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Forced marriages and forbidden marriages in Switzerland: state control of the formation of marriage in catholic and protestant cantons in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Anne-Lise Head-König
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Continuity and Change , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , December 1993 , pp. 441 - 465
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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References

ENDNOTES

1 According to the Census of 1860, in the canton of Glarus 69.6 per cent of the population aged eighteen and over were or had been married, whereas this was the case for only 41.4 per cent of the inhabitants of the canton of Lucerne. See Recensement fédéral, 10 décembre 1860, 3 (Berne, 1866), XXI–XXII (Statistique de la Suisse).Google Scholar

2 The earliest attempts to limit this power in Switzerland seem to have been chiefly concerned with the accumulation of wealth. In the twelfth century the assembly of the men in Schwyz forbade the transfer of property to the Church, especially to the convent of Einsiedeln, either by sale or by voluntary offerings. The reason for this decision was the fear of too great a shift of ownership in the pastures and alps which were their main resources of production. For a similar problem in other European countries, see Jack, Goody, The development of the family and marriage in Europe (Cambridge, 1983), 103.Google Scholar

3 This was in contrast to Calvin's Church, in Geneva, which adopted the modern conception of ‘fiançailles’ and wedding.

4 Heinrich, Bullinger, Christlich Bestand (Zurich, 1579), 59.Google Scholar

5 ‘Quiconque depucellera et deshonnorera une vierge, que icelluy luy doibve constituer doct et manage et l'avoir pour femme’; quoted by Dominique, Favarger and Maurice de, Tribolet eds., Les sources du droit du canton de Neuchâtel, vol. 1: Les sources directes (Aarau, 1982), 183.Google Scholar

6 ‘Il se trouve beaucoup de tromperies et gros dangers comme nous l'avons experimentez journellement, parce que plusieurs filles se disoyent estre vierges et de l'estoyent pas et prenoyent en vigueur de tel statut les juvenceaux a querelle et les gagnoyent’ (ibid.).

7 See the case of a female plaintiff asking to be released from an agreement subject to the payment of appropriate damages in Watt, Jeffrey R., The making of modern marriage. Matrimonial control and the rise of sentiment in Neuchâtel, 1550–1800 (Ithaca, NY, and London, 1992), 209.Google Scholar

8 Samuel, Ostervald, Les loix, us et coutumes de la souveraineté de Neuchâtel et Valengin (Neuchâtel, 1785), 8.Google Scholar

9 Geneviève, Perret, La paillardise à Genève (1760–1764). Etude sur la sexualité et les mæurs d'après les procès crimininels, Mémoire licence, Département d'Histoire Economique, Université de Genève (Geneva, 1982).Google Scholar

10 Martin, Schaffner, Die Busier Arbeiterbevölkerung im 19. Jahrhundert. Beiträge zur Geschichte ihrer Lebensform (Basel and Stuttgart, 1972).Google Scholar

11 Torture was used in 1730 in the course of the litigation between Jörg Egli and Verena Triet; see Landesarchiv Glarus, Evangelische Ratsprotokolle, 29.4.1730, fo. 117 and ff.

12 For marriages imposed on the recalcitrant party on this basis, see Archive des Zivilstandsamt, Glarus, Pfarrbuch, 8.9.1757.

13 Landebibliothek Glarus, N 22, Ehesatzungen 1758, fo. 35 (MS).

14 Such was the case of David Schiesser, who was forced to marry Elsbeth Stauffacher due to this type of coercion. See Pfarrarchiv Schwanden, Ehebuch, 31.5.1754.

15 The reasons why it would seem advisable to take into account only these four months are as follows. First, it seems likely that social and familial pressure would increase significantly during the two months before the birth as in its final stages the pregnancy would have been obvious to all. In addition these two months could be critical as it would take some time for the different public interventions to run their course. The process was initiated by the minister summoning into his presence the couple, whom he presumed had allowed the three months' engagement period stipulated by law to lapse without proceeding to a marriage. In due course he would endeavour to convince them that it was imperative to marry without further delay. Should the couple persist in ignoring this first injunction, they would again be called upon, but this time to appear before the minister in session with the entire communal council. Secondly, it is probable that once two months had elapsed since the birth of the child, social pressure to marry would diminish because it would be realized that there was now little chance that the couple could be forced into a marriage.

16 One example would be resulting from difficulties in obtaining the consent of different cantons to the celebration of the marriage.

17 Anne-Lise Head-Konig, ‘Population, société et économie de montagne. Le pays glaronais du XVle au milieu du XIXe siècle’, ch. 18 (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Geneva, 1986).

18 This was emphasized in 1795 when a number of inhabitants of the Toggenburg (canton of St Gallen) petitioned the government to be released from their marriage promises without the customary obligation to pay a fine that was normally so heavy as to render marriage preferable to the payment of the fine.

19 Perhaps up to 40 per cent in the nineteenth century with the decline in age at marriage in industrial regions.

20 As Glarus and Basle were both protestant cantons, with a small catholic minority in Glarus, and amongst the most economically developed areas in Switzerland, this difference might be the consequence of different cultural traditions, in particular in connection with inheritance. Basle had an urban population, with little democratic tradition but an important ‘bourgeoisie’ and corporations which ruled the town, whilst Glarus, with its assembly of people, the Landsgemeinde, was ruled on democratic principles with people deciding on their own capacity to marry.

