List of child brides

This is a list of child brides, women of historical significance who married under 18 years of age.

Women have traditionally married at younger ages than men[1] although the average age of marriage has increased for both sexes with time. Historically girls were married at a young age more frequently in the past due to both law (increases in the minimum age required for marriage) and trends.[2]

List

Some of the child marriages recorded include:

7th century
  • Aisha (age 9; approximately), betrothed to Muhammad in 623 CE[3][4] although estimates vary from 6 to 13.

12th century
  • Eleanor of England, daughter of Eleanor of Aquitane and Henry II of England, married 15-year-old Alfonso VIII of Castile in 1170, when she was about 9-years-old.
  • Berengaria of Castile married Conrad II, Duke of Swabia (aged 13/14), in 1187, when she was about 8-years-old. The marriage was never consummated due to her young age. After Conrad's death in 1196, Berengaria married her first cousin once removed Alfonso IX of León (aged 25/26) in 1197, when she was about 17- or 18-years-old. The marriage was eventually annulled by the Pope in 1204 on the grounds of consanguinity.

13th century

14th century

15th century
  • Margaret Beaufort, (age 7; approximately) was married to John de la Pole (age 7) in 1450 by the arrangement John's father.[5] The marriage was annulled in 1453.[6]
  • Caterina Sforza was betrothed at age 10 to Girolamo Riario (aged 29/30) in 1473. Some sources state that they married in that year, but that the marriage was not consummated until 1477, when Caterina turned 14, the legal age at the time.

16th century
  • Lucrezia de' Medici (aged 12) was married to Alfonso II d'Este, Duke of Modena (aged 24), in 1558. As Alfonso was fighting in France at the time, she did not move to his home in Ferrara until two years later. She died at the age of 16, and is believed to have been poisoned by her husband.

17th century
  • Elizabeth Stuart (aged 16), eldest daughter of James VI and I and Anne of Denmark, married Frederick V, Elector Palatine (aged 16), in 1613.

18th century
  • Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst (later known as Catherine the Great) was 16-years-old when she married her 17-year-old second cousin Peter of Holstein-Gottorp (later Peter III of Russia) in 1745.

19th century
  • Rukhmabai (age 11) was married in India to her husband (age 19).[9] After a lengthy court battle, the marriage was dissolved by an order from Queen Victoria and the publicity helped influence the passage of the Age of Consent Act, 1891, which increased age of consent for girls in India, married or unmarried, from 10 to 12.[10]

20th century
  • Ushabati Ghosh (age 11) was married to the Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose (aged 20)[12] in 1914. Bose, not keen on marriage so early in life and while still attending college, only did so at his mother's insistence.[13] They had nine children, two of whom died in early childhood.

21st century
  • Nujood Ali (age 10), an arranged marriage by her father to a 30-year-old man[14] in 2008.[15] Coverage of her self-presented application for divorce later that year led to the legal age of marriage in Yemen to be raised to 18.[16]

See also

References
  1. Population Studies Vol. 32, No. 1 page 21: Average Age at First Marriage for Women in Mid-Nineteenth-Century England and Wales: A Cross-Sectional Study by N.F.R. Crafts, published March 1978
  2. Median age at first marriage by sex: 1890 to 2012 Archived 2017-01-19 at the Wayback Machine by the United States Census Bureau
  3. Campo, Juan Eduardo (2009-01-01). Encyclopedia of Islam. Infobase Publishing. pp. 25–. ISBN 9781438126968. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  4. Reid, Donald Malcolm (2002-07-04). Cairo University and the Making of Modern Egypt. Cambridge University Press. pp. 66–. ISBN 9780521894333. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
  5. Jones, Michael K. (1993-04-22). The King's Mother: Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521447942. Retrieved 23 November 2013.
  6. Ralph A. Griffiths, King and Country: England and Wales in the Fifteenth Century, (Hambledon Press, 1991), 91.
  7. Butler, Alban; Burns, Paul (January 1998). Butler's Lives of the Saints. Continuum. pp. 48–. ISBN 9780860122517. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  8. Tunis, David L. (2005-01-01). Fast Facts on the Kings and Queens of England. Author House. pp. 125–. ISBN 9781467065238. Retrieved 4 March 2014.
  9. Lahiri, Shompa (2013-10-18). Indians in Britain: Anglo-Indian Encounters, Race and Identity, 1880-1930. Routledge. pp. 13–. ISBN 9781135264468. Retrieved 4 March 2014.
  10. Rappaport, Helen (2003). Queen Victoria: A Biographical Companion. ABC-CLIO. pp. 429–. ISBN 9781851093557. Retrieved 4 March 2014.
  11. Ramanujan’s wife: Janakiammal (Janaki). Profile at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc)
  12. Chatterjee, Santimay; Chatterjee, Enakshi (2002). Satyendra Nath Bose (PDF). National Book Trust. ISBN 9788123704920.
  13. Wali, Kameshwar (2009). Satyendra Nath Bose, His Life and Times. World Scientific. pp. xviii–. ISBN 9789814518277.
  14. Farrell, Courtney (2010-01-01). Children's Rights. ABDO. pp. 58–. ISBN 9781616133405. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  15. Borzou Daragahi (June 11, 2008). "Yemeni bride, 10, says I won't - Los Angeles Times". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 23 November 2013.
  16. Vivienne Walt (Feb 3, 2009). "A 10-Year-Old Divorcee Takes Paris - TIME". Time. Retrieved 23 November 2013.
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