Did medieval lords really have the “right of the first night”–that is, the right to be the first to bed the local brides? This figured in the movie Braveheart, and I know I have seen other references to it. I’m not saying the big shots didn’t take advantage, but I have a hard time believing this was a generally accepted custom, much less a law.
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Also, while I realize women were supposed to be helpless and all, I have to think that once you sacrificed the element of surprise there’d be some risk in taking on a population that was practiced in the art of filleting fish. Although medieval choirs had to get their sopranos somewhere.
The right of the first night–also known as jus primae noctis (law of the first night), droit du seigneur (the lord’s right), etc–has been the subject of locker-room humor and a fair amount of scholarly debate for centuries. Voltaire condemned it in 1762, it’s a plot device in Beaumarchais’ The Marriage of Figaro, and various old histories refer to it.
Similarly, ecclesiastical authorities in some regions demanded a fee before a new husband was allowed to sleep with his wife. Some think this means the clergy once upon a time exercised the right of the first night too. But come on, how many first nights can one woman have? What did these guys do, take a number?
