Hi all, I'm here for some homework help or at least some direction. I would be very grateful if you could point toward sources that will help me with my research. I'm writing an 8 page paper (university level) on why so many people decided not to marry in late 16th and early 17th century England.

As per sub rules, I have done research before posting. I have found interesting literature (on JSTOR, for example) on why people married, the importance of marriage in terms of political and social status, the importance of childbearing, the role of women, marriage laws, divorce, etc., as well as information from my lectures. While this is all great information, I simply do not know enough about this topic to know what to search to learn about why people didn't marry.

I'm going to include this information in my paper, because I think it provides a good starting point to understanding marriage during this time period. But the bulk of the paper (reasons for not marrying) is what I'm having trouble with. I do know what young women in the Queen's household were not permitted to marry, or at least had to ask for permission for doing so and so I think lack of permission would have resulted in less marriages. In addition, I understand that marriage policies had changed due to the Protestant Reformation, making marriage a civil union instead of one carried out by the church. I am going to guess that such a change would have led remaining or secret Catholics to refrain from being married in such a way.

I hope worded all of this correctly and included enough information here. I probably rambled and repeated myself. I hope I haven't broken any rules. I figured posting here would make more sense than posting on homework help.

Thanks