Marriageable age#Modern history

In Greece females married as young as 14 or 16.{{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}} In Spartan marriages, females were around 18 and males were around 25.{{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}}

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 is between the ages of 25 and 60 while for women it is between ages 20 and 50.{{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 }} Women who were Vestal Virgins 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.{{cite web |vauthors = Mark J |title=Vestal Virgin |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Vestal_Virgin/ |website=Ancient History}}

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. The father had the right and duty to seek a good and useful match for his children.{{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}} To further the interests of their birth families, daughters of the elite would marry into respectable families.{{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}} If a daughter could prove the proposed husband to be of bad character, she could legitimately refuse the match. Individuals remained under the authority of the pater familias until his death, and the latter had the power to approve or reject marriages for his sons and daughters, but by the late antique period, Roman law permitted women over 25 to marry without parental consent.{{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}}{{rp|29–37}}

Noblewomen were known to marry as young as 12 years of age,{{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 }} whereas women in the lower social classes were more likely to marry slightly further into their teenage years.{{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 }}{{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 }} 43% of Pagan females married at 12–15 years and 42% of Christian females married at 15–18 years.{{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 }}

In late antiquity, most Roman women married in their late teens to early twenties, but noble women married younger than those of the lower classes, as an aristocratic girl was expected to be virgin until her first marriage. In late antiquity, under Roman law, daughters inherited equally from their parents if no will was produced.{{rp|63}} In addition, Roman law recognized wives' property as legally separate from husbands' property,{{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.{{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 }}

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 clans. As early as the 9th century in northwestern France, families that worked on manors 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 traditional religion, whose vehicle was the kin group, and substitute the authority of the elders 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.{{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 }}

As the peasants and serfs 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;{{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}}{{rp|96}} by appearances, marriage of adolescents was not the norm in England.{{rp|98–100}}

In medieval Western Europe, the rise of Catholicism and manorialism had both created incentives to keep families nuclear, and thus the age of marriage increased; the 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 clans (and thus their power) throughout history.{{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 }} The Roman Catholic Church curtailed arranged marriages in which the bride did not clearly agree to the union.{{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 }}

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.{{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 }} Parish studies have confirmed that in the late medieval period, females did sometimes marry without their parents' approval in England.{{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 }}

In the 12th century, Canon law 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.

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.{{cite web| vauthors = Robertson S |url= http://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/teaching-modules/230 |title=Children and Youth in History | Age of Consent Laws |publisher=Chnm.gmu.edu |access-date=2010-06-30}} 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.{{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}} 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.{{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}} Jurist Sir Matthew Hale stated that both rape laws were valid at the same time.{{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}} In 1875, the 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.{{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}}

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."canon 1061 §1 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.

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.Beatrice Gottlieb, The family in the Western World from the Black Death to the Industrial Age Oxford, 1993, pp. 55–56.

In most of 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.Laslett, Peter. 1965. The World We Have Lost. New York, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p 82

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. While European noblewomen often married early, they were a small minority of the population,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. and the marriage certificates from Canterbury show that even among nobility it was very rare to marry women off at very early ages.

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. 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.{{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 }} 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.

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.{{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 }}

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. 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.{{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}}

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.

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.

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.

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.De Moor, 2009; 17

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.Art. 144 of the Civil Code 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.

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.{{cite web | vauthors = Guzowski P |title=The Origins of the European Marriage Pattern |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290224803 |website=www.researchgate.net}}

In medieval Eastern Europe, the 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;Levin, Eve. 1995. Sex and Society in the World of the Orthodox Slavs, 900–1700. Cornell University Press. pgs 96–98 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.Mitterauer, Michael. 2010. Why Europe?: The Medieval Origins of Its Special Path. University of Chicago Press. Pg. 45–48, 77

In Russia, before 1830 the age of consent for marriage was 15 years old for males and 13 years old for females{{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}} (though 15 years old was preferred for females, so much so that it was written into the Law Code of 1649).{{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}} 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 Though 18 years old was preferred for females, the average age of marriage for females was around 19 years old.Avdeev, Blum, Troitskaia, Juby, "Peasant Marriage", 733.Engel, "Peasant Pre-Marital Relations", 698–99.

