Editing Marriageable age (section)

==History and social attitudes==

===Classical antiquity===
====Greece====
In Greece females married as young as 14 or 16.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=A Brief History of Ancient Greece: Politics, Society, and Culture|last1=Pomeroy|first1=Sarah B.|author-link=Sarah B. Pomeroy |last2=Burstein|first2=Stanley M.|last3=Donlan|first3=Walter|last4=Tolbert Roberts|first4=Jennifer|last5=Tandy|first5=David W.|last6=Tsouvala|first6=Georgia|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2019|isbn=978-0190925307|location=New York, NY}}</ref> In Spartan marriages, females were around 18 and males were around 25.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/womeninancientgr0000blun|url-access=registration|title=Women in Ancient Greece|last1=Blundell|first1=Sue|last2=Blundell|first2=Susan|date=1995|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674954731|language=en}}</ref>

====Rome====
In the [[Roman Empire]], the Emperor [[Augustus]] introduced marriage legislation, the ''[[Lex Papia Poppaea]]'', which rewarded marriage and childbearing. The legislation also imposed penalties for both men and women who remained unmarried, or who married but for whatever reason failed to have children. For men it was between the ages of 25 and 60 while for women it was between ages 20 and 50.<ref>{{cite book |vauthors = Boatwright MT, Gargola DJ, Talbert RJ |title = A Brief History of The Romans |publisher = Oxford University Press |edition = 2nd | date = 2013 |page = 176 |isbn = 978-0-19-998755-9 }}</ref> Women who were [[Vestal Virgin]]s were selected between the ages of 10 and 13 to serve as priestesses in the temple of goddess Vesta in the Roman Forum for 30 years, after which they could marry.<ref>{{cite web |vauthors = Mark J |title=Vestal Virgin |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Vestal_Virgin/ |website=Ancient History}}</ref>

In Roman law the age of marriage was 12 years for females and 14 years for males, and age of betrothal was 7 years for both males and females.<ref name="Beryl Rawson 1999 p. 21" /> The father had the right and duty to seek a good and useful match for his children.<ref>{{cite book |title=A casebook on Roman family law |vauthors=Frier BW |date=2004 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-516186-1 |location=Oxford [England] |page=66}}</ref> To further the interests of their birth families, daughters of the elite would marry into respectable families.<ref name="Rawson_1986">{{cite book |title=The Family in ancient Rome: new perspectives |vauthors=Rawson B |date=1986 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0-8014-1873-0 |location=Ithaca, N.Y. |page=21 |chapter=The Roman Family}}</ref> If a daughter could prove the proposed husband to be of bad character, she could legitimately refuse the match.<ref name="Rawson_1986" /> Individuals remained under the authority of the [[pater familias]] until his death, and the latter had the power to approve or reject [[Marriage in ancient Rome|marriages]] for his sons and daughters, but by the late antique period, Roman law permitted women over 25 to marry without parental consent.<ref name="Arjava_1996">{{cite book |title=Women and law in late antiquity |vauthors=Arjava A |date=1996 |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0-19-815033-6 |location=Oxford}}</ref>{{rp|29–37}}

[[Noblewomen]] were known to marry as young as 12 years of age,<ref name="Beryl Rawson 1999 p. 21">{{cite book |veditors = Rawson B, Weaver PR | title = The Roman family in Italy: status, sentiment, space. | publisher = Oxford University Press |date = 1999 |isbn = 978-0-19-815283-5 |page = 21 }}</ref> whereas women in the lower [[social class]]es were more likely to marry slightly further into their teenage years.<ref name="Hallett_1984">{{cite book |vauthors = Hallett JP |title=Fathers and daughters in Roman society: women and the elite family |date=1984 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, N.J. |isbn=978-0-691-10160-6 |page = 142 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |vauthors = Caldwell LE |title=Roman girlhood and the fashioning of femininity |date=2014 |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-1-316-20398-9 |pages = 3–4 }}</ref> 43% of Pagan females married at 12–15 years and 42% of [[Christian]] females married at 15–18 years.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hopkins |first1=M.K. |title=The age of Roman girls at marriage |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00324728.1965.10405456 |journal=Population Studies|year=1965 |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=309–327 |doi=10.1080/00324728.1965.10405456 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

