The Medieval Marriage Ceremony That Sounds Completely Made Up (But Isn’t)

Wearing white. Exchanging rings. Throwing confetti. Keeping the bride and groom apart until they walk down the aisle. Weddings are just one longstanding (and often quite bizarre) tradition after another. But of all the age-old marital customs introduced throughout history, perhaps one of the strangest is the so-called "proxy" marriage.

Less of a wedding-day tradition than a form of marital ceremony itself, in medieval times a proxy marriage was a wedding between two people who, for whatever reason, were not able to be together on the actual wedding day. Instead, one or both of the individuals getting married (a so-called "double proxy" wedding was held if both parties were absent) would be represented at the altar by a stand-in, or proxy, who would take part in the ceremony in their place.

The Surprisingly Practical Reason Proxy Weddings Existed

Proxy marriages were common at a time when weddings were often utilized less as a means of uniting lovers, and more as a means of cementing alliances across countries, royal houses, and grand dynasties. Proxies would be used when those being wed were otherwise unavoidably kept apart by great distances, impassable geography, or long-rumbling warfare.

One of the very earliest known examples of a proxy wedding, in fact, dates from way back in 493 AD, when Clovis I, the King of the Franks and one of the founders of France's grand Merovingian dynasty, wed his wife Clotilde, who was the exiled daughter of the neighboring Burgundian dynasty.

She had fled her family's court amid a bloody and murderous plot by her uncle, Gundobad, to kill and then steal the throne from her father, Chilperic II. Gundobad's actions left his and Chilperic's other brother, Godegisel, in an understandably precarious position, and as a result he chose to ally himself with the Franks in order to bolster his power and see off any potential threat from Gundobad.

Ultimately, a wedding was arranged between Clovis and Godegisel's niece, Clotilde, that would unite the Franks and Burgundians—despite the two not actually meeting in person on the day.

Medieval Proxy Weddings Could Get Weird

Alliances like these continued to be arranged for centuries, with several of the most famous names of the medieval era being wed in proxy ceremonies. Henry IV, the first Lancastrian king of England, for instance, wed his second wife, Joan of Navarre, by proxy in 1402 (before marrying in person at Winchester Cathedral the following year). The future king James II, meanwhile, wed a 15-year-old Italian princess, Mary of Modena, in a Catholic proxy ceremony in 1673 despite considerable Protestant opposition (including from his brother, Charles II).

Proxy marriages often didn't stop at the altar or with the signing of paperwork, either. When Maximilian of Habsburg (later the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I) wed his future queen, Anne of Brittany, by proxy in 1490, the nobleman who represented him at the wedding went on to spend the wedding night in Anne's bed—albeit wearing a full suit of armor, with a sword placed between them on the mattress.

As the fractious international relationships of the Middle Ages gave way to burgeoning diplomatic international relationships in the Victorian era, though, proxy marriages like these became something of a historical relic. They nonetheless remain legally recognized in many countries and jurisdictions, and often prove useful for betrothed couples who are, for instance, kept apart by military service, incarceration, and international travel restrictions.

During the global lockdowns of the COVID-19 era, in fact, proxy weddings became a useful way for couples unable to travel to meet one another to retain their original wedding dates.

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