Gender and Divorce in Europe: 1600 – 1900: A Praxeological Perspective
Edited by Andrea Griesebner and Evdoxios Doxiadis. Routledge 2023.

Preview

Vor einer Woche haben wir den Launch des Webportals sowie die Erscheinung des 26. Jahrgangs der Frühneuzeit-Info zum Thema „streitpaar – Verfahren in Ehesachen“ gebührend gefeiert. Ein kurzer Rückblick mit Bildern…

Andrea Griesebner und Georg Tschannett eröffneten die Veranstaltung mit einen paar Worten über die Ziele und ersten Ergebnisse des vom Wissenschaftsfonds zwischen 2011 und 2015 finanzierten Forschungsprojekts. Ganz besonders gefreut haben wir uns über die Zusage der renommierten österreichischen Scheidungsanwältin Helene Klaar, als Gastrednerin aufzutreten. Sie berichtete in ihren Ausführungen von ihrer langjährigen Erfahrung als Anwältin und Feministin.

Musikalisch begleiteten Susanna Ridler und Sophie Hassfurther die Veranstaltung. Dabei griffen Sie unter anderem einen Eheratgeber aus dem Jahr 1805 auf.

Vor kurzem ist die aktuelle Ausgabe der Frühneuzeit-Info zum Thema streitpaar – Verfahren in Ehesachen erschienen. Am 10. Dezember 2015 findet die Präsentation des Hefts sowie des Webportals des vom österreichischen Wissenschaftsfonds geförderten Forschungsprojekts Ehen vor Gericht statt. Details zum Programm finden Sie hier.

Webportal „Ehen vor Gericht“

Die Vorbereitungen für das neue Webportal laufen auf Hochtouren. Die neue Webseite wird die rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen ebenso wie die überlieferten Quellen und die Vorgangsweise bei der Quellenerhebung skizzieren. In die Webseite eingebunden wurde darüber hinaus eine Onlinedatenbank, in der sich Informationen zu über 2.100 Ehepaaren aus dem Zeitraum zwischen der Mitte des 16. und der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts befinden. Wie bisher, wird das Webportal auch einen Blog umfassen, der regelmäßig aktuelle Informationen und Ankündigungen veröffentlichen wird.

Frühneuzeit-Info 26/2015

Der thematische Schwerpunkt der aktuellen Ausgabe versammelt die Beiträge der im September 2014 in Wien abgehaltenen Abschlusstagung des genannten Forschungsprojekts. Der zeitliche Rahmen des Heftes reicht vom Spätmittelalter bis ins ausgehende 19. Jahrhundert. Die Zusammenschau der einzelnen Beiträge ermöglicht den Vergleich kirchlicher und weltlicher Eheverfahren sowie das In-Bezug-Setzen der Gerichtspraxis unterschiedlicher Regionen bzw. Rechtsgebiete und Konfessionen. Einen Schwerpunkt bilden die vielfältigen, oft komplex ineinander verstrickten Eheverfahren und die von den Streitparteien (bzw. deren Anwälten) vorgebrachten Konfliktfelder. Der obrigkeitliche Umgang mit „eigenmächtigen Trennungen“ und „bigamen“ Ehen sowie die Regelung der Scheidungsfolgen bilden einen weiteren Schwerpunkt des Heftes. Thematisiert werden darüber hinaus auch Verfahren, in welchen der Status von Eheverlöbnissen zur Diskussion stand.

Die Beiträge verdeutlichen, dass neben soziokulturellen Kategorien wie Geschlecht, Alter, sozialer Stand und dem Besitz von ökonomischem und sozialem Kapital vor allem auch das jeweils gültige Ehegüter-, Erb- und Obsorgerecht erheblichen Einfluss darauf hatte, ob eine Scheidung bzw. Trennung von Tisch und Bett eine lebbare Option darstellte. Methodisch verbindet die einzelnen Beiträge zudem die Herangehensweise, Mikro- und Makrobene nicht als Gegensätze zu betrachten. Sichtbar werden so Kontinuitäten und Diskontinuitäten des kanonischen und weltlichen Eherechts ebenso wie Feinheiten in den Argumentationsstrategien der Streitparteien.

