Marriage by Proxy

[CyrilVladisla]

The marriage of Dauphin Louis, son of King Louis XV of France, and Infanta Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain, daughter of King Philip V of Spain, was celebrated by proxy at Madrid on December 18, 1744.

 

[An Ard Ri]

The marriage of Dauphin Louis, son of King Louis XV of France, and Infanta Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain, daughter of King Philip V of Spain, was celebrated by proxy at Madrid on December 18, 1744.

Her older sister The Infanta Mariana Victoria of Spain had previously been engaged to Louis XV of France but it was later broken off!

 

[Toledo]

These marriages were part of sealing the contracts between two nations and had little to do with love. But when the countries modernized and became democracies with prime ministers negotiating terms between nations there was less of a need for sacrificing the kids as part of the package. It became more of mutual economic and military support and exchange of goods with not pressure to force a marriage.

 

[An Ard Ri]

Given the difference in Religion following the Reformation in the 16th Century the Pool of Princesses to be married off split into Catholic and Protestant and there were very few Catholic-Protestant unions.

Charles I of and Henrietta Marie of France and Navarre
Charles II and Catherine of Braganza
James II and Maria of Modena
Philippe I, Duke of Orléans and Henrietta Anne of England (later converted to Catholicism)

 

[CyrilVladisla]

In Munich on November 10, 1822 Prince (King) John of Saxony married Amalie Auguste of Bavaria by proxy.

 

[CyrilVladisla]

Sophia of Byzantium (1448-1503) married Ivan III, Grand Prince of Moscow by proxy in Rome on June 1, 1472.