The commanders’ spouses. The marriages of the Utrecht Teutonic Knights, 1640–1940

Abstract

In 1640 the Bailiwick of Utrecht abolished the obligation of celibacy, as a continuation of the Protestantisation process that had started 25 years earlier. After this decision, half of the sitting members married. Most of the knights who joined after 1640 were married. The paper analyses data collected on 221 marriages over three centuries. Most of these marriages fit the Western European Marriage Pattern: entered into by mature people, generally of their own free will, but in good consultation with the family (marriage by consent). The age difference between the partners was usually not very large. Very young brides were rare, mainly restricted to the circles of German princes, who knew arranged marriages. The spouses usually came from the same milieu, but certainly not always. As noble girls, the brides had received an education aimed at finding a suitable spouse, after which they could play a role as a mother, manager of the household and pivot in the social network. The knights formed their own households, with their children, no longer living in the commanderies. Until the nineteenth century a substantial part of the offspring died young. The effects of medical developments in the nineteenth century, which reduced child and maternal mortality, are visible in the data set.