Zum Inhaltsverzeichnis
Zu den Abstracts

streitpaar – Verfahren in Ehesachen
Frühneuzeit-Info 26 (2015)
Erscheinungsdatum: November 2015
Bestellungen werden gerne entgegengenommen: Bestellschein

Der sechste und letzte Teil der Vorschau stellt die Beiträge von Katrin Gäde und Ulrike Bohse-Jaspersen vor:

Umstrittenes Eherecht
Handlungsstrategien und Aushandlungsprozesse in Ehescheidungsverfahren
adliger Paare vom 18. bis zum 19. Jahrhundert
Katrin Gäde
(in German language)

Scandals, affairs and conflicts at noble courts have given rise to gossip ever since. Furthermore they were events of great interest for the public. At the same time divorce and legal separation were no uncommon phenomenons among the nobility in the modern era. Against that background the present article examines separations and divorces of aristocratic couples from the 17th to the 19th century in Central Germany. This involves both - on a judical level - the manifestation of the Protestant matrimonial law and on an actor-centred level – the people concerned, their strategies for action and related to that, the construction of social practice.
By the example of interchurch-couples and their path through several bureaucratic procedures and lengthy negotiations about the further course of action and judicial responsibilities an attempt is made to visualize this aforementioned construction process. The appraisal of negotiations about jurisdictions in matrimonial matters allows the conclusion that individual rights and scopes of action were in need to be negotiated primarily in case of clashing legal standards and conceptions. In studying failed aristocratic marriages it is not only possible to get a deeper insight into gender relations but also to visualize actions and scopes of action as well as conflict settlement of the aristocratic world in modern Europe.

Martina Vilvado y Balverde gegen Antonio Yta
Eine Klage auf Eheannullierung in Sucre aus 1803:
Männlichkeitsentwürfe im spätkolonialen Bolivien
Ulrike Bohse-Jaspersen
(in German language)

This paper describes a marriage annulment proceeding in the town of La Plata, today Sucre, constitutional capital of present-day Bolivia, in 1803. 22-year-old Doña Martina Vilvado y Balverde proceeds a claim before the Court of Appeal of La Plata, setting out that her husband, 32-year-old Spaniard Don Antonio Yta was in fact a woman who deceived her in order to marry and live as her husband with the blessing of the church. The article examines the argumentative strategies of the spouses, the members of the tribunal and other parties to the proceedings.
The case is part of a compilation of marriage proceedings and other court sources, which are analyzed in the context of a dissertation in terms of concepts of masculinity in late colonial Bolivia (Provincia de Charcas) from 1750 to 1825. After an introduction to the historical context and an explanation of the legal framework, the course of the proceedings is described in chronological order until the end of the trial. The paper shows in which way the powers of the secular and ecclesiastical jurisdiction overlap. Given the complexity of the facts both jurisdictions try to avoid clear statements, although it can be demonstrated that there were different legal possibilities to reach a verdict.  The argumentation tries to make clear that the scientific approach to the case must consider the diversity in gender so it needs more than an analysis of socially constructed gender and the historical-cultural aspects.

streitpaar – Verfahren in Ehesachen
Frühneuzeit-Info 26 (2015)
Erscheinungsdatum: November 2015
Bestellungen werden gerne entgegengenommen: Bestellschein

Teil 5 der Vorschau gibt einen Einblick in die Beiträge von Georg Tschannett und Zuzana Pavelkova Čevelová:

Unterhaltsstreitigkeiten und deren Regelungen vor dem Wiener Scheidungsgericht
im ausgehenden 18. und in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts
Georg Tschannett
(in German language)

In October 1848 Heinrich Georg Bayer initiated a matrimonial suit against his affluent wife, in order to claim maintenance from her. This case constitutes a rather unusual action in the Viennese divorce court from the end of the 18th to the mid-19th century, in its attempts to reverse the gender-specific allotment of conjugal duties and rights in general, and the statutory maintenance obligation of the husband in particular. The article will consider the relationship between spousal duties and rights and marital gender relations. In this context, marriage will be interpreted as a legal institution as well as a social relationship. The piece also aims to examine the practices of the Viennese divorce court in relation to maintenance proceedings, addressing the arguments that spouses used to win or to defend an action for maintenance. Perhaps most significantly, it will analyse in detail the negotiating positions that husbands and wives adopted in divorce settlements, and upon which they relied to secure the terms of their divorce.

