Note 60 — Chapter I · Marriage Laws and Customs.

Bouvier; Cowel; I. Reeves History English Law, pp. 369, 371. In legal contemplation, a female was in the custody of the Lord paramount, until she reached her majority, and then he was bound to find her a proper marriage. His custody continued until her marriage, even after she became of age and she could only marry with his consent. She was bound to obtain the consent of the Lord, or lose her dower, but it was sufficient, if she had the consent of the chief lord, to marry. The custom was based upon the fealty which the husband owed the lord and since the woman lost her inheritance, if she gave cause of forfeiture, the lord had it in his power to exact anything of her, and hence the custom referred to in the text, an exaction allowed by way of a punishment for the offense of belonging to the frail sex, in an early day. Reeve’s History English Law, vol. I., pp. 370, 371.

Shakespeare makes Cade refer to this old barbarous custom, in 2’ Henry VI., when he says: “... There shall not a maid be married, but she shall pay to me her maidenhead, ere they have it.” (Act IV., Scene VII.; White’s “Law in Shakespeare,” Sec. 299, p. 326).