The question concerns a type of legal contract known in French as affrèrement which translates as enbrotherment. This contract was originally designed to allow brothers to become equal holders of inherited property but also came to be used by more distant relatives and even by men who were unrelated. The pair entering into this contract became legally one in that they owned property in common and could set up their own mutual household and they also became heirs to one another. This was considered by legal writers of the time to be similar to marriage and allowed for the forming of households which were recognized though not of the standard husband/wife model.

Allan A. Tulchin of ShippensburgUniversity also points out that they were often granted upon the partners making assurances of their deep mutual affection. They even ended up at times being buried next to one another in churchyards.

It is not possible to prove that some of these relationships were romantic but it is also not possible to prove that at least some of them were not. But what we do know is that six hundred years ago in France two single, unrelated men could go before a notary with witnesses and avow a deep mutual affection and the result would be a legal arrangement which recognized these men as a family unit. They lived together, worked together, owned property together and were accepted by their community who even buried them together.