Family in Europe History - Coursework Example

This set up the family as a father and mother in a monogamous and permanent relationship living with children who obeyed them and respected them until marriage, at which time they owed greatest devotion to their spouse but were still expected to honor their elders. Secular ideals were ruled more by the detrimental effects of wars and disease that had decimated the population during the middle ages. There was great concern that families would die out altogether and thus an increasing urge for extended families to remain together along patrilineal lines.

The line of succession from father to sons had been widely adopted by this point in time and family wealth was beginning to be either taken up by greater lords as a means of funding their numerous wars or divided up among numerous sons born as a means of trying to circumvent fate and assure the bloodline survived. As a result of this, it was urged that brothers should live together. This way, the wealth could remain concentrated in one spot, as in falling to the oldest son of the line following the father’s death, while still supporting younger sons who may be required later to secure the family tree.

While this didn’t normally occur, it did place a great deal more emphasis on the extended family and the importance of close family relationships. The rules of marriage included the idea that men could not marry the widows of their older brothers and they could not marry sisters either at the same time (bigamy) or in sequential order, such as when one sister died. Widows of the household were forced to leave in order to find a new husband or had to be content to remain a widow. She could not marry her step-son, which was often practiced prior to this law as a means of keeping her on the estate.

Exogamy was an attempt to assure that only one married couple lived in a location at a time, increasing the chances that young men, even poor young men, would