The Western European marriage pattern, also sometimes referred to as the Hajnal line, is a family and demographic pattern that is marked by comparatively late marriage (in the middle twenties), especially for women, with a generally small age difference between the spouses, a significant proportion (up to a third) of people who remain unmarried, and the establishment of a neolocal household after the couple has married. In 1965, John Hajnal posited that Europe could be divided into two areas characterised by different patterns of nuptiality. To the west of the line, which extends approximately between Saint Petersburg, Russia, and Trieste, Italy, marriage rates and thus fertility were comparatively low, and a significant minority of women married late or remained single, and most families were nuclear; to the east of the line and in the Mediterranean and particular regions of northwestern Europe, early marriage and extended family homes were the norm, and high fertility was offset by high mortality.Hajnal, John (1965): European marriage pattern in historical perspective en D.V. Glass and D.E.C. Eversley, (eds.) Population in History, Arnold, Londres.Kertzer, David I and Marzio Barbagli. 2001. The history of the European family. New Haven: Yale University Press. p xiv
In the 20th century, Hajnal's observations were assumed as valid by a wide variety of sociologists. However, since the early 21st century, his theory has been routinely criticised and rejected by scholars. Hajnal and other researchers did not have access to, or underplayed nuptiality research from behind the Iron Curtain, which contradicts their observations on central and eastern Europeans. "This essay represents an attempt at a re-examination of the Western scientific evidence for the existence of the divergent 'Eastern European family pattern'. This evidence is challenged by almost entirely unknown contributions of Eastern European scholars, revealing the stark incompatibility of the two discourses." Though some sociologists have called to revise or reject the concept of a "Hajnal line", other scientists continue to cite Hajnal's research on the influence of western European marriage patterns.
Overview The shift toward this "Western European Marriage Pattern" does not have a clear beginning, but it certainly had become established by the end of the fifteenth century on most of the shores of the North Sea. It is a marriage pattern where couples married comparatively late in life (and especially late for the bride compared to other places). On average first marriages took place around the middle twenties for both genders, with men marrying at slightly older ages than women, and only setting up a nuclear household when they were financially stable enough to care for a household, all of this preceded by time working as servants, farmhands or apprentices. Also, a significant proportion of women married after their twenties and 20–30% of women never married.Coontz, Stephanie. 2005. Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage. New York City: Viking Press, Penguin Group Inc. p 125-129. During the Middle Ages and the modern times, all kinds of movements developed which gradually sought to diminish the influence of the Church in matrimonial matters. The impetus was given in the Netherlands since the Middle Ages with urban ordinances threatening civil and criminal measures against those guilty of kidnapping, i.e. marriage without parental consent. This evolution continued and in 1540 Emperor Charles V decreed that any man who married under 25 years of age and any woman who married under 20 years of age without paternal consent forfeited all the benefits normally accruing to the surviving spouse. Female age at marriage has proven to be a strong indicator for female autonomy and is used frequently by economic history research.
Effects The pattern of late and non-universal marriage restricted fertility massively, especially when it was coupled with very low levels of childbirth out of wedlock. Birth control took place by delaying marriage more than suppressing fertility within it. A woman's life-phase from menarche (which was generally reached on average at 14 years, with some women reaching it earlierHajnal, John (1965): European marriage pattern in historical perspective en D.V. Glass and D.E.C. Eversley, (eds.) Population in History, Arnold, Londres. 123) to the birth of her first child was unusually long, averaging ten years.
Compared to other cultures
To the west of the Hajnal line, about half of all women aged 15 to 50 years of age were married at any given time while the other half were widows or spinsters; to the east of the line, about seventy percent of women in that age bracket were married at any given time while the other thirty percent were widows or nuns.Kertzer 2001; 224–225 The marriage records of Western and Eastern Europe in the early 20th century illustrate this pattern vividly; west of the Hajnal line, only 25% of women aged 20–24 were married while to the east of the line, over 75% of women in this age group were married and less than five percent of women remained unmarried.
This marriage pattern varied across time and space and class; noblewomen certainly married early, but they were a small minority. The comparatively late age at marriage for women and the small age gap between spouses is rather unusual; women married as adults rather than as dependents, often worked before marriage and brought some skills into the marriage, were less likely to be exhausted by constant pregnancy, and were about the same age as their husbandsStone, Linda. 2010. Kinship and Gender. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. Pg. 227Coontz, 2005. Pg. 129
Outside of Europe, women could be married even earlier and even fewer would remain celibate; in Korea, practically every woman 50 years of age had been married and spinsters were extremely rare, compared to 20–30% of women in western Europe age 50 who had never married.