In [[late antiquity]], most Roman women married in their late teens to early twenties, but [[nobiles|noble women]] married younger than those of the lower classes, as an aristocratic girl was expected to be virgin until her first marriage.<ref name = "Hallett_1984" /> In late antiquity, under Roman law, daughters inherited equally from their parents if no will was produced.<ref name = "Arjava_1996" />{{rp|63}} In addition, Roman law recognized wives' property as legally separate from husbands' property,<ref name = "Arjava_1996" />{{rp|133–154}} as did some legal systems in parts of Europe and colonial Latin America.

In 380 C.E., the [[Emperor Theodosius]] issued the [[Edict of Thessalonica]], which made [[Nicene Christianity]] the official religion of the [[Roman Empire]]. The [[Holy See]] adapted [[Roman law]] into [[Canon law]].<ref name="Dahl_2010">{{cite journal |vauthors = Dahl GB |title = Early teen marriage and future poverty |journal = Demography |volume = 47 |issue = 3 |pages = 689–718 |date = August 2010 |pmid = 20879684 | pmc = 3000061 |doi = 10.1353/dem.0.0120 }}</ref>

===Medieval Europe===
After the [[fall of the Western Roman Empire]] and the rise of the [[Holy Roman Empire]], manorialism also helped weaken the ties of kinship and thus the power of [[clan]]s.  As early as the 9th century in [[Austrasia|northwestern France]], families that worked on [[Manorialism|manor]]s were small, consisting of parents and children and occasionally a grandparent. The Roman Catholic Church and State had become allies in erasing the solidarity and thus the political power of the clans; the Roman Catholic Church sought to replace [[paganism|traditional religion]], whose vehicle was the kin group, and substitute the authority of the [[old age|elder]]s of the kin group with that of a religious elder. At the same time, the king's rule was undermined by revolts by the most powerful kin groups, clans or sections, whose conspiracies and murders threatened the power of the state and also the demands by manorial Lords for obedient, compliant workers.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Heathers PJ |title=The visigoths from the migration period to the seventh century: an ethnographic perspective |date=1999 |publisher=Boydell Press |location=Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK |isbn=978-0-85115-762-7 | pages = 142–148 }}</ref>

As the [[peasant]]s and [[serf]]s lived and worked on farms that they rented from the lord of the manor, they also needed the permission of the lord to marry. Couples therefore had to comply with the lord of the manor and wait until a small farm became available before they could marry and thus produce children. Those who could and did not delay marriage were presumably rewarded by the landlord and those who did not marry were presumably denied that reward. For example, marriageable ages in [[Medieval England]] varied depending on economic circumstances, with couples delaying marriage until their early twenties when times were bad, but might marry in their late teens after the [[Black Death]], when there was a severe labour shortage;<ref name="Hanawalt_1986">{{cite book | vauthors = Hanawalt BA |title=The ties that bound: peasant families in medieval England |date=1986 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-19-504564-2}}</ref>{{rp|96}} by appearances, marriage of adolescents was not the norm in England.<ref name="Hanawalt_1986" />{{rp|98–100}}

