Women in Spain

Spain was occupied by many different groups during the 15th century, about 7 or so major ones. Aragon and Castile were two of the major kingdoms whose rulers became married to one another. Mostly an agreement between the two these rulers still stayed within their kingdoms and ruled separate from each other. Because of all these groups and the influence of the two major groups Spain became a very mixed place in terms of culture, laws and religion. Marriage was one of those things that was run culturally but would soon be backed up by the institute of religion to back up the promises of the partners. Spain was special in this regard because unlike in many European countries where woman had limited rights, Spain allowed a lot more flexibility to both parties. In the article by Allyson M. Poska marriage in 17th century Spain was greatly influenced by the Catholic Church because marriage was a sacred institution. So legally once a marriage was made between two people in the presence of a priest it could not be broken but under the most specific circumstances. For those that were not married but promised to marry still ran into problems as most of them were promised to receive sex from the other person and then ditched afterward.  But what sets Spain apart from other places is the amount of justice a woman or man can receive based on the presented evidence. Like a man could not promise marriage and have sex with a woman who then became pregnant and was left to raise the child. Like today, they would go before the court and in many cases the man would have to compensate the woman for putting her in this situation. The same practice applied to adulterers who wanted to leave their partners for another man or woman. Many times these compensations would not be in the form of money because many were poor so instead materials would be given instead such as aprons or cloth materials. Sometimes women tried to use the excuse of rape or that they didn’t consent to the marriage but this didn’t always work especially if their were any witnesses to their promised marriage together. Married couples had a harder time dealing with bad relationships because as mentioned before they could not separate by law. Often times the two would just separate from each other physically without any legal means but this led to both parties eventually getting back together. In rare cases a marriage could be granted separation if the woman could not bear a child which was the purpose of marriage, if one of the partners wanted to take up religious order or if the marriage was forced somehow. So women in Spain had a lot of room to operate within the legal system where often in history they did not have any rights. it just goes to show the importance of the females in Spain and how that would soon effect the countries they conquered later in time.