Oh, come on now tsuwm. getting married is fun, what with new clothes, and households, and stationery, and wedding showers, and wedding parties...
its the daily grind of being (remaining!) married that is so awful. we can no longer count on disease to carry off our first husband, (or wife as the case may be) and instead of serial monogamay, we now have long marriages.
it wasn't uncommon for a old widower, (with money!) to marry some poor but hot young thing, and sow his last oats..
and then leave her a young widow, with dependent child(ren)and the childs estate to manage.. with a bit of money of her own, hopefully too.
and some poor young man, looking to make his way in the world, would take on (now) the less than prime widow, with her kids, and give her a few more, till she dropped from exhaustion, or some complication of birthing, and he would inherit her money, (and control over the moneys of his step children) and use those assets to build up his holding so he could be a rich old widower, who could marry a poor but hot babe!
keeping the same husband (or wife) for years and years on end is a rather new life style, and the prospect is scary! Forget Pre-nups, let's go for contract marriage.. 5 years at a time.. no divorce.. just come to the end of contract time and either renew, or end!
