The flitch of bacon custom also evolved into a celebratory event. The couple then revealed their true identities, and Fitzwalter gave his land to the priory on the condition that a flitch should be awarded to any couple who could claim they were similarly devoted. The prior was so impressed by the couple’s devotion to one another he bestowed upon them a flitch of bacon. One day Robert (some say his name was Reginald) Fitzwalter and his wife dressed humbly and presented themselves before the prior begging for his blessings. Eventually, the land passed to a family named Fitzwalter. She founded the priory in 1104 and was sister to the Lord of the Manor at the time. One claim about the origination of this custom is that it began with the priory’s founder, Lady Juga Baynard. The Dunmow flitch of bacon custom was “the custom of presenting a flitch of Bacon to any married couple who could swear that neither of them in a twelvemonth and day from their marriage had ever repented of his or her union.” Sometimes the custom was referred to as the “Dunmow Flitch Trials” partly because it was practiced at the Priory of Dunmow in Essex supposedly since the “days of yore,” although one British historian reports it was actually influenced by a Norse tradition.
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