Tying the knot for love appears to be common sense today, but it has only been a mainstream concept within the last century. In the history of marriage, the focus is about collaboration – to join forces in order to improve one’s lot in life. In patriarchal societies where men largely inherit power and wealth, women are the oil that greases the wheel of societal progress, be it simple as extra hands in the field or complicated as forming political alliances to advance national interest. And in many societies, the tradition of offering dowry, which is the wealth that a bride brings, has become mainstream practice to improve the prospect of marriage for her. From the 15th to 18th century, European societies reached the golden age of dowries, amounting to fortunes large enough to change the course of history.
Among the most powerful royal marriages was between Catherine de’ Medici and the Duke of Orleans, arranged by Pope Clement VII. When Giulio de’ Medici was elected Pope Clement VII in 1523, his position was precarious. With the on-going conflict between France and the Holy Roman Empire, Clement seesawed between factions in order to maintain control in Italy. When the Medici were overthrown in Florence in 1527, Clement had no choice but to crown Charles V of Austria the Holy Roman Emperor in return for his help to retake the city. Florence finally surrendered in August 1530, and Clement summoned his niece Catherine to join him in Rome. In order to shore up his papacy and the Medici family’s power, he set out to secure Catherine’s marriage to Henry, the Duke of Orleans.
Catherine was not particularly beautiful by standards of her time. On her visit to Rome, the Venetian envoy described her as “small of stature, and thin, and without delicate features, but having the protruding eyes peculiar to the Medici family”. She was also described to be vivacious, intelligent, and educated. As a part of her dowry, it was secretly agreed for Pisa, Parma, Piacenza, Reggio, Modena, and Leghorn to be annexed to the French Crown . The Pope promised to back King Francis I of France in taking Genoa and Milan and in annexing Urbino for the young couple. He also promised a dowry of 100,000 gold écus, half to be paid on her arrival and the remainder in installments. To help finance this sum, Clement borrowed 80,000 écus from Filippo Strozzi in exchange for a gold, gem-encrusted clasp by Benvenuto Cellini. In return for this enormous dowry, the Pope had achieved an astonishing match for his niece, who was not of royal blood. However, Clement died the next year, the payments thus stopped coming, and King Francis lamented, “The girl has come to me stark naked.”
Their marriage was not smooth sailing, as they did not bear children for 10 years. When Henry became King of France, he excluded Catherine from state affairs, instead showering favors on his mistress, Diane de Poitiers, who wielded significant influence in court. Eventually, she would give birth to 10 children, but it did not improve their marriage. After the king’s death, however, she became the most important woman in Europe in the 16th century. It was coined “the age of Catherine de’ Medici,” when she advanced her influence and political power during the reign of her three sons.
In the circumstance of King Henry VIII of England’s marriage to his dead brother’s widow, Catherine of Aragon, it was for a sum of 200,000 ducats. Catherine had originally married Henry’s older brother Arthur, Prince of Wales. The Spanish bride came with a dowry of 200,000 ducats, equivalent to an entire year’s income for the English Crown and government or two years’ imports of treasure from the gold and silver mines of the New World. But Arthur died only 5 months later, and his father, King Henry VII, did not want to leave this money behind. He thus arranged for Henry, then 11 years of age, to be engaged to Catherine. Henry wedded her 7 years later and divorced her after 24 years. By the time the king married his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, it was to form an alliance with Protestant Germany to challenge the order of the Holy Roman Empire.
In 1539, the alliance between France and the Holy Roman Empire had threatened to attack England. Meanwhile, William, Duke of Cleves, a leader of the Protestants of western Germany, had been at war with the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V for control of the Duchy of Guelders. Thus the marriage between his sister, Anne of Cleves, and King Henry VIII was seen as to forge an alliance between the two Protestant powers in order to challenge the Holy Roman Empire. The Duke of Cleves promised a dowry of 100,000 gold florins for Anne, which was to be split into a wedding day payment of 40,000 and the remainder being paid within a year. Henry waived this sum, of which Anne’s brother could ill afford. But rumor had it that the king wedded her to get his hands on her alum.
Alum is a mordant, an astringent mineral salt that “bites” onto color, allowing dyes to bond to textile. In the Middle Ages, it was scarce, and therefore was a valuable commodity in Europe. Dyers as far as Flanders and Germany would travel to Champagne, France to buy alum imported from Turkey. In England as well, King Henry VII profited from the alum trade by licensing ships, obtaining alum from the Ottoman Empire, and selling it to the Low Countries and within England. The country’s economy had been centered around wool and linen, which was a legacy of the monasteries. In 1458, an alum mine found in Tolfa, Italy, gave the Vatican a near monopoly for several decades. And when King Henry VIII seized religious control from the Pope so he could divorce his first wife Catherine of Aragon, it became imperative to find an alternative source of alum. Then in the 16th century, deposits were found in Flanders.
Scandalously the marriage ended only after 6 months. It was not a divorce, but an annulment, meaning the marriage was not valid on the ground of never being consummated. Henry complained of Anne being unattractive and uncultured. She was “the Flanders Mare.” As the king had banished his first wife and beheaded his second wife, one could only imagine her anguish. Yet Anne survived this disaster. But Henry’s chief minister Thomas Cromwell, who had arranged the marriage, was executed on the same day the king wedded his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, whom he would eventually order to be beheaded as well. Anne was granted the honored title of “the King’s Sister,” received a generous settlement, and enjoyed a freedom not available had she been the queen. In the end, she outlived Henry’s five other wives.
To celebrate the gold leaf bride, who comes bearing golden fortune, this bridal gown is molded from 2 silk rectangles woven with a gold leaf motif, which come from a vintage sari. May the wealth she brings give her the status and power that she desires, but if all else fails – the freedom that she needs.
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