At the start of 524 A.D., Sir Pellandres the Proud, Sir Carabad le Juste, and Carabad's lady-love the damosel Madule of the Raven Locks embarked on a quest to find Merlin the Magician, missing now these several years. Pellandres hadn't spent much time around Madule before, and when she rebuffed his flirtations he immediately developed suspicions about her. What could a rich, intellectually active, pagan heiress like Madule find even remotely promising about the stolid Sir Carabad?
While looking through the economics stuff in Pendragon 4e, I finally figured out the Carabad/Madule relationship.
Madule is an heiress, meaning her father died. Her father received his land as a grant from his liege. So long as an heiress remains unmarried, the income from her lands goes to the liege's coffers (4e pg 139-40). A liege would then pay a small amount of money to maintain the heiress's up-keep. This is a huge money-making deal for a liege! A lady like Madule might bring in 30-odd Librum a year, but only take about 2-3 L to maintain.
Not only could a liege rob an heiress blind, he also could pretty much hold her hostage. The liege had authority over when (and who) the maiden could marry. Of course, since he keeps collecting the cash until she gets a husband, he might never allow it!
So if you're in Madule's position, your liege (whoever he is - Earl Robert, maybe?) is probably exploiting her economically, and reluctant to marry you off. But if you marry somebody, that revenue at least stays in your own household, and you probably have some control over how it gets spent. If your husband dies, though, there might be legal entanglements with the liege again.
But who is the ideal husband? I submit that, within these constraints, Sir Carabad le Juste is irresistible.
- Moderately famous and accomplished - a plausible match on paper
- Provides lavish gifts which can then be re-sold for spending money
- Gullible and easily manipulated when he's around
- But spends most of the year questing
- In fact, quests so badly that he is often driven mad, held captive, or lost in the Fey Realm - in any event, gone for years at a time and yet impossible for the liege to prove he has died.
There may have been other reasons for the marriage - Carabad distinguished himself pretty well in 524 at least - but the economic rationale makes this a really smart move for an intelligent woman interested in preserving what little rights the culture affords her.