21 Perret, , Paillardise, 291.Google Scholar

22 Favargé, and Tribolet, , Sources, 355.Google Scholar

23 ‘Cependant et vû la loy que la partie défenderesse réclame et à laquelle ils sont obligés de se conformer, il [sic] lui adjugent passement de son opposition’, quoted by Watt, Jeffrey R. in the microfilm version of his Ph.D. thesis, ‘Matrimonial disputes in early modern Neuchâtel, 1547–1806’ (University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1987), 376.Google Scholar

24 Hans de, Giacomi, Das Eheschliessungsrecht nach den bündnerischen Statuten (Chur, 1927), 96Google Scholar; Paul, Wehrli, Verlobung und Training in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung von der Reformation bis zm Vntergang der alien Eidgenossenschaf. Ein Beitrag zur zürcherischen Rechtsgeschichte (Zurich, 1933), 34.Google Scholar

25 The cases are numerous in the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth century but less so in the later period. See Wehrli, , Verlobung und Trauung.Google Scholar

26 Perret, , Paillardise, 292.Google Scholar

27 In Soleure, for instance. See Universitätsbiblothek Basel, VB MS L 25, fo. 184.

28 There are a number of references to such differences. They are, for example, implied by the protests of the canton of Schaffhausen at the Federal Diet against the numerous possibilities given to its citizens by other cantons to marry on their territory in defiance of the legal impediments. See Amtliche Sammlung der Eidgenössischen Abschiede, 1245–1798, vol. 6, 2nd part, 28.9.1705 (Zurich, 1839–1886), 1261.Google Scholar

29 See Landesarchiv Glarus, Evangelische Ratsprotokolle, 6.6.1768.

30 The measures taken against ‘foreign’ women were complementary to those taken generally. The settlement - and subsequently the marriage - of members of the underprivileged class in a different canton or commune were rare prior to 1848 because of the many restrictions which were applied to such marriages.

31 In the eighteenth century it was often already more than the equivalent of a year's wage of a labourer. This money was deposited in the coffers of the commune to be used in case of need to help the family.

32 As happened to several citizens of Glarus. See the cases dealing with brides originating from Russia. For example: Gemeinde-Archiv Bilten, Stillstandsprotokoll, 30.9.1839, fo. 15; Gemeinde-Archiv Mollis, Stillstands-Protokoll, 6.12.1827, fo. 102ff.

33 For example contributions to the village school, the poor fund, for fire-buckets, and so on.

34 This became more common from the beginning of the eighteenth century. In the canton of Lucerne, marriage in opposition to the wishes of the commune involved loss of citizenship. See Anton Philipp von, Segesser, Rechtsgeschichte des Stadt und Republik Luzern, vol. 4, part 13 (Lucerne, 1858), 218.Google Scholar

35 Gesetz über die Verrichtungen des Ehegerichts für den Kanton Glarus. Beilage zu dem Landsbuch des Kantons Glarus (Glarus, 1843), 127.Google Scholar

36 Bluntschli, Johann Caspar, Privatrechtliches Gesetzbch für den Kanton Zürich, vol. 1: Personenrecht und Familienrecht (Zurich, 1854), 86.Google Scholar

37 According to data in the Census of 1860, there were in these three cantons respectively 22.4 percent, 38.5 per cent and 37.0 per cent single people aged 46–50 (both sexes combined); Recensement fédéral, 10 décembre 1860, 3 (Berne, 1866), XXVI (the calculations are mine).Google Scholar

38 Staatsarchiv Basel, Civilstand D2, Circulaire de Neuchatel aux Confédérés, 6.3.1837.

39 Werner, Schüpbach, Die Bevölkerung der Stadt Luzern (1850–1914) (Lucerne, 1983), 42 (Luzemer Historische Veröffentlichungen, 17).Google Scholar

40 These points are stressed repeatedly in Eingabe der Schweizerischen reformirten Predigergesellschaft an den Bundesrath (Zurich [1868]), 14Google Scholar, and Pierre, Caspard, ‘Conceptions prénuptiales et développement du capitalisme dans le Principauté de Neuchâtel (1678–1820)’, Annales, E.S.C. (1974), 1002.Google Scholar

41 Such cases represented 96 per cent of all the illegitimate births according to Schaffner, , (Arbeiterbevölkerung, 64).Google Scholar

42 The intense opposition to marriage by the poor in the agrarian cantons probably owed much to the fact that it was peasants and landowners who usually paid the taxes to support the costs of the relief of the poor.

43 Jost, Weber, Das Recht der unehelichen Geburt in der Schweiz. Mit Rücksicht auf die schweizerischen Gesetzgebungen und die wichtigsten ausländischen Rechte, nebst einem Beitrag zur Statistik der unehelichen Kinder in der Schweiz (Zurich, 1860), 7.Google Scholar

44 This can be argued, it seems to me, on the basis of Brigitte, Schnegg, ‘Illegitimität im ländlichen Bern des 18. Jahrhunderts’, Berner Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Heimatkunde 44 (1982), esp. p. 78.Google Scholar

45 However, a number of these illegitimate births resulted from the fact that the father was ‘foreign’, that is not a citizen of the canton, and thus could not be forced by the authorities of the canton of the pregnant girl to marry her, even when valid promises of marriage had been exchanged. See Pfarrarchiv Schwanden, Stillstandsprotokoll, 18.3.1832, fo. 34.

46 Adrian, Staehelin, ‘Basel unter der Herrschaft der christlichen Obrigkeit’, Basler Jahrbuch (1958), 53.Google Scholar

47 Paul, Wehrli, ‘Die Ehescheidung zur Zeit Zwinglis und in den nachfolgenden Jahrhunderten’, Zürcher Taschenbuch, new series 54 (1934), 87.Google Scholar

48 See, for instance, the case of a captain in the service of the Dutch Republic and a widow. See Landesarchiv Glarus, Evangelische Ratsprotokolle, 2.3.1747.

49 In the canton of Lucerne 7.5 per cent of the children born in 1871–1875 were illegitimate and only 4.0 per cent of those born in 1876–1880. See Statistiques de la Suisse, vol. 170, 64.Google Scholar