Mourning
Posted by The Myaterious H.C. on April 08, 1998 at 09:10:58:
In response to Mourning period for widow, written by April V. on April 07, 1998 at 22:51:42
] Was the period that a widow waited before remarrying 2 years or something else during these times?
April, the customary period of mourning for a spouse was fairly long (though "full mourning" would not have been worn during all that time), but there was no actual or legal barrier against remarrying pretty quickly (however, your neighbors might gossip if you did...)
William Walter Elliot's wife died in July(?) 1814 (when Anne goes to Bath after Christmas, it's said in Chapter 16 "Mr. Elliot, too, it must be remembered, had not been a widower seven months"), and later in the winter of 1815, Lady Russel "was beginning to calculate the number of weeks which would free him from all the remaining restraints of widowhood, and leave him at liberty to exert his most open powers of pleasing".
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