In medieval [[Western European marriage pattern|Western Europe]], the rise of [[Catholicism]] and [[manorialism]] had both created incentives to keep families [[nuclear family|nuclear]], and thus the age of marriage increased; the [[Western Christianity|Western Church]] instituted marriage laws and practices that undermined large kinship groups. The Roman Catholic Church prohibited [[consanguineous]] marriages, a marriage pattern that had been a means to maintain [[clan]]s (and thus their power) throughout history.<ref name="pmid11610836">{{cite journal | vauthors = Bouchard CB | title = Consanguinity and noble marriages in the tenth and eleventh centuries | journal = Speculum | volume = 56 | issue = 2 | pages = 268–87 | date = April 1981 | pmid = 11610836 | doi = 10.2307/2846935 | jstor = 2846935 | s2cid = 38717048 }}</ref> The [[Roman Catholic Church]] curtailed arranged marriages in which the bride did not clearly agree to the union.<ref>{{cite web| vauthors = Greif A |title=Family Structure, Institutions, and Growth: The Origin and Implications of Western Corporatism |publisher=Stanford University |date=December 4, 2011 |pages=2–3 |url=http://www.aeaweb.org/assa/2006/0106_0800_1104.pdf |access-date=2015-11-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904002714/https://www.aeaweb.org/assa/2006/0106_0800_1104.pdf |archive-date=2015-09-04 }}</ref>

In the 12th century, the [[Roman Catholic Church]] drastically changed legal standards for marital consent by allowing daughters over 12 years old and sons over 14 years old to marry without their parents' approval, which was previously required, even if their marriage was made clandestinely.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Noonan J | year = 1973 | title = The Power to Choose | journal = Viator | volume = 4 | pages = 419–34 | doi = 10.1484/J.VIATOR.2.301658 }}</ref>  Parish studies have confirmed that in the [[late medieval period]], females did sometimes marry without their parents' approval in England.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Sheehan J | year = 1971 | title = The formation and stability of marriage in fourteenth-century England | journal = Medieval Studies | volume = 33 | pages = 228–63 | doi = 10.1484/J.MS.2.306100 }}</ref>

In the 12th century, [[Canon law]] jurist [[Gratian (jurist)|Gratian]], stated that consent for marriage could not take place before the age of 12 years old for females and 14 years old for males; also, consent for betrothal could not take place before the age of 7 years old for females and males, as that is the age of reason. The [[Church of England]], after breaking away from the [[Roman Catholic Church]], carried with it the same minimum age requirements. Age of consent for marriage of 12 years old for girls and of 14 years old for boys were written into English civil law.<ref name="Dahl_2010" />

The first recorded age-of-consent law, in England, dates back 800 years. The age of consent law in question has to do with the law of rape and not the law of marriage as sometimes misunderstood. In 1275, in England, as part of the rape law, the [[Statute of Westminster 1275]], made it a misdemeanor to have sex with a "maiden within age", whether with or without her consent. The phrase "within age" was interpreted by jurist Sir Edward Coke as meaning the age of marriage, which at the time was 12 years old.<ref name="Stephen Robertson, University of Sydney, Australia">{{cite web| vauthors = Robertson S |url= http://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/teaching-modules/230 |title=Children and Youth in History &#124; Age of Consent Laws |publisher=Chnm.gmu.edu |access-date=2010-06-30}}</ref> A 1576 law was created with more severe punishments for having sex with a girl for which the age of consent was set at 10 years old.<ref>{{cite web| vauthors = Robertson S |title=Age of Consent Laws|url=https://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/case-studies/230|website=Children and Youth in History|publisher=[[University of Sydney]]|access-date=August 3, 2015|location=[[Sydney]], [[Australia]]}}</ref> Under [[English common law]] the age of consent, as part of the law of rape, was 10 or 12 years old and rape was defined as forceful sexual intercourse with a woman against her will. To convict a man of rape, both force and lack of consent had to be proved, except in the case of a girl who is under the age of consent. Since the age of consent applied in all circumstances, not just in physical assaults, the law also made it impossible for an underage girl (under 12 years old) to consent to sexual activity. There was one exception: a man's acts with his wife (females over 12 years old), to which rape law did not apply.<ref>{{cite web | vauthors = Lindenmuth J |title=The age of consent and rape reform in Delaware |url=https://blogs.lawlib.widener.edu/delaware/2014/07/07/the-age-of-consent-and-rape-reform-in-delaware/ |website=Widener Law Delaware Library |access-date=September 16, 2020}}</ref> Jurist [[Sir Matthew Hale]] stated that both rape laws were valid at the same time.<ref>{{cite web | vauthors = Robertson S |title=Age of Consent Laws |website=Children & Youth in History |publisher=Center for History and New Media and the University of Missouri-Kansas City |url= https://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/teaching-modules/230}}</ref> In 1875, the [[Offences against the Person Act 1875|Offence Against the Persons Act]] raised the age to 13 years in England; an act of sexual intercourse with a girl younger than 13 was a felony.<ref>{{cite web | vauthors = Robertson S |title=Age of Consent Laws |url=http://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/teaching-modules/230 |website=Children and Youth in History}}</ref>

