THE SCENE: Getting strong-armed into an unwanted political marriage was not an exclusively female experience in the middle ages, as this passage about the son of a rebellious Lotharingian duke reveals.
THE SCENE: At that time there was a certain Lotharingian by the name of Christian who enquired how he might be honored with even greater favor with [King Henry]. Simulating an illness, he sent for Giselbert, who stood next in line to succeed to the dukedom of his father, captured him by treachery, and sent him under guard to King Henry. For Giselbert was of noble race and of an old family. The king received his prisoner with joy, because he thought that through him he would obtain sole dominion over the kingdom of Lothair. Then seeing that the young man was very industrious, and was endowed with talents both innate and acquired and renowned for his wealth, he began to treat him more kindly, and finally espoused him to his daughter Gerberga, so that he was united to him by affinity and friendship alike, and the whole kingdom of Lothair was thereby subject to him.
– The Deeds of the Saxons, Widukind of Corvey, 10th Century AD
