Child Marriages in Tudor and Jacobean times

'She had enticed him with two apples to go with her to Colne and to marry her.'
   (F.J. Furnivall ed. Child Marriages, Divorces and Ratifications etc. in the Dioces of Chester, AD 1561-66.    EETS original series Vol. 108, 1897)

Little child with an apple, c. 1600, Holbourne Museum

                                                                                                  

The way that marriages between children were frequently arranged is a clear indication that they were regarded like property, with few individual rights.  Very little regard seems to have been shown for their personal inclinations, and their marriages, particularly those of royalty, were often the cement to an important alliance, a gesture of goodwill from one politician to another, a kind of presentation of hostages.  Mary Queen of Scots was sent as a child bride to France, to cement an alliance with Scotland.  Richard II received a French bride of eight, who spoke very little English, when he was twenty-seven.  One of the prizes of Henry V's victories in France was the hand of the French princess Katherine.  Catherine of Aragon was famously married by proxy to Prince Arthur, heir to the English throne, to cement an alliance with Spain.  When he died, she was simply transferred to the new heir, the future Henry VIII.  In such cases it was, of course, always the girl who was sent to live in her husband's country.  The alliances might crumble as political interests changed, but the marriages were expected to be permanent.

Crown Prince Arthur aged 13, PD Art

Slightly lower down the social scale, such marriage alliances were often arranged between great nobles,
 to join estates, or to strengthen a political position.  A particularly iniquitous practise was the sale of the wardship, or guardianship, of the heirs of great estates whose fathers had died.  This was gradually developed by the Tudors from the rights which an overlord had over the property of a vassal who was still a minor in feudal times to a perquisite of the Crown.  Such wardships might be sold to the highest bidder, not necessarily taking into consideration the good of the child or the existence of close relatives.  Wardship, in fact, rarely went to the mother.  The buyer of the wardship acquired effective guardianship of the child.  The profit to the guardian generally came through arranging the ward's marriage, and was the reason the wardships of heiresses were more highly prized than those of males (one of the few occasions when girls were preferred) Her property would become her husband's whereas a male ward would eventually get control of his property on his coming of age.  Wards rejecting a marriage were fined a sum equivalent to that which the guardian could have gained through the marriage.  Buying a wardship could be a good way of providing for a younger son, and the practise was by no means confined to the aristocracy.  An account of such a marriage in the diocese of Chester in 1562 says regretfully on its dissolution:
    'She should have had by him a pretty bargain if they could have loved one the other.'
   (Child Marriages, Divorces and Ratifications etc. in the Diocese of Chester, 1561-66
     EETS original series Vol. 108. 1897)

 Sir Thomas and Lady Lucy with seven of their children, Cornelius Johnson, 1622, National Trust

Such wards would normally be brought up in the house of their guardian, not necessarily a disadvantage.  William Cecil, Lord Burghley, Elizabeth I's Secretary of State, made a practise of buying wardships, but provided his wards, and those of the Crown, with an unrivalled education and great political opportunities from their base at Cecil House on the Strand.
However, generally the practise of selling wardships was considered iniquitous by those who suffered under it, and the Court of Wards was abolished after the Civil War in 1646.

One effect of the threat to a child's marriage prospects posed by the Court of Wards was the arrangement of very early marriages, particularly among the aristocracy.  This was one way in which anxious parents could tie up their children's estates and futures in they way they felt was best.  It is also an instance of the absolute control which parents were considered to have over children.  Children were expected to follow the parents' wishes.
For instance, Peter Agee explained, when suing for dissolution to his child marriage, that he married Alice when he was thirteen and she nine 'because it was his mother's mind, he dursrt not displease her.'  John Bridge had to marry Elizabeth, he aged eleven, she thirteen, because, 'his father had been undone' owing to a bond he had signed.
    (Child Marriages, op. cit.  For an account of the Court of Wards and sale of wardships see Pinchbeck and Hewitt, Children in English Society, London, 1969, Vol. 1, chapter 3)

Some parents thoroughly abused their children's rights.  Robert Mann, dissolving his marriage to Margaret, contracted when he was nine and she ten, said 'he could never fancy her, nor her father because he kept the mother of the said Robert to paramour (mistress) afore he married her and consumed the said Robert's goods.'
(Child marriages..op cit)

Lady Arabella Stuart (1575-1615) National Trust

Resistance such as Margaret Paston's was rare., She held out against her entire family and was eventually allowed to marry the man of her own choice, although he was considered to be her social inferior.
    (Paston Letters,  various eds)
In fact, most arranged marriages seem to have been quite successful, certainly no worse than those where the partners are allowed to choose for themselves.  The practise still continues today in many cultures.

