Skip to content
Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter 2018

Regional Variation in Dealing with Marriage in the Diocesan Courts of Reformation Sweden, ca. 1590–1610

From the book Reformatio Baltica

  • Mia Korpiola

Abstract

The article compares the practice in matrimonial cases of four Swedish chapters in the 1590s and 1600s. The existing records of these ecclesiastical courts, situated in three different dioceses (Linköping, Uppsala and Västerås), have been investigated in cases of divorce and dispensations in cases of consanguinity and affinity. Due to differences in time and gaps in the sources, the results can only be suggestive. The divorce patterns suggest that women may have tolerated their husband’s infidelity in the dioceses of Uppsala and Västerås more often because of cultural or economic reasons, while opting more often for divorce in Stockholm or the diocese of Linköping. The Swedish attitude towards impediments of consanguinity and affinity were relatively conservative. The chapters of Uppsala and Västerås seem to have been relatively unwilling to grant dispensations in forbidden degrees, while the evidence from Linköping may indicate a more liberal practice.

© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Munich/Boston
Downloaded on 29.3.2024 from https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110573558-047/html
Scroll to top button