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.{{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}}

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.{{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}}

In majority of countries, a right to marry at age 18 is enshrined along with all other rights and responsibilities of adulthood. However, most of these countries allow those younger than that age to marry, usually with parental consent or judicial authorization. These exceptions vary considerably by country. The United Nations Population Fund stated:{{cite web|url=http://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/MarryingTooYoung.pdf |title=Marrying Too Young: UNFPA Report |publisher=Unfpa.org |access-date=2015-11-20}}

{{blockquote|In 2010, 158 countries reported that 18 years was the minimum legal age for marriage for women without parental consent or approval by a pertinent authority. However, in 146 [of those] countries, state or customary law allows girls younger than 18 to marry with the consent of parents or other authorities; in 52 countries, girls under age 15 can marry with parental consent. In contrast, 18 is the legal age for marriage without consent among males in 180 countries. Additionally, in 105 countries, boys can marry with the consent of a parent or a pertinent authority, and in 23 countries, boys under age 15 can marry with parental consent.}}

In recent years, many countries in the EU have tightened their marriage laws, either banning marriage under 18 completely, or requiring judicial approval for such marriages. Countries which have reformed their marriage laws in recent years include Sweden (2014), Denmark (2017), Germany (2017), Luxembourg (2014), Spain (2015), Netherlands (2015), Finland (2019) and Ireland (2019). Many developing countries have also enacted similar laws in recent years: Honduras (2017), Ecuador (2015), Costa Rica (2017), Panama (2015), Trinidad & Tobago (2017), Malawi (2017).

The minimum age requirements of 12 years old for females and 14 years old for males were written into English civil law. By default, these provisions became the minimum marriageable ages in colonial America. This English common law inherited from the British remained in force in America unless a specific state law was enacted to replace them. In the United States, as in most developed countries, age restrictions have been revised upward so that they are now between 15 and 21 years of age.

In Western countries, marriages of teenagers have become rare in recent years, with their frequency declining during the past few decades. For instance, in Finland, where in the early 21st century underage youth could obtain a special judicial authorization to marry, there were only 30–40 such marriages per year during that period (with most of the spouses being aged 17), while in the early 1990s, more than 100 such marriages were registered each year. Since 1 June 2019 Finland has banned marriages of anyone under 18 with no exemptions.{{Cite web|url=https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/child_marriage_ban_takes_effect_in_finland/10811843|title=Child marriage ban takes effect in Finland|website=Yle Uutiset|date=June 2019}}{{cite web|url=http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/finland/finland-news/domestic/12986-un-urges-finland-to-prohibit-child-marriage.html|title=UN urges Finland to prohibit child marriage| vauthors = Teivainen A |website=Helsinkitimes.fi|date=9 December 2014|access-date=28 July 2015}}

{{Further|Age of majority|Minor (law)}}

Marriageable age as a right is usually the same with the age of majority which is 18 years old in most countries. However, in some countries, the age of majority is under 18, while in others it is 19, 20 or 21 years. In Canada for example, the age of majority is 19 in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, British Columbia,

Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut. Marriage under 19 years in these provinces requires parental or court consent (see Marriage in Canada). In USA for example, the age of majority is 21 in Mississippi and 19 in Nebraska and requires parental consent. In many jurisdictions of North America, married minors become legally emancipated.{{cite web|url=http://family.findlaw.com/emancipation-of-minors/automatic-emancipation-of-minors.html|title=Automatic Emancipation of Minors |website=Family.findlaw.com}}

The marriageable age as a right is 18 years in all European countries, with the exception of Andorra and Scotland where it is 16 (regardless of gender). Existing exceptions to this general rule (usually requiring special judicial or parental consent) are discussed below. In both the European Union and the Council of Europe the marriage act states: The Istanbul convention, the first legally binding instrument in Europe in the field of violence against women and domestic violence,{{cite web|url=https://www.oas.org/es/mesecvi/docs/CSW-SideEvent2014-Flyer-EN.pdf |title=The Convention of Belem do Para and the Istanbul Convention: A response to violence against women worldwide |publisher=Oas.org |access-date=2015-11-20}} only requires countries which ratify it to prohibit forced marriage (Article 37) and to ensure that forced marriages can be easily voided without further victimization (Article 32), but does not make any reference to a minimum age of marriage.

