Revisiting the decline in remarriage in early-modern Europe: The case of Rheims in France

Abstract

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.

Collecting and analysing marriage and birth data: Women in pre-revolution Rheims, France

“…Taking Rheims, we have already stressed the decline in the frequency of remarriage at the end of the eighteenth century. 65 This is a general phenomenon in preindustrial Western Europe. We find that it is directly linked to the socio-economic independence of many women during widowhood.…”

In search for a new identity after spousal death: the desire to remarry among young widows in South Africa

“…The death of a spouse brings along financial difficulties for widows, and widows are now deprived of a regular income from their husbands [22]. The added responsibility to take care of children becomes an extra burden to their lives, thus increases the desire to remarry [23].…”

A család és a nő mint történeti probléma • Family and Gender as a Historical Construction

“…A háztartások ugyanis folyamatos átalakulásban voltak, egyfelől a magas felnőtthalandóság következtében. A fiatal, azaz negyven év alatti özvegyek szokásszerűen újraházasodtak, a férfiak gyorsabban és idősebb korukban is, mint a nők (Fauve-Chamoux, 2010). Ezért a Laslett által nukleáris családnak tekintett -mert az általa használt összeírásokban akként megjelenő -családok valójában gyakran mozaikcsaládok voltak, amelyekben három vagy olykor akár négy házasságból származó gyermek is élhetett átmenetileg egy fedél alatt.…”