There were some fathers who arranged marriages for a son or a daughter before he or she reached the age of maturity, which is ''similar'' to what some fathers in ancient Rome did. [[Consummation]] would not take place until the age of maturity. Roman Catholic [[Canon law]] defines a marriage as consummated when the "spouses have performed between themselves in a human fashion a conjugal act which is suitable in itself for the procreation of offspring, to which marriage is ordered by its nature and by which the spouses become one flesh."<ref>canon 1061 §1</ref> There are recorded marriages of two- and three-year-olds: in 1564, a three-year-old named John was married to a two-year-old named Jane in the Bishop's Court in Chester, England.

===Modern history===
The policy of the [[Roman Catholic Church]], and later various protestant churches, of considering clandestine marriages and marriages made without parental consent to be valid was controversial, and in the 16th century both the French monarchy and the Lutheran Church sought to end these practices, with limited success.<ref>Beatrice Gottlieb, ''The family in the Western World from the Black Death to the Industrial Age'' Oxford, 1993, pp. 55–56.</ref>

In most of [[Western European marriage pattern|Northwestern Europe]], marriages at very early ages were rare. One thousand marriage certificates from 1619 to 1660 in the Archdiocese of [[Canterbury]] show that only one bride was 13 years old, four were 15, twelve were 16, and seventeen were 17 years old; while the other 966 brides were at least 19 years old.<ref name="Laslett, Peter 1965. p 82">Laslett, Peter. 1965. The World We Have Lost. New York, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p 82</ref>

In England and Wales, the [[Marriage Act 1753]] required a marriage to be covered by a licence (requiring parental consent for those under 21) or the publication of bans (which parents of those under 21 could forbid). Additionally, the [[Church of England]] dictated that both the bride and groom must be at least 21 years of age to marry without the consent of their families. In the certificates, the most common age for the brides is 22 years. For the grooms 24 years was the most common age, with average ages of 24 years for the brides and 27 for the grooms.<ref name="Laslett, Peter 1965. p 82"/> While European noblewomen often married early, they were a small minority of the population,<ref>Coontz, Stephanie. 2005. Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage. New York, New York: Viking Press, Penguin Group Inc. p 125-129.</ref> and the marriage certificates from Canterbury show that even among nobility it was very rare to marry women off at very early ages.<ref name="Laslett, Peter 1965. p 82"/>

The minimum age requirements of 12 and 14 were eventually written into English civil law. By default, these provisions became the minimum marriageable ages in colonial America.<ref name="Dahl_2010" /> On the average, marriages occurred several years earlier in colonial America than in Europe, and much higher proportions of the population eventually got married. Community-based studies suggest an average age at marriage of about 20 years old for women in the early colonial period and about 26 years old for men.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Hacker JD, Hilde L, Jones JH | title = The Effect of the Civil War on Southern Marriage Patterns | journal = The Journal of Southern History | volume = 76 | issue = 1 | pages = 39–70 | date = February 2010 | pmid = 21170276 | pmc = 3002115 }}</ref> In the late 19th century and throughout the 20th century, U.S. states began to slowly raise the minimum legal age at which individuals were allowed to marry. Age restrictions, as in most developed countries, have been revised upward so that they are now between 15 and 21 years of age.<ref name="Dahl_2010"/>

