### q5 political considerations impact elite marriage choices > A lack of formal marriage allowed the setting aside of one concubine in favor of a more politically attractive union relatively simpler. If there was no evidence of marriage, no public declaration of intent, no exchange of lands, then how simple for a king to set aside consort as a bed companion alone with no marital legitimacy. This was, no doubt, the approach taken by both Edward and Edgar to their unions with their first wives; it is no coincidence that it was most often a king’s first consort, a match made before he ascended the throne, who was identified as a concubine. - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fj78mpfnzw6resdamcw4tb81) - [[From Æthelflæd to Ælfthryth The Idea of Queenship in Tenth-Century England by Matthew Firth#q5 political considerations impact elite marriage choices|View in Vault]] - [n] [[Newsletter Ideas]]: concubines. - [n] #articleseed whether concubines were ever common in the lower classes?