“what age should people get married/have even a political marriage consummated” actually were (spoilers: much older than most people think).
My perception from my period (late 17th-18th centuries) is that 12-14 was the minimum for consummating a political marriage, with most being consummated later (but many still shocking by our standards), but I'd be interested to know 1) more details, 2) if it was different in Shakespeare's slightly earlier period.
I've definitely seen fantasy commenters go in the other direction and be shocked and horrified that a 14-yo princess is being shipped off to a political marriage, and making bogus arguments about how UNHISTORICAL this is for the European Middle Ages, and I'm like, oh, you sweet summer child. They were still doing it in my period, and with the caveat that when you go back into the Middle Ages, we're less likely to know anyone's exact birth year, you can see 14-yos getting married and having kids in the Middle Ages too.
Hell, my great-grandmother was married at 14 and producing kids at 15 in the early 20th century, and there was one of her near relatives who I forget the exact relationship of, but she was married off by her family at 13.
But if there's a common perception that single-digit age children were having their marriages consummated, then no--they were engaged and sometimes shipped off to their future husband's court as toddlers, but (again, at least in my period), it was considered detrimental to their health to have sex before about 12-14 (depending on gender, location, and time). And that long wait often gave sufficient time for the political winds to shift and the marriage never to go through, so their actual marriage wouldn't be consummated in practice until they were even older.
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Date: 2022-06-18 06:22 pm (UTC)My perception from my period (late 17th-18th centuries) is that 12-14 was the minimum for consummating a political marriage, with most being consummated later (but many still shocking by our standards), but I'd be interested to know 1) more details, 2) if it was different in Shakespeare's slightly earlier period.
I've definitely seen fantasy commenters go in the other direction and be shocked and horrified that a 14-yo princess is being shipped off to a political marriage, and making bogus arguments about how UNHISTORICAL this is for the European Middle Ages, and I'm like, oh, you sweet summer child. They were still doing it in my period, and with the caveat that when you go back into the Middle Ages, we're less likely to know anyone's exact birth year, you can see 14-yos getting married and having kids in the Middle Ages too.
Hell, my great-grandmother was married at 14 and producing kids at 15 in the early 20th century, and there was one of her near relatives who I forget the exact relationship of, but she was married off by her family at 13.
But if there's a common perception that single-digit age children were having their marriages consummated, then no--they were engaged and sometimes shipped off to their future husband's court as toddlers, but (again, at least in my period), it was considered detrimental to their health to have sex before about 12-14 (depending on gender, location, and time). And that long wait often gave sufficient time for the political winds to shift and the marriage never to go through, so their actual marriage wouldn't be consummated in practice until they were even older.