Iowa State University, 2003), p. 10, <https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/2703c3a5-758e-42d4-b854-bcdc3a8cb0a5/content>. [^11]: Lynda Pinney Domino, ‘[[Domino, ‘He Kept Her The Space of a Year’, 2003|He Kept Her The Space of a Year: Celtic Secular Marriage in Late Medieval Scotland]]’, Master’s thesis (Iowa State University, 2003), pp. 10–11, 12, <https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/2703c3a5-758e-42d4-b854-bcdc3a8cb0a5/content>. [^12]: Lynda Pinney Domino, ‘[[Domino, ‘He Kept Her The Space of a Year’, 2003|He Kept Her The Space of a Year: Celtic Secular Marriage in Late Medieval Scotland]]’, Master’s thesis (Iowa State University, 2003), p. 28, <https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/2703c3a5-758e-42d4-b854-bcdc3a8cb0a5/content>. [^13]: Lynda Pinney Domino, ‘[[Domino, ‘He Kept Her The Space of a Year’, 2003|He Kept Her The Space of a Year: Celtic Secular Marriage in Late Medieval Scotland]]’, Master’s thesis (Iowa State University, 2003), p. 27, <https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/2703c3a5-758e-42d4-b854-bcdc3a8cb0a5/content>. [^14]: Lynda Pinney Domino, ‘[[Domino, ‘He Kept Her The Space of a Year’, 2003|He Kept Her The Space of a Year: Celtic Secular Marriage in Late Medieval Scotland]]’, Master’s thesis (Iowa State University, 2003), p. 22, <https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/2703c3a5-758e-42d4-b854-bcdc3a8cb0a5/content>. [^15]: Lynda Pinney Domino, ‘[[Domino, ‘He Kept Her The Space of a Year’, 2003|He Kept Her The Space of a Year: Celtic Secular Marriage in Late Medieval Scotland]]’, Master’s thesis (Iowa State University, 2003), p. 13, <https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/2703c3a5-758e-42d4-b854-bcdc3a8cb0a5/content>. [^16]: Lynda Pinney Domino, ‘[[Domino, ‘He Kept Her The Space of a Year’, 2003|He Kept Her The Space of a Year: Celtic Secular Marriage in Late Medieval Scotland]]’, Master’s thesis (Iowa State University, 2003), p. 2, <https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/2703c3a5-758e-42d4-b854-bcdc3a8cb0a5/content>. [^17]: Martin Martin, *[[Martin, Description of the Western Islands of Scotland, 1703|A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland: Containing a Full Account of Their Situation, Extent, Soils, Products, Harbours, Bays, … With a New Map of the Whole, … To Which Is Added a Brief Description of the Isles of Orkney, and Schetland]]* (Andrew Bell, 1703), p. 114. Google Books, https://books.google.com.au/books?id=jndbAAAAQAAJ&pg. [^18]: Lynda Pinney Domino, ‘[[Domino, ‘He Kept Her The Space of a Year’, 2003|He Kept Her The Space of a Year: Celtic Secular Marriage in Late Medieval Scotland]]’, Master’s thesis (Iowa State University, 2003), p. 27, <https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/2703c3a5-758e-42d4-b854-bcdc3a8cb0a5/content>. [^19]: Sir Walter Scott, *[[Scott, The Monastery–II, 1860|The Monastery–II]]* (Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1860), p. 112. Internet Archive, https://archive.org/embed/bub_gb_J8VajEBDVzkC.