"Now we need to circle back to the first law that you brought up. Noble men will absolutely not be happy about their wives being able to have a secret lover without any consequences…"
Becca spoke up before I could say anything,
"Let me suggest a slight tweak to the law that Nick wanted to pass. I think he has a little misunderstanding of how the average noble relationship goes.
The husband very rarely has a 'secret' lover. Men having multiple women is not something to hide, so they can have as many as lovers as they want out in public. They just need to take responsibility.
Men can have concubines and multiple wives. These two positions are official and come with various responsibilities like financial support.
These positions need to be documented to the Kingdom, so they are known by everyone.
I think you are misunderstanding because the only relationship you have heard about is our own before your memories were lost.
You were a special case…you had multiple secret lovers because you liked to sleep with people without any consideration of taking them on officially as a concubine if they were commoners or a wive if they were nobles."
Hmmm, I see. I was subconsciously using my original world's ethics when thinking about the problem. In this world, it is not respectable to have casual sex, so a man has to take some level of responsibility for all of his lovers.
Men can do all their sleeping around without having to hide anything, so it would not be an equal exchange to let women have no punishment for secret lovers.
Becca continued, "therefore, I think the way to create an equivalent right, so that men can't argue against it without being hypocritical, would be to make a law saying that woman can also have multiple husbands and concubines."
I sat in silence thinking about the implications of this tweak in my initial plan. It was kind of promoting more polygamy, which I am not a big fan of, but it does allow the rights of husbands and wives to be equal for now.
Also, my initial reason for bringing up this law, wives being killed for secret lovers, should be fixed by the fact that they can now have their lovers be official husbands or concubines instead of keeping them in secret.
In the long run, I think this could all work out if we eventual add two laws that let people get divorced and also makes it so that spouses have to approve of their significant other getting another wive or concubine.
That would ultimately create relationships where both sides were respected equally and given a chance to not be forced into a situation that they don't want to be in.
Of course, adding those two extra laws right now would be too much for people to handle, so we need to focus on the two that will save people from getting kill, imprisoned, or injured.
"What are the chances that men will actually agree to start a relationship with a woman that already has a husband?"
Becca thought about it and answered, "I don't think noble men will agree to marry a married woman, since it would hurt their pride to share a woman, but commoners would most likely be okay with being a concubine as long as they are given a life of luxury to live like female concubines."
"Can most noble women provide a life of luxury for a concubine or will the husband not let them have any pocket money?"
"Noble women get payed a monthly allowance that is based on how wealthy their estate is. Noble men will most likely have too much pride to give their wives a smaller monthly allowance because it will be seen as them being too poor to afford it."
"Ok Becca, I agree that your change will be more practical and has the same effect that I was looking for. Thanks for clearing up my misunderstanding.
Also, if we find out after implementing this law, that noble husbands really are reducing their wives' monthly allowance so they can't afford concubines, than we can add a law that requires the monthly allowances of both husband and wife to be the same. That way if they don't want their wives to have concubines, then they also can't have any."
"I'm glad you agree. Even the women that I talked to that were unhappy in their marriages would say that they want a new husband instead of wanting a secret lover. Secret lovers were frowned upon even amongst women."
"James, what do you think?"
James was carefully considering all the ramifications of this change in the way people were allowed to act.
"I think it will still be a tough pill to swallow for most noble men, but I think it will be okay if we counter anyone that argues by saying that if they don't want their wives to be able to have multiple husbands and concubine, then we could instead make it illegal for everyone to have multiple spouses and concubine; whatever the law ends up being, men and women will have the same rights.
Most men would rather keep their ability to have multiple women than worry about their wives having the same ability."
I stood up and gave both Becca and James a pat on the shoulder. "Alright! We have agreed on our first 2 laws in the long road to our dream future.
Thanks for your feedback. Do either of you have an urgent law idea that you want to get passed?"
Becca said, "not that I can think of right now."
James spoke up, "no my Lord, I think these are a good start."
"Sounds good. James can you start writing these up to be officially passed? I will read through them once you finish them."
"I will start working on it now. It will take me a little while."
"I understand that laws needs to be written meticulously. Take your time and don't let there be any loopholes.
While you are busy, me and Becca will take our leave and go have a little lunch date. Sound good Becca?"
"Yes, I am ready to go!"
I made a small bow to James, "sorry we have to leave you to do all the work. Neither of us know anything about writing laws. I have faith that you can do a good job."
"I completely understand. I will make sure to write laws that are up to your standards.
"Thanks James. I'll see you later."
I grabbed Becca's hand and we walked out of the door.