Before 1929, the Scottish law adopted the Roman law in allowing a girl to marry at twelve years of age and a boy at fourteen, without any requirement for parental consent. However, in practice, marriages in Scotland at such young ages was almost unknown.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/registration/getting-married-in-scotland/minimum-age-for-marriage-in-Scotland | title = National Records of Scotland | work = National Records of Scotland Web Site | date = 31 May 2013 | access-date = 22 April 2016 | archive-date = 28 April 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160428132814/http://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/registration/getting-married-in-scotland/minimum-age-for-marriage-in-Scotland | url-status = dead }}</ref>

===The Netherlands===

The highest average age at first marriage was in the Netherlands: on average 27 years for women and 30 years for men in both the rural and urban population from the late 1400's onward till the end of WWII, rising at times to 30 years for women and 32 years for men. On average 25-30% of people in the Netherlands remained unmarried throughout their life between 1500 and 1950. <ref name="auto1"/> In [[Amsterdam]] the mean age at first marriage for women fluctuated between 23.5 and 25 years old from the late 15th century until the 1660s, when it started to rise even further.<ref name="auto">{{Cite journal|title=Early teen marriage and future poverty|author=Dahl, Gordon B|journal=Demography|year=2010|volume=47|issue=3|pages=689–718|doi=10.1353/dem.0.0120|pmid=20879684|pmc=3000061}}</ref>

From early on the Roman Catholic Church promoted sexual abstinence over marriage, but marriage over sexual promiscuity. This meant that remaining unmarried became socially acceptable in Western Europe. In the Middle Ages marriage was often not recorded and therefore could depend on the word of the couple that could either confirm or deny it having taken place. A majority of unmarried women would be in the service of the church as nuns or as lay women. A vast number of women also provided for themselves in specialised professions until the financial freedoms of women were curtailed by the guilds in the late Middle Ages. This meant that until the late Middle Ages many women could also run businesses to sustain themselves outside of marriage. <ref name="auto1"/>

After the 1400's the first marriage age became better recorded and seems to be influenced largely by the economic situation. In times of economical uncertainty both women and men tended to marry younger (between 20-25 years old for women) but the age gap was somewhat larger. A major factor was that by marrying their daughter off young the parents had one mouth less to feed and the dowry was often lower for younger girls who had learned less skills and build up less savings. This also explains the larger age gap between husband and wife in economical harsher times: an older husband would already have established himself an income to sustain a wife and thus children. Though for political reasons nobility often engaged and married far younger than the general population in many cases the actual consummation of the marriage was postponed until both marriage partners had reached a more mature age. <ref name="auto1"/>

Another contributing factor to later marriage age is that in the Middle Ages a culture of nuclear family structures developed from the multiple generational extended family structures that were common in pre-Christian tribal societies in Western Europe. Both men and women would typically spend several years of working as a maid, farmhand, labourer or apprentice in order to gain work experience, develop skills and save up money to sustain their own nuclear family, rather than continuing to live in multigenerational household. This development raised the socially accepted first marriage age of women from puberty onset (12-14 years old) in the early Middle Ages up to their late teens and older by the late medieval period, and during the renaissance up to their middle twenties on average. This development also brought the first marriage age of women and men far closer together. The great general wealth in the Netherlands from the spice trade also meant that women married later in life. The highest marriage ages for both men and women was passed 30 years old and are found in times of national financial prosperity.<ref name="auto1"/>

An other contributing reason was that late marriage age was a recognised method of birth control. The later a woman married the less children she would birth and the less children a couple had to raise. It was also generally recognised that giving birth at a very young age was detrimental for the woman's health and therefore socially disapproved of. Social disapproval of a young marriage age for the woman and a large age gap between the marriage partners can still be recognised in sayings originating in those centuries. A well known example from neighbouring Britain is the cautionary tale of the play [[Romeo and Juliet]] by [[William Shakespeare]] of whom the young ages were considered scandalous at the time.<ref>De Moor, 2009; 17</ref><ref name="auto1"/>

