The Council of Trent defended matrimony as a sacrament, reaffirming traditional Catholic teachings, butalso putting an end to future clandestinemarriages by imposing conditions for the marriage contract to be valid, assuring the free consent of the spouses, making it public, bringing the rite under the control of the clergy, and keeping an official record of the ceremony. It forbade divorce while not condemning the practices of the Orthodox.

If we are to understand the inner articulations of power in the Classic Maya polity, and how they extended outward to interact with others, we must address the familial bonds through which these were realised and reproduced. We need, in short, to examine how ties both within and between Classic Maya polities were established through marriage and their resulting progeny. Superficially narrow in focus, this topic actually engages broad issues of kinship, legitimacy, succession, and power relations – forming a bridge between the preceding chapters that focus on the individual polity and those to come that concentrate on how they engaged with others. Every dynastic group seeks to maintain itself and, wherever possible, enhance its fortunes by manipulating its reproduction. This involves overt planning and negotiation in the expectation of, among other things, forging alliances, generating heirs, and securing resources.