Marriage laws 16th century England

Hi,
I'm new, and I know this is a pretty obscure question, but you never know when someone may have information right at their fingertips.

In my novel in late sixteenth century England, a brother and sister both die. To keep the children together, I want the wife of the brother and the husband of the sister to marry.

However, I know the laws of consanguinity for the Church of England at that time were fairly complex. I suspect I may have to go looking though actual documents of the period, but is this kosher? If it weren't, could they get a permission from the Queen to marry?

Thanks,
IreneB.

Thanks

Perfect! Thanks for your help!

IreneB.

Role of the Queen

As a lapsed Catholic, I think that some of the laws still hold for Catholics, but cradle Catholics never learn that much about their religious beliefs!

That's why I was thinking of the Queen being able to offset the laws because in the Church of England, she's the equivalent of the Pope as the head of the Church, pdr. It's interesting, isn't it, how long those laws have lasted?....and now they've found marrying your cousin doesn't have any genetic problems attached to it!


Thanks, IreneB

Queen Elizabeth's reactions

You raise some good points, SJAB, on what would Elizabeth's reaction likely be.

The whole mess of her beginnings must have scarred her in many ways. I'm not so sure she would have been too sensitive about the consanguinity laws. Philip of Spain wanted to marry her after Mary Tudor died, and Elizabeth said no, probably more for reasons of statescraft than familial yuckiness.

And, her mother got beheaded by her father, but that didn't stop Elizabeth from using that same tool of leadership! I always read Elizabeth as pragmatic with a main goal of maintaining the rights of Monarchs to lead their own realms, but again, that's what's fun about writing Historical Fiction. You can make history bow to your own motivations (within limitations).

Thanks for making me rethink Elizabeth's motivations with regard to this.
IreneB

Balance between church and state

Part of the problem is puzzling out what it means to have church and state so intertwined and which need is going to be met first. I think those of us with Western European/Enlightenment roots automatically assume there's a big difference between the two entities, but it's harder to puzzle out what people actually thought before that split occurred.

IreneB