Revisiting the decline in remarriage in early-modern Europe

The case of Rheims in France

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12446752
AutoresAntoinette Fauve-Chamoux (a Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales , Paris, France, autor de correspondencia)
Año2010
Volumen15
Número3
Páginas283-297
Fecha de publicación2010-07-23
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe History of the Family (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1081-602X • E-ISSN: 1873-5398
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1016/j.hisfam.2010.06.003
OpenAlexW2107627572
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas9
Referencias citadas42

Many were the European towns where remarriage frequency declined, especially for widows, in the 17th and 18th centuries. This article investigates how remarriage models evolved in France, basing our analysis on vital events collected for the fourteen parishes of the town of Rheims in Champagne. A large set of Family Reconstitution Forms for the period 1668-1802 allows the study of remarriage among urban widows and widowers. Through four successive periods of time, we observe changes in remarriage behaviour in this preindustrial center as a case study, in a gender comparative perspective. In urban surroundings, in the late 18th century, strategies of remarriage may have been more flexible than in rural areas. Women were less exposed to family and social pressure preventing them to remarry, discouraging or delaying a new union. The presence of dependent children was always a problem when a widow tried to choose a new partner. It was easier for a man to remarry. A widower used to take a new wife quickly and a younger one, if possible without children at charge. A specific aspect of the urban context was population geographical turn-over and changing labour markets. It would explain, at least partly, the decreasing proportion of remarriages in Rheims. Female urban surplus was a constant, affecting the chances for remarriage, particularly in large European cities

Context (archaeology · Demographic economics · Economics · Geography · Population · Remarriage · Sociology · Demography · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes