The Youngest Royal Brides in History


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in modern times, I think one of the youngest brides (if not the youngest )was Queen Anne Marie of Greece.
 
I think medival times are quite different and incomparable to today or even our century.
First of all most people didn't live that long, and secondly a protected childhood like we see today was not known back then. Even regular peasant folk married rather early (well maybe not quite at 8-15 but right after)

In our century however we protect children and we consider childhood a period of time that last until eighteen.
Which is why for ex Anne Marie of Denmark and Greece who fell in love at cute 16 was made to wait until 18.
That Ira von Fuerstenberg married THAT young however is very surprising. Her groom seriously could and should be accused (or at least supected of) pedophelia...

BTW another quite young royal bride was Victorias oldest daughter Princess Vicky, princess royal and later Empress Frederic. She married her prince a couple of days short of her 18 birthday due to her parents insistence she should wait. Engaged she had been since she was fourteen.
And her descendant QEII had decided upon her partner-in-life rather early as well, however she too would have to wait until convention would allow for a wedding....
 
I think CP Sarah of Brunei is the youngest bride in those last years.
I think that she was only 17 years old when she married
She was very young but I am not totally shocked since she has the right to accept or not.
It wasn't an arranged marriage.They were presented to each other by a friend.Her mom advised her to think a lot before taking her decision.
It's nice that she continued school but I was sad when I learnt that she was pregnant less than 2 years after her marriage.May be she is very happy but in my opinion she should have waited more.But,this is her choice.
She is an elegant and very professionnal princess.For me,she is one of the most elegant crown princesses.she has nothing to envy to older crown princesses.
 
fee said:
I think medival times are quite different and incomparable to today or even our century.
First of all most people didn't live that long, and secondly a protected childhood like we see today was not known back then. Even regular peasant folk married rather early (well maybe not quite at 8-15 but right after)

In our century however we protect children and we consider childhood a period of time that last until eighteen.
Which is why for ex Anne Marie of Denmark and Greece who fell in love at cute 16 was made to wait until 18.
That Ira von Fuerstenberg married THAT young however is very surprising. Her groom seriously could and should be accused (or at least supected of) pedophelia...

BTW another quite young royal bride was Victorias oldest daughter Princess Vicky, princess royal and later Empress Frederic. She married her prince a couple of days short of her 18 birthday due to her parents insistence she should wait. Engaged she had been since she was fourteen.
And her descendant QEII had decided upon her partner-in-life rather early as well, however she too would have to wait until convention would allow for a wedding....
Click to expand...

Vicky was married on 25 January 1858. She didn't turn 18 until that November, so she had just turned 17 the year before.
Queen Marie of Romania was just sixteen when she married Crown Prince Carol in 1892.
Kaiseren Augusta of Prussia was sixteen when she married Wilhelm I. He was quite a bit older than her, like 12 years or something.
If you go back far enough, the girls seem to get younger and younger when they're married; for example, Margaret of Baufort was married to Owen Tudor and had the future Henry VII at thirteen; because she was so young, giving birth damaged her body and she was unable to have any more children.
 
Furienna said:
It was very common back then, especially within royal families, for half-siblings to get married to each other. The pharaoh Tuthankhamon and his queen Ankhusenamon (sp?) had the same father, pharaoh Akhnaton, but different mothers. And one of the few female pharaohs, Hatschesput, was also married to her half-brother. And in the Bible, Abraham and Sarah had the same father, but different mothers, so they too got married to each other, even though they were half-siblings. But there still seems to have been a rule, that while you could marry a half-sibling, if you had the same father, you couldn't marry a half-sibling, if you had the same mother.

And why did Cleopatra kill her brother/husband? Well, she was a very ambitious woman. That's why she's so famous even today. But back then, a woman could hardly get power, except through getting married to a powerful man. Cleopatra obviously preferred Julius Ceasar, who became more and more powerful, over her brother/husband Ptolemy XIII. So he was killed, and Cleopatra soon had a son with Julius Ceasar named Ceasarion or Ptolemy XIV (he was killed though, when he was very young). So to make a long story short, Ptolemy XIII was killed because of a power struggle, and because his sister/wife Cleopatra wanted the men, who had the most power.
Click to expand...

Cleopatra also had three more children, twins Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene and Ptolemy Philadephous, with Ceasar's cousin, Marc Antony.
 
Did anyone mention other French royal bride/groom:
- Louis XV - born 15 Feb 1710 marriage Sep 1725 - he was 15,

- Louis (son LXV) b. Sep 4 1729 first marriage by proxy Dec 18 1744 - he was 15,
his second wife Maria Josepha b. Nov 4 1731 marriage Feb 9 1747 - she was 15;

- Louis XV's father Louis Duke of Burgundy b. Aug 16 1682 m. Dec 7 1697 - he was 15 but his wife Marie-Adelaide b. Dec 6 1685 on her wedding was 12 years and 1 day!!!

Not from France:
our King/Queen Jadwia (Hedwig) was around 13 - 15 on her wedding with Władysław Jagiełło
 
Not quite royal but
James Hamilton 1 Duke of Hamilton b. Jun 19 1606 was almost 16 on his wedding (Jun 16 1622) with 9 years old Mary (Margaret) Fielding.
 
Anne de Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk was six when she married the four-year-old Richard of Shrewsburry, Duke of York. However, their marriage was never consumated, as he died aged 10 (presumably) and she died aged 8.

