Valentine, a Christian priest of ancient Rome, was executed on 14th February 269 AD, for trying to encourage the Roman emperor Claudius III to adopt the Christian faith. He had previously proved the existence of Christ to his gaoler, Judge Asterius, by restoring the sight of his adopted daughter. Before his execution he sent a note to the now-sighted daughter and signed it ‘your Valentine’. He is also believed to have carried out Christian weddings against the order of the emperor: this meant the husbands were able to avoid conscription. It is said that he made a gift of a heart cut out of parchment to remind the wedded couples of their vows to each other and of God’s love.
A day to celebrate the life of Saint Valentine in the Christian calendar was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD, but any association with love and romance did not emerge until the Middle Ages, when the idea that the mating of birds began on that particuar day in mid-February became established – perhaps in reference to Valentine’s wedding ceremonies.
In Chaucer’s The Parliament of Fowls, written in 1382 in honour of the engagement of Richard II to Anne of Bohemia, he makes a direct reference to this association.
For this was on seynt Valentynes day
Whan every foul cometh there to chese his make
Of every kynde that men thynke may
And that so huge a noyse gan they make
That erthe, and eyr, and tre, and every lake
So ful was, that unethe was there space
For me to stonde, so ful was al the place."
In modern English:
For this was on Saint Valentine's Day
When every bird comes there to choose his match
Of every kind that men may think of
And that so huge a noise they began to make
That earth and air and tree and every lake
Was so full, that not easily was there space
For me to stand — so full was all the place.
The idea of choosing to become someone’s Valentine (possibly deriving from the note sent by Saint Valentine to Asterius’ daughter) had certainly become a tradition by the beginning of the seventeenth century, as we find the following verse sung by Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet:
To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.
Then up he rose, and donn'd his clothes,
And dupp'd the chamber-door;
Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more.
By the end of the seventeenth century the tradition of asking to be someone’s valentine had become established as a light-hearted custom carried out by friends as well as lovers as suggested in Samuel Pepys’ diary entry of 14th February 1665:
14th (St. Valentine). This morning comes betimes Dicke Pen, to be my wife's Valentine, and come to our bedside. By the same token, I had him brought to my side, thinking to have made him kiss me; but he perceived me, and would not; so went to his Valentine: a notable, stout, witty boy. I up about business, and, opening the door, there was Bagwell's wife, with whom I talked afterwards, and she had the confidence to say she came with a hope to be time enough to be my Valentine, and so indeed she did, but my oath preserved me from losing any time with her …
The choice of Valentine was treated as an elaborate game. At a party or family gathering, names were written on pieces of paper, which were drawn at random, and people were thus paired up, to ‘play’ at being lovers. Even married people like Samuel and Elizabeth Pepys took part and had their ‘valentines’, and they were expected to pay each of them little compliments for the next few days, while the men were required to buy presents.
Fate could dictate your choice of valentine in another way, as it was widely believed that the first eligible person you saw in the morning of the 14th February was the one for you. In poorer, rural areas, Valentine’s Day customs included the visiting of children who would knock on doors and ask for treats.
Valentine letters were presumably a feature of the day from quite early on, but commercially produced Valentine cards did not appear until the early nineteenth century.
Valentine’s Day (or its eve) was considered one of the key dates in the year on which love-divination procedures could properly be carried out. Many of these divinations were well known, such as sowing the hemp seed, in which unmarried girls threw hemp seed over their shoulders at midnight in the hope of seeing the forms of their future lovers following them.