Contributing factors in the Netherlands
The highest average age at first marriage was in the Netherlands: on average 27 years for women and 30 years for men in both the rural and urban population from the late 1400s onward until the end of WWII, rising at times to 30 years for women and 32 years for men. On average 25–30% of people in the Netherlands remained unmarried throughout their life between 1500 and 1950. In Amsterdam the mean age at first marriage for women fluctuated between 23.5 and 25 years old from the late 15th century until the 1660s, when it started to rise even further.
From early on the Roman Catholic Church promoted sexual abstinence over marriage, but marriage over sexual promiscuity. This meant that remaining unmarried became socially acceptable in Western Europe. In the Middle Ages marriage was often not recorded and therefore could depend on the word of the couple that could either confirm or deny it having taken place. A majority of unmarried women would be in the service of the church as nuns or as lay women. A vast number of women also provided for themselves in specialised professions until the financial freedoms of women were curtailed by the guilds in the late Middle Ages. This meant that until the late Middle Ages many women could also run businesses to sustain themselves outside of marriage.
After the 1400s the first marriage age became better recorded and seems to be influenced largely by the economic situation. In times of economical uncertainty both women and men tended to marry younger (between 20-25 years old for women) but the age gap was somewhat larger. A major factor was that by marrying their daughter off young the parents had one mouth less to feed and the dowry was often lower for younger girls who had learned less skills and build up less savings. This also explains the larger age gap between husband and wife in economical harsher times: an older husband would already have established himself an income to sustain a wife and thus children. Though for political reasons nobility often engaged and married far younger than the general population in many cases the actual consummation of the marriage was postponed until both marriage partners had reached a more mature age.
Another contributing factor to later marriage age is that in the Middle Ages a culture of nuclear family structures developed from the multiple generational extended family structures that were common in pre-Christian tribal societies in Western Europe. Both men and women would typically spend several years of working as a maid, farmhand, labourer or apprentice in order to gain work experience, develop skills and save up money to sustain their own nuclear family, rather than continuing to live in multigenerational household. This development raised the socially accepted first marriage age of women from puberty onset (12–14 years old) in the early Middle Ages up to their late teens and older by the late medieval period, and during the renaissance up to their middle twenties on average. This development also brought the first marriage age of women and men far closer together. The great general wealth in the Netherlands from the spice trade also meant that women married later in life. The highest marriage ages for both men and women was past 30 years old and are found in times of national financial prosperity.
Another contributing reason was that late marriage age was a recognised method of birth control. The later a woman married the less children she would birth and the less children a couple had to raise. It was also generally recognised that giving birth at a very young age was detrimental for the woman's health and therefore socially disapproved of. Social disapproval of a young marriage age for the woman and a large age gap between the marriage partners can still be recognised in sayings originating in those centuries. A well known example from neighbouring Britain is the cautionary tale of the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare of whom the young ages were considered scandalous at the time.De Moor, 2009; 17
Variation and development in Britain & Ireland Where in the mid-1500s in England, approximately 8 percent of women remained unmarried the inference would be that that figure was either the same or lower in the previous several centuries; marriage in Medieval England appears to be a robust institution where over 90% of women married and roughly 70% of women aged 15 to 50 years were married at any given time while the other 30% were single or widows. In Yorkshire in the 14th and 15th centuries, the age range for most brides was between 18 and 22 years and the age of the grooms was similar; rural Yorkshire women tended to marry in their late teens to early twenties while their urban counterparts married in their early to middle twenties. In the 15th century, the average Italian bride was 18 and married a groom 10–12 years her senior. An unmarried Tuscan woman 21 years of age would be seen as past marriageable age, the benchmark for which was 19 years, and easily 97 percent of Florentine women were married by the age of 25 years while 21 years was the average age of a contemporary English bride.Philips, Kim M. 2003. Medieval Maidens: Young Women and Gender in England, C.1270-c.1540. Manchester University Press. Pg 37De Moor, Tine and Jan Luiten van Zanden. 2009. p 16-18