Traditional Marriage Would Truly Shock Our Ancestors, But Not For The Reason You Think

Love, commitment, starting a family – these all seem like very traditional reasons to get married.

But did you know that the concept of marrying for love is actually less than 100 years old? And that monogamy took a few centuries to catch on?

[epicurusone]

Interesting.
One piece of constructive criticism; please leave the text on the screen a little bit longer. I'm a very quick reader but I struggled.

[brettpalmer]

please think about slowing down the pace of the writing in the video? I had to slow it down to capture it all

[walterrutherford]

And it should be no surprise that divorce rates are declining. With far, far fewer people getting married the ones who do are the ones who really believe in marriage and not just something they're expected to do.

[Kalroy]

This a good video so long as you define "traditional" as ancient and not actually traditional. I'm sure ancient Roman's traditions were traditional for the ancient Romans, but they are not actually traditional for modern western Judeo-Christian society, just like modern western Judeo-Christian traditional marriage is not traditional for many contemporary non-western modern societies.

[allanrichardson]

Henry VIII didn't actually divorce his first (Catherine of Aragon) and fourth (Anne of Cleves); he ANNULLED their marriages, which is what he had asked the Pope to do for him the first time, claiming that his marriage to Catherine, over two decades earlier (which produced one heir, Mary Tudor), was against Catholic canon law, since she was his brother's widow. The Pope refused, because her parents were the powerful and ardently Catholic Ferdinand of Castile and Isabella of Aragon, the founders of the Spanish Inquisition, funders of Columbus, and reconquerors of Spain from the Moors.

So what Henry actually did was declare himself and his heirs "Pope of England" and give himself the annulment! The Church of England was at first almost Catholic, except for making the King the Pope and eliminating the powerful abbeys and the veneration of saints' relics. It gradually picked up more Protestant features over the next century or so.

But you're right about the new rules applying only to him. Anyone else who wanted an annulment had to have good connections to the Crown, and probably pay or do the monarch a favor.

[walterrutherford]

Weird that they're mixing customs, traditions, and standards of conduct from different continents going back millennia as if they're all interchangeable. Roman traditions aren't Muslim traditions aren't Christian traditions aren't Jewish traditions aren't Asian traditions, etc... For example, showing affection in public is still frowned on in some cultures, but it also has nothing to do with marriage.