Editing Handfasting (section)

== Early modern Scotland ==
In February 1539 [[Marie Pieris]], a French lady-in-waiting to [[Mary of Guise]], the consort of [[James V of Scotland]], was married by handfasting to [[George Seton, 6th Lord Seton|Lord Seton]] at [[Falkland Palace]]. This ceremony was recorded in the royal accounts for the payment to an [[apothecary]] for his work on the day of "Lord Seytounis handfasting".<ref>[[James Balfour Paul]], ''Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland'', vol. 7 (Edinburgh, 1907), p. 140.</ref>

The [[Scottish Hebrides]], particularly in the [[Isle of Skye]], show some records of 'Handfast" or "left-handed" marriage occurring in the late 1600s, when the Gaelic scholar [[Martin Martin]] noted, "It was an ancient custom in the Isles that a man take a maid as his wife and keep her for the space of a year without marrying her; and if she pleased him all the while, he married her at the end of the year and legitimatised her children; but if he did not love her, he returned her to her parents."<ref name=Martin1693>{{cite book |title=A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland |first=Martin |last=Martin |publisher=London Hamilton, Adams |date=1693 |edition=1st |page=114 }}  (2nd ed., 1716)</ref>

The most disastrous war fought between the MacLeods and MacDonalds of Skye culminated in the [[Battle of Coire Na Creiche]] when Donald Gorm Mor, who handfasted [for a year and a day] with Margaret MacLeod, a sister of [[Roderick Macleod of Macleod|Rory Mor]] of [[Dunvegan Castle|Dunvegan]], ignominiously expelled his mistress from Duntulm. It is probable that it was as a result of this war that [[Andrew Stuart, 1st Baron Castle Stuart|Lord Ochiltree's]] Committee, which formed the [[Statutes of Iona]] in 1609 and the Regulations for the Chiefs in 1616, was induced to insert a clause in the Statutes of Iona by which "marriages contracted for several [archaic definition 'single'] years" were prohibited; and any who might disregard this regulation were to be "punished as fornicators".<ref>{{cite book |title=History of Skye |first=Alexander |last=Nicolson |date=1930 |publisher=MacLean Press |location=60 Aird Bhearnasdail, by Portree, Isle of Skye |page=87 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=History of the Western Highlands and Isles of Scotland |first=D. |last=Gregory |date=1881 |page=331|publisher=Palala Press }}</ref>

By the 18th century, the [[Kirk of Scotland]] no longer recognised marriages formed by mutual consent and subsequent sexual intercourse, even though the Scottish civil authorities did.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Andrews |first=William |title=Bygone Church Life in Scotland |publisher=Hull Press |year=1899 |pages=210–212 |url={{google books|tvYOAAAAQAAJ|plainurl=yes}} |via=Google Books }}</ref> To minimise any resulting legal actions, the ceremony was to be performed in public.<ref>{{Cite book | last=Macfarlane | first=Leslie J. | editor-last=MacDonald | editor-first=Alasdair A. | editor2-last=Lynch | editor2-first=Michael | contribution=William Elphinstone's Library Revisited | title=The Renaissance in Scotland: Studies in Literature, Religion, History, and Culture |publisher=E.J. Brill |year=1994 |location=Leiden | page=75 |url={{google books|Yl71m3YBVGwC|plainurl=yes}} |via=Google Books | isbn=978-90-04-10097-8 }}</ref> This situation persisted until 1939, when Scottish marriage laws were reformed by the [[Marriage (Scotland) Act 1939]] and handfasting was no longer recognised.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rackwitz |first=Martin |title=Travels to Terra Incognita: The Scottish Highlands and Hebrides in Early Modern Travellers' Accounts c. 1600 to 1900 |publisher=Waxmann Verlag GmbH |year=2007 |page=497, note 199 |url={{google books|GZWpQi7vY0QC|plainurl=yes}} |via=Google Books |isbn=978-3-8309-1699-4}}</ref>

The existence of handfasting as a distinct form of "trial marriage" was doubted by A. E. Anton, in ''Handfasting in Scotland'' (1958). In the article, he asserted that the first reference to such a practice is by [[Thomas Pennant]] in his 1790 ''Tour in Scotland'',<ref name=Anton1958>{{cite journal |last=Anton |first=A.E. |title='Handfasting' in Scotland |journal=The Scottish Historical Review |volume=37 |issue=124 |date=October 1958 |pages=89–102 }}</ref> that this report had been taken at face value throughout the 19th century, and was perpetuated in [[Walter Scott]]'s 1820 novel ''[[The Monastery]]''. However, the Pennant claim in 1790 was not the first time this had been discussed or put to print, as the Martin Martin texts predate Pennant by almost 100 years.<ref name=Martin1693/>