The Youngest Royal Brides in History
 

Who are the youngest royal bride in History?

The youngest royal bride I can think of is Marie Antionette. She was only 15 when she married (the future) Louis XVI in 1770.

That depends. Technically Princess Mary Tudor was married/betrothed when she was a mere 9 months old. I also remember several princesses who were married by proxy at an incredibly young age (think single digits) and then were raised either in the court of their husband or their parents until it was time to consummate the marriage, approximately age 15. Young women were nothing but political pawns up until a little more than 100 years ago.

Actually, she had not yet reached her 15th birthday. She was born in November 1755 and married in May 1770.

Based only on English queens, the youngest bride I can think of was Isabella of Valois, second wife of Richard II of England, whom she married when she was not yet seven. Eleanor of Castile married Edward I of England at age 10.

But like Empress said, many Medieval and earlier marriages were done by proxy at very young ages and remained unconsummated until much later or even broken.

In terms of the the modern era (i.e. after 1950), Anne-Marie of Denmark comes to mind. She married King Constantine of Greece when she was barely 18 (and engaged at age 16) in 1964.

So who was the eldest? :biggrin:

AFAIK . . the eldest royal bride was Princess Maria Pia of Savoy (ex-wife of Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia). She was 68 when she married the also divorced Prince Michel of Bourbon-Parma in 2003

How old was Wallis Simpson when she married the Duke of Windsor?

41 or 42 (she lied about her birth date and there's some debate as the records were lost.)

For the youngest brides: Marchioness Barbara of Brandenburg-Ansbach was 8 years old when she was married to Duke Heinrich IX. of Groß-Glogau-Crossen, was 10 when she became widow, and was 10 when she was married to King Vladislaw II of Bohemia. The second marriage was never executed, because the King had never let Barbara come to him. This marriage was "divorced" in the year 1500 when Barbara was 36. During her second marriage she promised Ritter Heinrich von Heideck a marriage, but after this she was taken into prison at the Plassenburg in Kulmbach /Franconia.

For further information: Read the book "Die Markgräfin" from Sabine Weigand.

I've only seen the year 1896 listed for a birthdate. She married Edward VIII in June 1937.

What about Princess Ira von Furstenberg? She was 15 when she married Prince Alfonso Maximilian Hohenlohe-Langenburg. Read caption under pic.

ANPBleedbank

Another 15 year old royal bride was Grand Duchess Olga who married King George I of Greece who was a brother of Queen Alexandra of The United Kingdom. I've read that she brought a trunkful of dolls with her which kind of makes one wonder if she was maybe too immature for marriage.

You never know. Once you are married technically you really are probably going to be moving in with your husband for what should really be the rest of your life. Perhaps the dolls were memorable keepsakes from her childhood that she wanted to keep with her for the memories or in order to pass them down to any children she might have?

I know personally my mother intends to make me take anything that is "mine" from childhood even up to christmas ornaments I made or that have my name on them with me when I leave home for "my own Christmas tree." :flowers:

There was also Archduchess Margarete of Austria, daughter of Maximklian I. and Maria of Burgund. She was with 3 years brought to France to be educated at as Queen of France and married to Karl VII. They where acutally married but the marriage was later annulled becauxe the King married Anne of
Bretagne.

Margaret of Habsburg (1480-1530) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Back in the 14th century, Margarethe of Denmark was married to Haakon of Norway, when she was only ten years old. But that was probably another medieval "by proxy" marriage, that wasn't "consumated" until much later. Haakon died many years before his wife, and after their only son also died, Margarethe became a powerful queen, who ruled over Denmark, Norway and Sweden in the so called "Kalmar union". (And this union also included Finland, which belonged to Sweden at the time, and Iceland, which belonged to Norway at the time.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_I_of_Denmark

The british princess Caroline Mathilde also married king Frederik VII of Denmark at age 15 (as I recall she was betrothed around 13 years of age) and became queen. However the king had skitzofrenia and she had an affair with the kings doctor Struensee, whom she also had a child with. Struensee was executed for the affair, and Caroline Mathilde was imprisonated untill the english king came to her rescue and send her of to a castle in Celle.

Cleoptra the future queen of Egypt at the time excuse my spelling married her younger brother I forget his name at the tender age of 10.

Then had him killed. Those darned Ptolomey's. . . . :rolleyes:

That is so sweet! She may have been immature but that was one happy sturdy marriage that lasted till the King's death. Queen Olga of Greece did everything she could to endear herself and the Greeks adored her.

Also Margaret Beaufort married at twelve and had Henry VII at thirteen so that one was certainly consummated right away. She also had another marriage that was annulled when she was seven.