Diana O'Hara received a PhD in history from the University of Kent at Canterbury in 1995, and is a researcher with Victoria County History

'... one of the most illuminating studies of marriage in the period that I have read in the last thirty years.' Professor K. E. Wrightson 'Overall, then, this is a quite wonderful book, richly rewarding in its detail, insights and conclusions. It will change the way historians think about the origins of the European marriage pattern, about the popular acculturation of marriage law, about the dynamics of inheritance and most of all about the freedom which is conventionally understood to have underpinned the making of English marriage.' Journal of Continuity and Change

• 1. The structures of courtship and the role of family, kin and community.2. The language of tokens and the making of marriage3. 'Movers', 'sutors', 'speakers', and 'brokers' of marriage: the role of the go-betweens as a 'means' of courtship4. Courtship horizons in the sixteenth century: distance and place as factors in marriage formation5. The timing of marriage: constraints and expectations6. Material girls?: dowries and property in courtship