Ehestreitigkeiten vor dem erzbischöflichen Gericht in Prag in den 1860er-Jahren
Zuzana Pavelkova Čevelová
(in German language)

The paper deals with marriage conflicts in the long 19th century in Bohemia. The first part concerns with the development of contemporary Czech historiography. The second part specifies an arrangement of archiepiscopal sources in Prague which are deposited in the National archive in Prague. The third part of the paper reconstructs the history of a married couple named Houška, who in 1857 fought for annulment of marriage in court. The reason that was put forward by the husband was health problems of his wife. Marriage had been neither nullified nor divorced. The micro historical approach gives an interesting illustration of social life in 19th century, contact of country and the city, expansion of medical science into common people life and the continuing power of the Catholic Church. The aim of the paper is to explain everyday live marriage in 19th century in the Bohemia countryside.

streitpaar – Verfahren in Ehesachen
Frühneuzeit-Info 26 (2015)
Erscheinungsdatum: November 2015
Bestellungen werden gerne entgegengenommen: Bestellschein

In Teil 4 der Vorschau werden der Beitrag von Claire Chatelain und eine Koproduktion von Margareth Lanzinger, Ellinor Forster, Janine Maegraith, Siglinde Clementi und Christian Hagen vorgestellt:

Ein adeliges Beamtenpaar vor Gericht
Der Einsatz von Kapitalsorten im Eheverfahren zur Trennung von Tisch und Bett am Ende der Regierungszeit von Ludwig XIV. 
Claire Chatelain
(in German language)

This paper presents a case study, focused on a trial of separation from bed and goods which occurred between a great magistrate and his wife (who came from a financial officer’s family), at the end of the Louis XIV reign. An exceptional documentation (based on summations and other sources, as notarial acts or courts sentences) allowed giving a micro analysis of this historical trial, led in front of the most important court of justice of the French kingdom, theParlement de Paris, which was a secular one. What were the economic grounds of this marital separation? How the procedural followings which lasted five years were shaped? What were the consequences on the couple and their children? This research is interested in the French Old Régime mechanisms of judicial ways to break on kinship relationships especially those in the siblings. It leads to a comparative history in this field.

Konfliktpotenzial und Streitgegenstände im Kontext ehelicher Vermögensregime
Margareth Lanzinger/Ellinor Forster/Janine Maegraith/
Siglinde Clementi/Christian Hagen
(in German language)

In early modern times, property and wealth constituted an area with considerable potential for conflict. The initial thesis of this paper is that the causes of discord and dispute depended decisively on the respective marital property and inheritance systems. Because this could give rise to competing interests in different constellations and situations: between siblings, in-laws, parents, step-parents, other relatives or guardians, and not least within marital context. One setting potentially prone to conflict was the end of a marriage. Previously, implications and consequences of widowhood and divorce or legal separation of bed and board were regarded separately. However, the aim of this paper is to bring post-marital property arrangements and stipulations regarding widowhood together with findings on marital conflicts and separations. The question is to what extent property related subjects of dispute differed depending on whether a marriage terminated because of the death of either husband or wife, or because of divorce or legal separation. Property brought in by brides, questions of livelihood, and post-marital presence in the husband’s family home have all proven to be relevant aspects in both contexts. The study is situated in late medieval and early modern rural and urban areas of southern Tirol and is based on cases from the court books (“Verfachbücher”) and charters for several communities, noble family archives, as well as the consistorial records in the Diocesan archive in Brixen.

streitpaar – Verfahren in Ehesachen
Frühneuzeit-Info 26 (2015)
Erscheinungsdatum: November 2015
Bestellungen werden gerne entgegengenommen: Bestellschein

Teil 3 der Vorschau präsentiert die Beiträge von Andrea Griesebner und Susanne Hehenberger:

Ausweg und Sackgasse zugleich
Eheverfahren vor katholischen Konsistorien von der Mitte
des 16. bis ins ausgehende 18. Jahrhundert
Andrea Griesebner
(in German language)

Following a brief explanation of canon law the first section provides an outline of the sources for marriage litigations in the archduchy Austria below the Enns. It will highlight the possibilities and limitations the protocols of the consistories offer. The second section provides insights into the variety of marriage litigations made possible at early modern ecclesiastical courts, as well as quantitative trends. Based on a case study the third section provides deepened insight into the various contexts motivating women and men to sue their spouse. Between 1765 and 1781 Magdalena Pürckin and Peter Pürck conducted 13 proceedings, some initiated by the wife, some by the husband. The analytical focus is directed to the particular interest of the plaintiff and the defendant respectively as well as their discursive strategies to get a verdict in his or her own favor. The summary argues that the catholic marriage politics generates the various proceedings the ecclesiastical courts are dealing with. Nevertheless the persistence Peter Pürck in suing his wife for cohabitation and Magdalena Pürckin’s resistance is exceptional.
The article is based on long standing research on churchly marriage jurisdiction in the archduchy Austria below the Enns, financed by the Austria Research Fund and backed by the University of Vienna between October 2011 and October 2015.

Das fehlende fleischliche Band
Sexuelles Unvermögen als Scheidungsargument vor dem Passauer und
Wiener Konsistorium (1560–1783) 
Susanne Hehenberger
(in German language)

Many Catholic spouses filed for divorce or separation by bed and board in the early modern period. Only a few of them argued that their inability to execute the marital duty was the main cause. In this article, I focus on a small sample of 51 couples who used the argument of male or female impotence in the course of marriage litigations in the consistories in Vienna. After exploring the meaning of impotence and divortium in these sources, the article analyses the different interests of claimants (e.g. escape from an unhappy union or the desire for a new marriage) as well as the response of defendants to these allegations (denial, confession, counter-claim or negotiation). As canon law allowed the annulment of marriages only in cases of premarital, enduring and incurable impotence, consistories had to search for clear evidence before they rendered judgement. The appellate court – the nunciature in Vienna –then had to confirm the annulment before it would become effective. In theory, the evidence of one spouse confirmed by an oath cum septima manu (testimony of seven reliable men or women) would suffice as proof. In early modern practice, either the litigant or the consistory often demanded additional medical evidence, which was regularly provided by the medical faculty of the university in Vienna. In cases of female impotence, however, midwives were consulted. Even if evidence seemed clear and the carnal bond was missing, it became increasingly difficult to enforce a divortium quoad vinculum from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. This situation was exacerbated after Pope Benedict XIV created the position of defensor matrimonii in November 1741, a figure who acted ex officio to protect marriage in the first instance.

streitpaar – Verfahren in Ehesachen
Frühneuzeit-Info 26 (2015)
Erscheinungsdatum: November 2015
Bestellungen werden gerne entgegengenommen: Bestellschein

Teil 2 der Vorschau stellt die Beiträge von Johann Weißensteiner und Iris Fleßenkämper vor:

Böswilliges Verlassen und „tolerierte“ Partnerschaften im katholischen Bereich
Die Entscheidungspraxis des Passauer Offizialates in Wien von 1558 bis 1592
Johann Weißensteiner
(in German language)

