The Royal Pragmatic on Marriage (in Spanish, Real Pragmática) was a form of legislation introduced by the Spanish Crown in its American colonies in order to control the institution of marriage, by requiring children to obtain permission from their parents before marrying, and allowing disinheritance in case of disobedience. The first Royal Pragmatic was passed on 23 March 1776.
The idea behind this legislation is that a family may object if they feel that the future spouse of their child is "inferior", be that in race, wealth, or even reputation. Dr. Jeffrey M. Shumway's The Case of the Ugly Suitor and Other Histories of Love, Gender, and Nation in Buenos Aires, 1776-1870 explores the legal backing of this concept through much of Argentina's history.
Famous quotes containing the words royal, pragmatic and/or marriage:
“These are not the artificial forests of an English king,—a royal preserve merely. Here prevail no forest laws but those of nature. The aborigines have never been dispossessed, nor nature disforested.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“When we start deceiving ourselves into thinking not that we want something or need something, not that it is a pragmatic necessity for us to have it, but that it is a moral imperative that we have it, then is when we join the fashionable madmen, and then is when the thin whine of hysteria is heard in the land, and then is when we are in bad trouble.”
—Joan Didion (b. 1934)
“The parent who loves his child dearly but asks for nothing in return might qualify as a saint, but he will not qualify as a parent. For a child who can claim love without meeting any of the obligations of love will be a self-centered child and many such children have grown up in our time to become petulant lovers and sullen marriage partners because the promise of unconditional love has not been fulfilled.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)