Marriage Agreements. After a man and woman were betrothed, their families typically negotiated a marriage contract. There were many different economic arrangements involved in a marriage contract. Inherited from the ancient practices of the Romans and the Germanic peoples, these compacts evolved and changed over the course of the Middle Ages. In Roman practice the bride's family provided a dos (dowry) at the time of her marriage to assist the couple in establishing their household. By the third century the groom's family was providing the bride with a substantial marriage gift, the donatio propter nuptias (donation on account of marriage). This gift usually exceeded the amount of the dowry, indicating that wives had become increasingly prized. In an 866 letter to the Boris I, King of the Bulgarians, Pope Nicholas I mentioned that in the marriage ceremony the man conveyed property to...