It should be noted that Judges honored marriages based on mutual consent at ages younger than 7, in spite of what Gratian had said there are recorded marriages of 2 and 3 year olds. Marriage would then be valid as long as neither of the two parties annulled the marital agreement before reaching puberty, or if they had already consummated the marriage. There were authorities that said that consent could take place earlier. In the 12th century Gratian, the influential founder of Canon law in medieval Europe, accepted age of puberty for marriage to be between 12 and 14 but acknowledged consent to be meaningful if the children were older than 7. The phrase "within age" was interpreted by jurist Sir Edward Coke as meaning the age of marriage, which at the time was 12 years of age. The first recorded age-of-consent law dates back 800 years: In 1275, in England, as part of the rape law, a statute, Westminster 1, made it a misdemeanor to "ravish" a "maiden within age," whether with or without her consent. It can be presumed that most ancient Germanic women were at least twenty years of age when they married and were roughly the same age as their husbands.
Where Aristotle had set the prime of life at 37 years for men and 18 for women, the Visigothic Code of law in the seventh century placed the prime of life at twenty years for both men and women, after which both presumably married. As old and full-grown as the men, they match their mates in age and strength, and their children reproduce the might of their parents. The girls, too, are not hurried into marriage. The young men marry late and their vigor is thereby unimpaired. In Ancient Rome, it was very common for girls to marry and have children shortly after the onset of puberty.Īmong ancient Germanic tribes, the bride and groom were roughly the same age and older than their Roman counterparts, according to Tacitus: In most cases, this coincided with signs of puberty, menstruation for a woman and pubic hair for a man. Traditionally, across the world, the age of consent for a sexual union was a matter for the family to decide, or a tribal custom. However, some religious communities do not accept the supremacy of State law in this respect. When the marriageable age under a law of a religious community is lower than that of the state ("country"), the state law prevails.
The marriage age should not be confused with the age of majority or the age of consent, or the actual age at first marriage in a particular society.ĥ5 countries are parties to the Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage, and Registration of Marriages, which requires them to specify a minimum marriage age by statute law, thus overriding customary, religious and tribal laws. The age and other requirements vary between countries, but generally it is set at 18, although most jurisdictions allow marriage at slightly younger ages with parental and/or judicial approval, or in case of pregnancy. Marriageable age (or marriage age) is the age at which a person is allowed to marry, either as of right or subject to parental or other forms of consent. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. This article may contain original research.