Girl with a rattle.  Jan Claesz (Dutch, d. 1636)

There was a regular legal framework for child marriages which itself shows that the practise was considered quite usual.  Espousal could take place at seven, although there are cases of it having taken place at two or three.  The records of Child Marriages in the Diocese of Chester, 1561-6 (op cit) show that John Somerford married Jane when they were aged two and three.  They were carried in the arms of friends who spoke the words of marriage for them.  The witness adds: 'It was the youngest marriage that ever he was at'.  But still younger marriages were made.  In his Anatomie of Abuses in Ailgra (East Anglia) Philip Stubbes records that 'in Ailgra there is one great liberty permetted therein; for little infants in swaddling clouts are often married by their ambitious Parents and friends...'
    (Child marriages, op. cit.  preface, p.xxxiv)

Ludger Tom Ring the Younger, portrait of a small child in a fur lined cap and coral beads. National Trust 1583

Nevertheless the practise was frowned on/  Henry Swinburne, Judge of the Prerogative Court of York, defined the law in 1686 as 'Infants...are...children who have not as yet...the age of seven years...Spousals contracted during infancy are utterly void...as infants cannot contract spousals.'
   ( Treatise of Spousals or Matrimonial Contracts, 1686,  Child marriages, op. cit.
There were, however, a large number of exceptions to this general rule, based on the behaviour of the children, which could prevent the parties to the marriage from dissolving it, as they were entitled to do, at the 'ripe age' of twelve for girls, fourteen for boys, by suit in the Bishop's Court  Spousals were considered valid if the infants ratified the contract by word or deed at the age of seven, or cohabited together when one was nearly seven, or both were mature for their ages, or had indicated their liking for each other by kissing, giving of tokens or intercourse.

Provided intercourse had not taken place, there seems, in practise, to have been little difficulty in dissolving such marriages if they were unsuccessful.  About an equal number of boys and girls appear to have petitioned for dissolution, using the Chester diocesan records as a guide, the most common complaint being that 'she/he never fancied him/her.
   (Child marriages..op cit)

There are records of the system being abused.  Grace Boyes v. Robert Talbot, 1562, complained that 'the said Grace Boyes was taken away from her Grandfather;s house by a wile to come lie at Master Talbot's house...and when she was there, without the consent of her friends, was married to the said Robert in the night season.'  Sometimes the system was abused by the children themselves.  James Bullard complained that Anne Bullard 'had enticed him with two apples to go with her to Colne and to marry her.'  James repented the next morning.  The marriage was dissolved and the curate who married them punished.
    (Child marriages op. cit)

That child marriages were generally only intended as a formality is shown by accounts such as that of the marriage of Ellen Davenport and John Andrew, aged eight and ten.  They were put to bed together, as such 'married' children often were, but two of her sisters were put between them on their 'wedding night'.

Rafe Whittall, whose marriage to Joan was dissolved in 1562, was evidently sent to live with her, for he complained that
'he was ordered worse than any servant in her father's house...'
   (Child marriages op. cit)
However, at least among the middle classes, it seems to have been common for the two children to continue to be brought up separately until about the age of twelve to fourteen, when the marriage could be consummated without too much risk to the girl through early pregnancy.

That marriages were arranged like this is an indication of the power parents and guardians established over their children, and their expectations from them.  Perhaps the fact that parents have gradually come to expect less and less of their children in the way of obedience is an indication of the gradual growth, over the centuries, of child power.  At that time, however, the expectation was of total obedience fro the cradle right into adult life.  Adults made every attempt to get their children firmly under control as early as possible, and keep them there, a policy which must surely appeal to some modern parents battling with the problems of permissiveness.

e-mail:  childhoodblog@gmail..com
Niky Rathbone: nikyrathbone.blogspot.co.uk