In ancient Israel men twenty years old and older would become warriors{{cite web |title=Numbers 1:3 |website=Bible Hub |url=https://biblehub.com/numbers/1-3.htm}} and when they get married they would get one year leave of absence to be with their wife.{{cite web |title=Deuteronomy 24:5 |website=Bible Hub |url=https://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/24-5.htm}}

Rabbis estimated the age of maturity from about the beginning of the thirteenth year for women and about the beginning of the fourteenth year for men.{{cite web | vauthors = Greenstone JH |title=MAJORITY |url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10310-majority |website=jewishencyclopedia.com}}

On the practice of Levirate marriage, the Talmud advised against a large age gap between a man and his brother's widow.Yebamot 44a A younger woman marrying a significantly older man, however, is especially problematic: marrying one's young daughter to an old man was declared by the Sanhedrin as reprehensible as forcing her into prostitution.Sanhedrin 76a

In Rabbinic Judaism, males cannot consent to marriage until they reach the age of 13 years and a day and have undergone puberty and females cannot consent to marriage until they reach the age of 12 years and a day and have undergone puberty. Males and females are considered minors until the age of twenty. After twenty, males are not considered adults if they show signs of impotence. If males show no signs of puberty or do show impotence, they automatically become adults by age 35 and can marry.{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10861-minority|title=MAJORITY |website=Jewish Encyclopedia}}{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10888-mi-un|title=MI'UN |website=Jewish Encyclopedia}} Marriage involved a double ceremony, which included the formal betrothal and wedding rites.{{cite web |title=Marriage rituals |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/marriage/Marriage-rituals |website=Encyclopedia Britannica|date=22 July 2024 }}

The minimum age for marriage was 13 years old for males and 12 years old for females but formal betrothal could take place before that and often did. Talmud advises males to get married at 18 years old or between 16 years old and 24 years old.{{cite web |title=Issues in Jewish Ethics: Marriage |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/marriage-in-judaism |website=jewishvirtuallibrary.org}}

A ketannah (literally meaning "little [one]") was any girl between the age of 3 years and that of 12 years plus one day;{{Jewish Encyclopedia |article=Majority |url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?letter=M&artid=91}} she was subject to her father's authority, and he could arrange a marriage for her without her agreement, and that marriage remains binding even after reaching the age of maturity. If a girl was orphaned from her father, or she was married by his authority and subsequently divorced, she, her mother, or her brother could marry her in a quasi-binding fashion. Until the age of maturity, she could annul the marriage retroactively. After reaching the age of maturity, intercourse with her husband renders her officially married.{{Cite web |url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/legal-religious-status-of-married-woman |title= Conditions Necessary for Legal Marriage | vauthors = Meacham T |access-date=5 February 2020}}{{Cite web |url= http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10435-marriage-laws |title= Marriage Laws | vauthors = Schechter S, Greenstone JH |access-date=5 February 2020}}

Catholic canon law adopted Roman law, which set the minimum age of marriage at 12 years old for females and 14 years old for males. The Roman Catholic Church raised the minimum age of marriage to 14 years old for females and to 16 years old for males in 1917 and lowered the age of majority to 18 years old in 1983. The Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches states the same requirements in canon 800.

Büchler and Schlater state that "marriageable age according to classical Islamic law coincides with the occurrence of puberty. The notion of puberty refers to signs of physical maturity such as the emission of semen or the onset of menstruation".{{cite journal |vauthors=Büchler A, Schlatter C |date=2013 |title=Marriage Age in Islamic and Contemporary Muslim Family Laws: A Comparative Survey |url=http://www.zora.uzh.ch/78204/1/Beitrag_Buechler_Schlatter_final.pdf |journal=Electronic Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law |publisher=University of Zurich |volume=1 |issn=1664-5707}}

Hanafi school of classical Islamic jurisprudence interpret the "age of marriage", in the Quran (24:59;65:4), as the beginning of puberty.

Shafiʽi, Hanbali, Maliki, and Ja'fari schools of classical Islamic jurisprudence interpret the "age of marriage", in the Quran (24:59), as completion of puberty. For Shafiʽi, Hanbali, and Maliki schools of Islamic jurisprudence, in Sunni Islam, the condition for marriage is physical (bulugh) maturity and mental (rushd) maturity.

In his Shafiʽi jurisprudential compilation, The Stocks of the Sojourner, Ahmad Ibn Naqib Al-Misri (died 1368 A.D.) writes:

{{blockquote|Guardians are, moreover, two types, a binder and a non-binder. The binder is the father and the grandfather, mainly as to the marriage of a virgin, and so is the master as to the marriage of his slave girl. The meaning of "binder" is that he may marry her off without her consent.