===France===
In France, until the [[French Revolution]], the marriageable age was 12 years for females and 14 for males. Revolutionary legislation in 1792 increased the age to 13 years for females and 15 for males. Under the [[Napoleonic Code]] in 1804, the marriageable age was set at 15 years old for females and 18 years old for males.<ref>Art. 144 of the Civil Code</ref> In 2006, the marriageable age for females was increased to 18, the same as for males. In jurisdictions where the ages are not the same, the marriageable age for females is more commonly two or three years lower than that of males.

===Central Europe===
In 17th century Poland, in the Warsaw parish of St John, the average age of women entering marriage was 20.1, and that of men was 23.7. In the second half of the eighteenth century, women in the parish of Holy Cross married at 21.8, while men at 29.<ref>{{cite web | vauthors = Guzowski P |title=The Origins of the European Marriage Pattern |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290224803 |website=www.researchgate.net}}</ref>

===Eastern Europe===
In medieval [[Eastern Europe]], the [[Slavs|Slavic]] traditions of [[patrilocality]] of early and universal marriage (usually of a bride aged 13–15 years, with [[menarche]] occurring on average at age 14) lingered;<ref>Levin, Eve. 1995. ''Sex and Society in the World of the Orthodox Slavs, 900–1700''. Cornell University Press. pgs 96–98</ref> the manorial system had yet to penetrate into Eastern Europe and generally had less effect on clan systems there.  The bans on [[cross-cousin]] marriages had also not been firmly enforced.<ref>Mitterauer, Michael. 2010. ''Why Europe?: The Medieval Origins of Its Special Path''. University of Chicago Press. Pg. 45–48, 77</ref>

In Russia, before 1830 the age of consent for marriage was 15 years old for males and 13 years old for females<ref name="auto1">{{cite journal | vauthors = Troitskaia I |title=Peasant Marriage in 19th century Russia |journal=Population |year=2004 |volume=59 |issue=6 |pages=721–764 |doi=10.2307/3654894 |jstor=3654894 |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/pop_1634-2941_2004_num_59_6_18495#:~:text=Until%201830%2C%20the%20minimum%20age,an%20old%20age(21%3E. |ref=page 731}}</ref> (though 15 years old was preferred for females, so much so that it was written into the Law Code of 1649).<ref>{{cite book| vauthors = Pushkareva N |title=Women in Russian History: From the Tenth to the Twentieth Century|year=1997|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|location=Armonk, NY|page=156}}</ref> [[Teenage marriage]] was practised for [[chastity]]. Both the female and the male teenager needed consent of their parents to marry because they were under 20 years old, the age of majority. In 1830, the age of consent for marriage was raised to 18 years old for males and 16 years old for females<ref name="auto1"/> Though 18 years old was preferred for females, the average age of marriage for females was around 19 years old.<ref>Avdeev, Blum, Troitskaia, Juby, "Peasant Marriage", 733.</ref><ref>Engel, "Peasant Pre-Marital Relations", 698–99.</ref>

===Mesoamerica===

====Aztec society====
Aztec family law generally followed customary law. Men got married between the ages of 20–22, and women generally got married at 15 to 18 years of age.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tarlton Law Library: Exhibit - Aztec and Maya Law: Aztec Family Law|url=https://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/aztec-and-maya-law/aztec-family-law|access-date=2021-12-17|website=tarlton.law.utexas.edu|language=en}}</ref>

====Mayan civilization====
Maya family law appears to have been based on customary law. Maya men and women usually got married at around the age of 20, though women sometimes got married at the age of 16 or 17.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tarlton Law Library: Exhibit - Aztec and Maya Law: Maya Family Law|url=https://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/aztec-and-maya-law/maya-family-law|access-date=2021-12-17|website=tarlton.law.utexas.edu|language=en}}</ref>