Medieval child marriages

Question

I have been looking at my presumed Magna Carta descents, of which there are quite a number.

I am frequently seeing cases where a couple may have been married at a very young age, before their teenage years, and in quite a few cases as young as 3 years.

Sometimes there is a solid marriage date (ie, no qualifiers such as about or after), sometimes “before” a specified date. Birthdates are frequently estimates (“about”).

There are sometimes a citation to a secondary reference, which I do not have access to. But, never have I seen a primary source verification of a marriage of such young children.

I have seen historical references to marriage contracts and proxy marriages among the royalty, so I know it did happen.

How common were child marriages among the nobility or aristocracy?

Comments

Can you give examples? The reason I ask is that I am wondering if these cases you mention are just guesses by genealogists. There are very few real marriage records for medieval people. What exists more often are things like marriage agreements, or permissions to marry. These could of course certainly have been made when people were young, but they were not real marriage records.

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Medieval profiles are often sparse on details, let alone sources. For example, the case of Margaret Beaufort cited by C. Handy, which has a detailed biography but leaves out much detail. There is uncertainty concerning Margaret’s year of birth (but apparently not with the month and day). Thus her age at the first marriage is uncertain (either 1 year old or 3 years old; she may have been married in early 1444, although she and her spouse were granted a dispensation for consanguinity in 1450, which in turn suggests a later marriage date). Her marriage was annulled, but the profile has two different dates for the end of this marriage (6 Mar 1453 or bef 24 Mar 1453). While the first date is not inconsistent with the second, which is it?

On the issue of Roman Catholic Canon Law, and Roman Law, the minimum marriageable ages for females was 12 and males 14.

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I added tags for medieval and euroaristo to bring this to the attention of project members.

Answer 1

Depending on the time period, it was relatively common among the nobility for there to be a betrothal or marriage contract at an early age, but usually not much before 8 or 9; marriage at an early age was also somewhat common, see for instance Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, who was betrothed at age 3, married by 7, marriage annulled by age 9, remarried at age 12 and a mother at 14.