Women of the Romance Countries | Page 2

from
her primitive state of bondage.
In the eye of the feudal law, women were not considered as persons of
any importance whatever. The rights of husbands were practically
absolute, and led to much abuse, as they had a perfectly legal right to
punish wives for their misdeeds, to control their conduct in such a way
as to interfere with their personal liberty, and in general to treat them as
slaves and inferior beings. The whipping-post had not then been
invented as a fitting punishment for the wife beater, as it was perfectly
understood, according to the feudal practices as collected by
Beaumanoir, "that every husband had the right to beat his wife when
she was unwilling to obey his commands, or when she cursed him, or
when she gave him the lie, providing that it was done moderately, and
that death did not ensue." If a wife left a husband who had beaten her,
she was compelled by law to return at his first word of regret, or to lose
all right to their common possessions, even for purposes of her own
support.

The daughters of a feudal household had even fewer rights than the
wife. All who are willing to make a candid acknowledgment of the
facts must admit that even to-day, a girl-baby is often looked upon with
disfavor. This has been true in all times, and there are numerous
examples to show that this aversion existed in ancient India, in Greece
and Sparta, and at Rome. The feudal practices of mediæval Europe
were certainly based upon it, and the Breton peasant of to-day
expresses the same idea somewhat bluntly when he says by way of
explanation, after the birth of a daughter: Ma femme a fait une fausse
couche. Conscious as all must be of this widespread sentiment at the
present time, it will not be difficult to imagine what its consequences
must have been in so rude a time as the eleventh century, when
education could do so little in the way of restraining human passion and
prejudice. As the whole feudal system, so far as the succession of
power was concerned, was based upon the principle of primogeniture,
it was the oldest son who succeeded to all his father's lands and wealth,
the daughter or daughters being left under his absolute control.
Naturally, such a system worked hardship for the younger brothers, but
then as now it was easier for men to find a place for themselves in the
world than for women, and the army or the Church rarely failed to
furnish some sort of career for all those who were denied the rights and
privileges of the firstborn. The lot of the sister, however, was pitiful in
the extreme (unless it happened that the older brother was kind and
considerate), for if she were in the way she could be bundled off to a
cloister, there to spend her days in solitude, or she could be married
against her will, being given as the price of some alliance.
The conditions of marriage, however, were somewhat complicated, as
it was always necessary to secure the consent of three persons before a
girl of the higher class could go to the altar in nuptial array. These three
persons were her father or her guardian, her lord and the king. It was
Hugo who likened the feudal system to a continually ascending
pyramid with the king at the very summit, and that interminable chain
of interdependence is well illustrated in the present case. Suppose the
father, brother, or other guardian had decided upon a suitable husband
for the daughter of the house, it was necessary that he should first gain
the consent of that feudal lord to whom he gave allegiance, and when

this had been obtained, the king himself must give his royal sanction to
the match. Nor was this all, for a feudal law said that any lord can
compel any woman among his dependants to marry a man of his own
choosing after she has reached the age of twelve. Furthermore, there
was in existence a most cruel, barbarous, and repulsive practice which
gave any feudal lord a right to the first enjoyment of the person of the
bride of one of his vassals. As Legouvé has so aptly expressed it: Les
jeunes gens payaient de leur corps en allant à la guerre, les jeunes
filles en allant à l'autel.
Divorce was a very simple matter at this time so far as the husband was
concerned, for he it was who could repudiate his wife, disown her, and
send her from his door for almost any reason, real or false. In earlier
times, at the epoch when the liberty of the citizen was the pride of
Rome, marriage almost languished there on account of