Mary of Serbia married Stephen Tomašević, heir-apparent to the throne of Bosnia, when she was 12 years old. He moved to Serbia, where he was elected Despot after the death of Mary's father (who had no sons), and therefore it is presumed that their marriage was consumated immediately. She became queen of Bosnia aged 16, shortly after her husband lost the Serbian throne to the Ottomans. Her husband was executed shortly after his accession and she was sent into exile. She never remarried and it is presumed that she never had any children.
 
Sometimes these alliances were negotiated and contracts signed by the parents even before the birth. So is a negative age possible?
 
starxxgirl said:
Apparently Kate Middleton is the oldest British royal bride at 29.
Click to expand...

Sophie,Edwards wife was 34 when she married in- Anne Boelyn was in her 30's I believe - princess Margeret was 29 and Camilla was...? Not sure but I bet it's safe to say older then Kate :)
 
starxxgirl said:
Apparently Kate Middleton is the oldest British royal bride at 29.
Click to expand...

The Duchess of Cornwall = 57
The Countess of Wessex = 34
Anne Boleyn = 26 or 20.
Princess Margaret = 29.
Mary of Teck = 26.

She isn't the oldest British Bride.
 
Margaret Beaufort Countess of Richmond and Derby (b. May 1443)
- almost 7 on her first marriege with John de la Pole (Jan/Feb 1450)
- 12 on her second/first marriege to Edmund Tudor (Nov 1455).
 
Well, the men sure liked their woman young and ripe ready to be plucked;)
 
magnik said:
Margaret Beaufort Countess of Richmond and Derby (b. May 1443)
- almost 7 on her first marriege with John de la Pole (Jan/Feb 1450)
- 12 on her second/first marriege to Edmund Tudor (Nov 1455).
Click to expand...

I believe she was only engaged to de la Pole ...... Her only marriage was Tudor if I'm not mistaken....
 
Princess Ira of Furstenberg was only 15 years old when she married the Prince of H.
 
Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, sister of king Leopold of Belgium and aunt of both queen Victoria and her Albert was married at 14 to Grand duke Konstantin of Russia. The marriage was unhappy, so Juliane (Grand Duchess Anna Fjodoreva) sought exile in Switzerland where she beame the illegitimate mother of two from different lovers. She died in 1860.
 
Most of these young royal brides were born centuries ago. It would be interesting in modern times who was the youngest male (groom) and female royal bride (let's say the last 50 years or so).
 
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Diana perhaps in the last 50 years, that I can think of.
 
You're right. There were a few female royals who married in their early 20's. Queen Elizabeth, Princess Caroline and Prince Anne. I believe both the Queen and Princess Caroline were 20 or 21 when they got married. Princess Anne was 23 years old. There might be a few other female royals that married prior to age 25 but these are the ones that I thought of when answering this question.

I thought about who might be the youngest male royal who got married in modern times. Prince Andrew was 26 years old when he got married. After thinking about this for a while, I think I have the answer. If I'm wrong, then please correct me. The youngest royal male to marry in modern times was Prince Louis of Luxenbourg who was 20 years old when he married Tessy Anthony in 2006. She was the same age as he.
 
I just thought of someone who was younger than Diana. I remember several years ago there was a girl (of gypsy ancestry) who married and was under the age of 16 whose father was King (I'm not sure what group of gypsies he ruled over). There was a big controversary over this as her actual age was not known at the time. Can't remember what country they came from (might have been Romania possibly). I remember this was 2003.
 
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The youngest one in the last 50 years I can think to is Princess Victorie of Bourbon-Parma, who was 16 when she married to Baron Ernst von Gecmen Waldek in 1974.
 
If we also mediatized Houses pricness ira zu Fürstenberg who was 15 when she married Prince Alfonso zu Hohenlohe-Langenburgin 1955.
And Prince Marie zu Wied married duke Friedrichj of Württemberg a little bit more then a month before her 20th birthday.
 
When she was the crown princess, Urraca of León and Castile (b. 1079 r. 1109-1126) was made a child bride at age eight to Raymond of Burgundy, a mercenary-adventurer in the service of Urraca’s father. The marriage was consummated at least when she was 13, as she had multiple still-births before the birth of her son Alfonso in 1105.

Isabella of Angoulême, Queen consort of England and Countess of Angouleme suo jure, was married at age 12 to the odious King John, and had her first child Henry III of Winchester when she was 19. I do not know if she had any prior still-births.


Yeah, child marriages was not a cool thing and should not be glamorized.
 
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,
starxxgirl said:
Apparently Kate Middleton is the oldest British royal bride at 29.
Click to expand...
And Zara Phillips will be a bit older - she will have turned 30 at the moment of her wedding, like her sister-in-law, Autumn Phillips (if everything goes well, of course)

Very young royal bride (for the contemporary standards) will be Zeina Shaban at her wedding with Prince Rashid of Jordan (at 23)
 
Isabella of Valois was only 6 years old when she married Richard II of England who were 32 years older than her(not by proxy). Even though the age difference was very big they got on quite well. When he died in 1400, the new king demanded her to marry his son, but she refused. Then she was sent back to France, where she in 1406, at age 17, married the Duke of Orléans. She died during childbirth in 1409 at age 19. Her dauther married when she was quite young to, at age 15 in 1424.
 
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