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cover of episode What Happened On A Medieval Wedding Night?

What Happened On A Medieval Wedding Night?

2025/4/22
logo of podcast Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society

Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society

Transcript

Shownotes Transcript

We've been tying the knot for thousands of years in one way or another, but what did a medieval wedding look like?

The church had very strict ideas around monogamy and sex in this period, which affected the rituals of a wedding day, AND night.

What happened in the bed chambers of the newlyweds? Why was pleasure so important? And why were divorce courts so humiliating?

Joining Kate today is author and historian Jacqueline Murray, to take us back to the Middle Ages.

This episode was edited by Tom Delargy. The producer was Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.

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All music from Epidemic Sounds.

Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.