Note 1146 — Chapter VIII · RISE OF ECCLESIASTICAL MARRIAGE: THE CHURCH DEVELOPS AND ADMINISTERS MATRIMONIAL LAW

"A treaty of peace involved an attempt to bind the will of a very small child, and such treaties were made not only among princes, but among men of humbler degree, who thus patched up their quarrels or compromised their law-suits. The rigour of our feudal law afforded another reason for such transactions; a father took the earliest opportunity of marrying his child in order that the right of marriage might not fall to the lord."—Pollock and Maitland, op. cit., II, 389. See the case of Grace, supposititious child of Thomas of Saleby, married at four years of age to Adam Neville, and after his death sold in marriage twice by King John: ibid., 389, 390: ap. Magna vita S. Hugonis, 170-77; and in general on early marriages, especially as a means of alliance, compare Esmein, op. cit., I, 151 ff.