The non-binder may not marry her off without her consent and permission. When virgin, though, the father or the grandfather may marry her off without her permission, but it is commendable to ask her, and her silence should signify acquiescence. The sane-minded non-virgin, however, may not be married off by anyone after maturity unless with her express consent, be it by the father, the grandfather, or anyone else. Before maturity, the non-virgin may not be married off at all.{{Cite web|url=https://shamela.ws/book/37344/196#p1|title=The Stocks of the Sojourner|last=ibn an-Naqib al-Misri|first=Shihabuddin Abu al-'Abbas Ahmad|website=Al-Šāmilah|page=201}}}}

Marriages are traditionally contracted by the father or guardian of the bride and her intended husband.

The 1917 codification of Islamic family law in the Ottoman empire distinguished between the age of competence for marriage, which was set at 18 years for boys and 17 years for girls, and the minimum age for marriage, which followed the traditional Hanafi minimum ages of 12 for boys and 9 for girls. Marriage below the age of competence was permissible only if proof of sexual maturity was accepted in court, while marriage under the minimum age was forbidden.

During the 20th century, most countries in the Middle East followed the Ottoman precedent in defining the age of competence, while raising the minimum age to 15 or 16 for boys and 15–16 for girls. Marriage below the age of competence is subject to approval by a judge and the legal guardian of the child. Egypt diverged from this pattern by setting the age limits of 18 years for boys and 16 years for girls, without a distinction between competence for marriage and minimum age.{{Cite encyclopedia| vauthors = Schacht J, Layish A, Shaham R, Ansari G, Otto JM, Pompe S, Knappert J, Boyd J |year=1995 |title=Nikāḥ |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam |edition=2nd |publisher=Brill | veditors = Bearman P, Bianquis T, Bosworth CE, van Donzel E, Heinrichs WP |volume=8|page=29}}

Many senior clerics in Saudi Arabia have opposed setting a minimum age for marriage, arguing that a girl reaches adulthood at puberty.{{cite news|url=https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/saudi-push-to-end-child-marriages-1.541430|title=Saudi push to end child marriages| vauthors = Mahdi W |date=July 1, 2009|newspaper=The National}}

However in 2019, members of the Saudi Shoura Council in 2019 approved fresh regulations for child marriage that will see to outlaw marrying off 15-year-old children and force the need for court approval for those under 18 years. The Chairman of the Human Rights Committee at the Shoura Council, Dr. Hadi Al-Yami, said that introduced controls were based on in-depth studies presented to the body. He pointed out that the regulation, vetted by the Islamic Affairs Committee at the Shoura Council, has raised the age of marriage to 18 years and prohibited it for those under 15 years.{{Cite web|url=https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1540156/saudi-arabia-introduces-new-regulations-early-marriage|title=Saudi Arabia Introduces New Regulations for Early Marriage| vauthors = Al Khataf I |website=Asharq Al-aswat}}

In the Baháʼí Faith's religious book Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the age of marriage is set at 15 years for both boys and girls. It is forbidden to become engaged before the age of 15 years.{{Cite book| vauthors = Smith P |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z7zdDFTzNr0C&q=Baha%27i+age+of+marriage+%2215%22+%22engaged%22&pg=PA165|title=An Introduction to the Baha'i Faith|date=2008-04-07|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-86251-6|language=en}}

The Dharmaśāstras state that females can marry only after they have reached puberty.{{cite book|title=A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century| vauthors = Singh U |year=2008|publisher=Pearson Education India|page=420}} Furthermore, The Legal Age for Marriage in India is being proposed to be amended, thereby increasing the marriageable age for girls in India in 2022 from 18 to 21 years.{{cite web | url=https://www.findoutabout.in/legal-age-of-marriage-in-india-2023// | title=LEGAL AGE OF MARRIAGE OF BOY & GIRL IN INDIA-2023 | date=15 June 2022 }}

• List of countries by age at first marriage
• Age disparity in sexual relationships
• Arranged marriage
• Child marriage
• Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages (UN treaty)
• Legality of polygamy
• Mature minor doctrine
• Polygamy
• Teenage marriage

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.gapminder.org/world/#;example=92; Age at 1st marriage in Gapminder World]
• [http://topics.law.cornell.edu/wex/table_marriage Cornell Law table of marriage age by state and territory for the United States]

{{Law country lists}}

{{Types of marriages|state=autocollapse}}

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Category:Law-related lists

Category:Marriage age

Category:Minimum ages

Category:Sex laws

Category:Statutory law