Marriage is a false dividing line to impose on our understanding of childhood, adulthood and parenting in the past. In early modern England neither the dependency which has been associated with childhood, nor the supervision of parents in the lives of their children, ceased with wedding bells. An examination of the parent‐child bond beyond marriage within the middle and upper ranks can provide new and important insights into the intergenerational relationships of the early modern past. While parents could contribute to the smooth running of their children's marriages, they could also have a role as instigators of, commentators upon, and arbitrators of the discord which could result in their children's marriages. Motives for parental involvement could be complex, but parents could share in both the sorrows and the joys of their children's marriages. The emotional and financial repercussions of marriage breakdown could have painful effects for parents as well as for the married couple.
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Elizabeth Foyster (2001) studied this question.