Brehon Law Regarding Marriage and Divorce by Richard Kent Primmer

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

(One of my Facebook Notes I'll repost here)-

 

Note #9: Brehon Law Regarding Marriage and Divorce

In the 8th century AD, the Brehons began to compile a written version of  their ancient oral teachings of the laws known as the Senchas Mar (written in middle Irish), that governed everyday life from the number of colors any given person could wear based on their rank, down to detailing what the punishment for killing a king’s cat was.

  One section of this compilation was the Cain Lananine, “The law of couples": that detailed the ten degrees of marriage, the two types of allowable divorce, and detailed penalties if a marriage was violated, and the various calculations on distributing inheritance among survivors if the family head was killed.

  These laws were followed until their decline began in 1169 at the start of the Norman invasion, but several areas, predominately in the Ulster highlands, would continue with the Old Laws until the “Elizabethan Plantation wars” of the late 16th century enforced the de-Irishing of the Irish (Death penalty for those caught practicing the old Celtic ways, of those singing or teaching the old myths and legends and the uilleann bagpipes; stripping all Irish of the rights to own property, teaching only English in the schools, etc.

   With the beginning of the “Celtic Revival” of the 19th century, many of the old texts were retranslated and many of the common people, especially in the isolated areas, began to follow many of the pure Irish ways once again: relearning the language, the customs, the myths and legends.  There were aided by still extant hold outs, once again in the mountains of Ulster.  My grandmother, Miriam Mills Orr, born 1877, died 1965, was raised in a forested area of the Errigan Mountains of Ulster, at 16 she immigrated as a new bride with granfa Colim to central Ohio in 1893.  Grandma had been trained by her grandmother as a “Faerie Doctor” in the ways of herbs and plants, of ritual magic, of the oghma, and of approaching the local sidhe for appeasement for their aid in the well being and  protection of her local community.  Until her death after my 13th birthday, it was my honor to learn from her the ways of The Red Branch of Ulster and the Tuatha de Danae.

  The Brehon Laws were not designed for the best of all possible worlds, where everyone is kind and trustworthy, but for the world as it actually is; for the Cain Lananie, the overriding concern above anything is to ensure the rights of children and that they are provided for: any relationship that results in the birth of a child is considered to be a marriage and the laws govern the providing of proper sustenance, clothing, housing of any child, and especially details the practice of “fostering” of placing a child with another family, often one of the clan’s enemy, to encourage cooperation amongst the clans.  As a result, there also would be the natural spreading of genetic diversity as the children grew older and began to mate themselves: fostering was an efficient way to avoid inbreeding.

  Much of all of the old laws are based on the concept of  coibcne, “honor price” where each individual in the society has a fixed value based on their rank, skills, and over-all value to the community.  Honor price could be increased  or decreased by actions, by marriage, by disability or disease.  Coibcne was devised to avoid blood feuds, if a man killed another man, he paid the honor price; if his dogs killed a neighbor’s pig, again coibcne was paid.  And in a marriage a man pays coibcne for 21 years; the 1st year it goes to the bride’s father, who shares it with her kinsmen as payment for the loss of her contribution to the community; the second year, 1/3 of it goes directly to the wife and each subsequent year, she receives an increasingly larger portion.  This allows the wife to obtain wealth of her own for herself and her children beyond that which is owned by the husband.  Coibcne does not include a man’s fort or lodge, or his personal weapons or chariot, but cattle and cumal: female slaves  (the currency of ancient Insular Celts); failing that carts, sheep, grain and timbers.

 

(Notes to keep in mind when reading):

1)  Fertility and a woman’s sexual prowess was more highly prized than virginity in the pagan and early Christian period.

2)  A woman was considered to be an "old maid" if not married by 14 for commoners, 16 for high-born

3)  2 rules existed for a girl-women to be allowed to take part in woman's counsels: 1) she could not enter into women discussions until "she has felt the weight of a man's body on her belly and given a man the friendship of her thighs"; and she could not speak in women discussions until she had proved her fertilty by giving birth.

4)  All free boys/men regardless of other trades/skills or trades were taught the use of shield and spear; highborn also learned the sword, if they were found worthy.

5)  The community structure was based on blood kinship and extended families of 2,3 generations were the norm.

6)  The social structure was based on a combination of raiding other clans, joint raids to Scotland, combined with farming basic grains, sheep, pigs and most important of all:cattle.

7)  The economy was based on the “Bo Cumal“, one cow was worth 3 female slaves of breeding age (cows were rarely killed for meat but were both milked and “bleed”: a staple of early Celtic diet was a curdled blood/milk porridge).

8)  Captives were enslaved to work as servants and farmhands: they were bred like any other animal.

 

   **Marriage under the Cain Lananine**

  The are ten degrees of marriage under the laws; marriage of the first three requires a formal contract to be agreed upon by both parties beforehand, and women married under contract become official wives.

  1)  A marriage of the first degree, takes place between partners of equal honor-price and property.

  2)  A marriage of the second degree in one where the man has more honor-price and property and agrees to support the woman.

  3)  A marriage of the third degree is the reverse, with the added stipulation that the man must agree to till his wife’s field or manage her cattle, in order for the man to keep his dignity and his wife’s respect.

  4)  A marriage of the fourth degree is different: no property is taken into consideration and no contract between partners is agreed upon in advance.  The rights of the children are described by law and safeguarded, but the woman is in effect a concubine; she is not an official wife, so if her husband dies, she may not continue to reside beneath his roof, but must return to her own people.  This degree of marriage is a “love match”.

  5) A marriage of the Fifth degree is one in which a man and a woman share their bodies by mutual agreement, but continue to inhabit separate dwellings.

  6) A marriage of the sixth degree is when a man forcibly abducts a  previously married woman, such as a chieftain will sometimes seize his defeated enemy’s wife after a battle; this marriage is for as long as he can keep the woman with him.

  7) A marriage of the seventh degree (a “soldier’s marriage) is a casual, mutual union often lasting a single night.

  8) A marriage of the eighth degree takes place when a man or woman obtains the use of a partner’s body through deception such as seducing them with lies about their status or amount of property.

  9) A marriage of the ninth degree is the act of rape, which includes taking advantage of intoxication, the use of charms, potions or other will sapping drugs.

 10) A marriage of the tenth degree is any coupling involving a feeble-minded person.

 

   **Divorce under the Cain Lananine**

  There are 2 degrees of divorce, blameless and blameful.

  1)  The first is blameless and may take place if illness of either mate makes cohabitation impossible, or if disease renders either incapable of sexual intercourse.  A serious blemish or disfiguring injury, if one’s mate finds it distressing to view, is reason to end the marriage if desired.  Prolonged or perpetual absence from the territory is sufficient to allow for divorce if desired.  Death is also reason for divorce, to keep the surviving  mate from claiming penalties against the kin of the deceased.

  2)  The second is when is at fault.  Couples may separate and end their contract, and the woman takes her coibche with her, under the following circumstances: if one mate has circulated a false story about the other; if one mate has satirized the other in public and made of him or her a figure of fun.  Any woman who has been struck a blow that blemishes her is entitled to a divorce; a woman who is repudiated for another is entitled to a divorce; a woman who is deprived of sexual intercourse by her husband may divorce him.

  If her husband gives her intoxicants, a charm or potion of some kind to induce her to sleep with him when she does not wish to do so, she is entitled to a divorce; likewise she may divorce a husband who fails to provide her with the food, clothing and housing that she desires in so far as he is able, is entitled to a divorce.

 

*Rick: Imbolc 2011