The second season of Netflix’s much-beloved period drama has left fans swooning as a new summer of courtship grips the Ton.
The new series follows the , Anthony (Jonathan Bailey), as he sets out to find himself an ideal partnership.
He thinks he has found the one in the new diamond of the season – Edwina Sharma (Charithra Chandran) – but soon finds himself falling for her older sister, Kate ().
That isn’t the only romance Lady Whistledown is gossiping about across the Ton, as Eloise Bridgerton is forced to make her debut and follow in her sister’s footsteps, and desperately tries to secure her family’s future.
There’s often the mention of a dowry when it comes to the discussion of marriage in the early 1800s world of Bridgerton.
But what exactly is a dowry anyway?
What is a dowry?
A dowry – or dowries – are a set of assets that a bride’s family gifts to a groom when they get married.
They have taken many forms across history, from money to material goods, real estate or plots of land.
While rarely heard of these days, a dowry served many purposes – firstly, it gives the newlywed couple the money and means to help build a home together.
Second, the loss of a dowry gave the bride some protection if her husband were to become abusive and/or the marriage ends in a divorce.
They also served as a kind of enticement to potential grooms, as a larger dowry could make a family’s daughter seem more marriageable, as is often shown to be the case in Bridgerton (even if it seems a rather un-romantic reason to get married).
While largely out of fashion in the modern world, dowries were a common practice across the world and history, dating right back to the Code of Hammurabi, which is nearly 3000 years old.
Dowries were also commonplace in Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, as well as across Africa and Asia.
Dowries fell out of fashion along with the notion of arranged marriages in England during the Victorian era (1837-1901). However, they are still quite commonplace in India where arranged marriages still take place, despite the fact dowries have been illegal in the country since 1961.
Bridgerton seasons 1 and 2 are available to stream now on Netflix.
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