The Youngest Royal Brides in History

[HMTLove23]

Who are the youngest royal bride in History?

 

[Jason R Maier esq]

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

 

[Empress]

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.

 

[EmpressRouge]

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

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.

 

[Russophile]

So who was the eldest?

 

[Jason R Maier esq]

So who was the eldest?

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

 

[Odette]

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?

 

[Jeniann]

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.)

 

[principessa]

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.

 

[Leslie2006]

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

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

 

[HRH Kerry]

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

ANPBleedbank

 

[cmkrcwi]

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.

 

[Nitefeatherz]

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."

 

[Stefan]

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

 

[Furienna]

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

 

[MDS]

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.

 

[Next Star]

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.

 

[Russophile]

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. . . .

 

[Odette]

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.

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.

 

[Jeniann]

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.

 

[ashelen]

did she , cleopatra,send to kill her own bother-husban? my goodness! i did not know that, for what reason? why did she married her own brother?

 

[Marengo]

The youngest couple perhaps: Mary Stuart, Princess Royal and Willem II, Prince of Orange and stadholder of Holland, Zeeland etc. She was only 9 when they married while he was 15. Van Dyck made a famous portrait of the young couple, look here.

 

[morhange]

Princess Maria Luisa of Savoy was a few days shy of her 13th birthday when she married King Felipe V of Spain in 1701. But their marriage probably wasn't consummated until 1705 or 1706, as their first child was born in August of 1707.

And Maria Luisa's older sister, Maria Adelaide married Louis, Duke of Burgundy by proxy in 1696 when she was not quite eleven. Her groom was 14. They were married in person in December of 1697.

 

[MAfan]

Princess Maria Luisa of Savoy was a few days shy of her 13th birthday when she married King Felipe V of Spain in 1701. But their marriage probably wasn't consummated until 1705 or 1706, as their first child was born in August of 1707.

And Maria Luisa's older sister, Maria Adelaide married Louis, Duke of Burgundy by proxy in 1696 when she was not quite eleven. Her groom was 14. They were married in person in December of 1697.

And Felipe V's firstborn, King Luis, and his wife Louis Elisabeth (15 and 13)

 

[Furienna]

did she , cleopatra,send to kill her own bother-husban? my goodness! i did not know that, for what reason? why did she married her own brother?

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.

 

[Velasco]

Exactly. Cleopatra was actually married to two brothers, both named Ptolemy, XIV and XV.

Her mother and father were also full sibligs, also named Ptolemy XII and Cleopatra VI. They were the children of Ptolemy IX, the last of the "legitimate" Ptolemies, and one of his concubines. Since all of the other properly bred Ptolemies (from brother-sister marriages) had become extinct, the two were married and Ptolemy XII ascended the throne.

I have read that the famous Cleopatra's sister Berenice (who ruled briefly as well) was married to their father, and that her other sister Arsinoe IV was also married to their brother Ptolemy.

Crikey!

I believe in Medieval times the standard was for the marriage to be consummated following the princess' second menstruation. However, that is not always the case and it does seem that some princes quite gladly consumated their unions with extraordinarily young princesses, even if just for political reasons.

 

[Russophile]

V, I thought the Ptolomy's were decendant from a General from Alexander's army.

 

[Marengo]

They are, from Ptolemy I Soter. Antigonus I Monophthalmus and Seleucius got the rest.

 

[Velasco]

Yes...Ptolemy I Soter was a general and half-brother of Alexander the Great. His mother, Arsinoe of Macedonia, was originally a concubine of King Philip (Alexander's father) before being given away (already pregnant) to a nobleman called Lagus.

 

[Sarrie]

I remember reading in these forums that there recently was a young royal bride I think from a country of Eastern Europe who was seen sad and even crying on her wedding day because her marriage was an arranged one. Does anyone remember this?