'... one of the most illuminating studies of marriage in the period that I have read in the last thirty years.' Professor K. E. Wrightson 'Overall, then, this is a quite wonderful book, richly rewarding in its detail, insights and conclusions. It will change the way historians think about the origins of the European marriage pattern, about the popular acculturation of marriage law, about the dynamics of inheritance and most of all about the freedom which is conventionally understood to have underpinned the making of English marriage.' Journal of Continuity and Change
