Abstract

Changes to marriage laws, and confusion about matrimonial customs, could place couples in a ‘betwixt and between’ situation with accompanying uncertainty about whether intercourse was permissible. This made unmarried women vulnerable to desertion if they became pregnant. The punishments for ‘fornication’ or bastardy, which included public penance and whipping, both having strong parallels with the rites of passage, were a public demonstration of the woman's liminal status in her society. As the punishments were designed to shame, they contributed to a situation which could easily lead to infanticide. Women would have sought every possible means to avoid pregnancy during courtship. Therefore, the chapter examines the extent to which women could avoid pregnancy by using contraception and / or abortion, and the availability and effectiveness of the practices available.

Keywords: Betrothal and informal marriage; Premarital pregnancy; Birth control; Punishments for bastard bearing; Self-punishment

Jaques: And will you, being a man of your breeding, be married under a bush like a beggar? Get you to church, and have a good priest that can tell you what marriage is. This fellow will but join you together as wainscot.

Touchstone[aside]: I am not in the mind but I were better to be married of him than of another, for he is not like to marry me well; and not being well married, it will be a good excuse for me hereafter to leave my wife.