Hi all,

Yes, this does tie-in to my other topic, mainly if the PKs manage/choose to press their case.

Adultery is of course a big deal. Guinevere was to be burned at the stake for it. However, I think there are historical precedents against executing a pregnant woman. Not to mention that at least one pagan female player knight would feel quite worried about setting such a precedent in Salisbury, or executing women for adultery to begin with.

Greg has the Sex and Honor in his webpage giving 10 Honor Loss for pre-marital or extra-marital sex. Does post-marital (widows) become pre-marital (before the marriage to the next husband) again? I would assume that such a charge needs to be proven (by a duel if necessary), before the Honor Loss occurs.

What happens if the lover sweeps in, rescues the woman from the nunnery, marries her and starts fighting (successful) duels against anyone insulting her? Is she still a pariah of the society or does she regain some honor by this?

Isolt must have had a high honor to begin with to have survived eloping with Tristram. At least, I have never gotten the impression that she was considered a pariah by the society at large, but I am certainly not a scholar of the literature.

I am trying to get some handle on how desperate things might become.

Best,
Morien

Isolt must have had a high honor to begin with to have survived eloping with Tristram. At least, I have never gotten the impression that she was considered a pariah by the society at large, but I am certainly not a scholar of the literature.


Isolt probably has two advantages:

1. King Mark is seen as such an unknightly coward that few people can fault her from running away with him (for that matter, they probably see Tristram as rescuing her from her ignoble husband).

2. The strength of the love potion provides additional mitigating circumstances.

Isolt probably has two advantages:


True... So it would also depend on the husband and the lover? Or is this a case of us seeing Isolt from the perspective of Arthur's court, rather than from the eyes of the Cornish Court?

Granted, cheating on a good king like Arthur is a whole lot different from cheating on Mark. And that love potion, too.

Greg has the Sex and Honor in his webpage giving 10 Honor Loss for pre-marital or extra-marital sex. Does post-marital (widows) become pre-marital (before the marriage to the next husband) again? I would assume that such a charge needs to be proven (by a duel if necessary), before the Honor Loss occurs.

Widows were always in kind of a weird place. They usually had a lot more freedom of action and independence than wives or maidens, as well as a fair amount of property. I'd go a lot easier on widows between marriages than girls looking for their first one--maybe the -10 only if it becomes common knowledge instead of an open secret?