In examining the records of marriage litigation at the consistory of the diocese of Passau in Vienna (established in the 14th century for the parts of the diocese Passau situated in the archduchy of Lower Austria) for the period 1558–1592 the author made the observation, that there was a lot of cases, in which abandoned spouses, whose mates had disappeared without their knowledge and consent, and lived since some years together with a new partner, asked for permission to remarry. Although they got not the license for a second marriage, their new partnership was tolerated. Such couples usually got a certificate by the consistory about this toleration and were also permitted to receive the eucharist in the churches. This practice, which was also common in the dioceses of Freising and Regensburg and in other parts of Europe, lasted till 1579. On 12 October of this year two prominent Jesuit fathers forced the consistory of the diocese of Passau in Vienna to stop this practice. The decision can be seen as an act of “social disciplining” by which the Catholics enforced their particular rules for all aspects of life and so also in the field of family life. Indeed the appointment of the later cardinal and bishop of Vienna Melchior Klesl as official of the diocese of Passau in Vienna was the startup of the Counter Reformation in the Habsburg countries. Thus since 1580 catholic spouses, who were separated from their former mates, did no more get a license to live in a new partnership unless they could proof the natural death of their former husband or wife. At the same time in protestant villages in Lower Austria some landlords in similar cases divorced the first marriage and permitted the abandoned part to remarry.

Wann ist mein Mann mein Mann?
Zur Gültigkeit von Eheschließungen in der protestantischen
Grafschaft Lippe im 17. Jahrhundert
Iris Fleßenkämper
(in German language)

The legal and social conceptions of marriage profoundly changed within the course of the German Reformation. In denying the sacramentality of marriage, Luther and his followers re-interpreted marriage, family, and sexuality as genuinely worldly affairs and attached them to the realm of the earthly kingdom. The Lutheran reforms of marriage resulted from the need to overcome fundamental contradictions of Canon law with regard to the legitimacy of clandestine marriage formations. In this paper I will ask for the influence Protestant marriage reforms had on the culture of norms and jurisdiction in the Protestant County of Lippe, Germany, and I will explore the roles and functions of the clergy in implementing these reforms. Various marriage-related cases brought before the local consistory court show that the new regulations concerning marriage formation were neither thoroughly enforced by court nor observed by the subjects. Following the legal practice of former episcopal marriage courts, the consistory of Lippe still adhered to principles and concepts of common law that had already been prevalent in medieval times.

streitpaar – Verfahren in Ehesachen
Frühneuzeit-Info 26 (2015)
Erscheinungsdatum: November 2015

Die diesjährige Ausgabe der Frühneuzeit-Info widmet sich dem Themenschwerpunkt Ehekonflikte und richtet den Fokus auf die vielfältigen, oft komplex ineinander verstrickten Gerichtsverfahren vor kirchlichen und weltlichen Ehegerichten sowie die darin von den Streitparteien (respektive deren Anwälten) vorgebrachten Konfliktfelder. Der obrigkeitliche Umgang mit „eigenmächtigen Trennungen“ und bigamen Verbindungen sowie die Frage nach den Trennungs- bzw. Scheidungsfolgen bilden weitere Schwerpunkte des Heftes.

Die Zeitschrift wird in wenigen Wochen erscheinen. Bis dahin wollen wir interessierten Lesern und Leserinnen wöchentlich zwei der insgesamt zwölf Beiträge vorstellen. Den Anfang machen Bronach Kane und Duane Henderson mit je einem Beitrag zum Spätmittelalter:

Courtship, Childbearing & Gender in Late Medieval England
Bronach Kane
(in English language)

Existing studies of premarital pregnancy in late medieval English society have focused on manorial fines imposed on sex and childbearing before marriage, as well as the Church’s attempts to channel sexual activity into the bonds of matrimony. This article uses extensive litigation from the church courts to argue that, while childbearing mattered little under formal canon law, pregnancy and parenthood were integral to narratives of courtship and marriage in practice. For female plaintiffs in particular, discourses of stability, cohabiting, and love underpinned legal arguments to enforce marriage contracts. Male parties could, in turn, exploit cultural perceptions to depict sexual relationships as temporary and based solely on desire. Despite these gendered patterns, young women could appropriate and reconfigure cultural models that were hostile to female sexuality in order to advance claims of marriage. Ultimately, this article argues that the discursive agency exercised by female plaintiffs and deponents suggests that gendered models were more flexible in social practice where courtship and childbearing were concerned.

