Sexual repression: the reformation and sexual relationships in transformation, c. 1540-1650

This project is about the changes in courtship and flirting during the 16th and 17th centuries. Pre-martial and extra-marital relationships were not unknown in early modern society. People courted and flirted and had fiancées in anticipation of one day having the means to marry. They might also have extra-marital relationships or more stable concubinages.

But in the wake of the reformation laws were introduced protestant territories punishing premarital sex with severe fines and extra marital sex with death.

Previous research has explored the legal aspects of this repression in Sweden: how many people were condemned, for what and how were they punished? What is missing in previous research however is a study on what secondary effects these harsher sexual laws had.

The fact that one in theory could be sentenced to death, or be financially ruined by heavy fines, for extra- and pre-marital sex have had effect on the modes of courtship, how pre- and extra-marital relationships were established and performed.

Court records and cathedral chapter protocols from the period are filled with histories and testimonies of courtship, love and sex gone wrong.

But from these stories we are also able to construct a narrative of what was considered common practice, what was accepted and what was not. Through them I aim to study how this sexual repression effected courtship and flirting in early modern society.