Der unglückliche Bund
Zur Praxis der gerichtlichen Ehetrennung vor dem
Freisinger Offizialat im Spätmittelalter
Duane Henderson
(in German language)

The paper investigates the practice of marriage separations “from bed and board” (a mensa et thoro) at the bishop’s court of Freising at the end of the fifteenth century. Beginning with a brief summary of the position of late-medieval canon law and legal opinion defining the grounds for a separation “from bed and board” and regulating its modalities, the study points out the extent of regional and individual variations in the application of these rules as has been revealed by recent research. On this evidence it becomes apparent that the medieval practice of marriage separation must primarily be studied at the local jurisdictional level, such as is documented in the records of the consistorial court of Freising (1424/1462-1524). Drawing from this both detailed and comprehensive source material, the paper presents the case study of a prolonged marital conflict which was pursued in a series of legal suits from 1476 to 1481. In its various phases, this court battle addresses the major legal and social questions involved in late-medieval marital separation cases in Freising and reveals the problems and advantages of a legal settlement.

Bestellungen über das Institut für die Erforschung der Frühen Neuzeit: Bestellschein

Der Kodifizierung neuen Rechts im ausgehenden 18. und beginnenden 19. Jahrhundert widmet sich das aktuelle Heft der Zeitschrift Geschichte und Region/Storia e regione. Wie die Herausgeberinnen im Editorial vermerken, ist der „Fokus der Fragen […] darauf gerichtet, in welcher Relation das neue zum alten Recht stand, welche politischen und gesellschaftlichen Veränderungen es intendierte und sowohl in der Administrierung als auch in der Nutzung mit sich brachte, für wen es von Vorteile bzw. von Nachteil war, welche Hürden und Grenzen sich in der Umsetzung – wiederum mit welchen Folgen auftun konnten.“

Insgesamt sechs Beiträge befassen sich mit diesem Fragenkomplex, darunter auch der von Andrea Griesebner und mir gestaltete Artikel über Ehestreitigkeiten vor dem Wiener Erzbischöflichen Konsistorium und dem Magistrat der Stadt Wien.

Aus dem Editorial:

In den 1780er Jahren traten mit dem Ehepatent von 1783, dem Erbfolgepatent und schließlich dem ersten Allgemeinen Bürgerlichen Gesetzbuch von 1786 (später Josephinisches Gesetzbuch) die ersten Ergebnisse des österreichischen Kodifizierungsprozesses des „bürgerlichen Rechts“ in Kraft. Das Ehepatent regelte die Zuständigkeiten zwischen weltlicher und kirchlicher Macht hinsichtlich der Ehegerichtsbarkeit völlig neu. Was diese neuen Kompetenzen für die betroffenen Eheleute bedeuteten, analysieren Andrea Griesebner und Georg Tschannett anhand eines Vergleichs von Ehescheidungsprozessen, die bis 1783 vor dem Wiener Erzbischöflichen Konsistorium und nach Inkrafttreten des Ehepatents vor dem Wiener Magistrat ausgehandelt wurden. Das Ehepatent stellte zwar nicht das Dogma der Unauflösbarkeit des Ehebandes in Frage und ermöglichte daher für katholische Eheleute nach wie vor nur eine Scheidung von Tisch und Bett. Doch hatten die Ideen der Aufklärung insofern Eingang in den Gesetzestext gefunden, als eine Scheidung zunächst nur noch möglich war, wenn sich die Eheleute einverständlich darauf einigten und das Urteil über einen ausreichenden Scheidungsgrund daher nicht dem Eherichter zukam. Diese Praxis ging allerdings an der Lebenswirklichkeit zerstrittener Ehepaare vorbei und stärkte die Position desjenigen Ehepartners, der sich gegen eine Scheidung stellte – in den meisten Fällen handelte es sich dabei um den Ehemann.