Marriage

==History==
The history of marriage is often considered under [[history of the family]] or legal history.<ref>for the historiography see Frederik J. G. Pedersen, "Marriage" in {{cite book|editor=Kelly Boyd|title=Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing vol 2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0121vD9STIMC&pg=PA766|year=1999|publisher=Taylor & Francis|pages=766–68|isbn=978-1-884964-33-6}}</ref>

===Ancient world=== <!--linked-->

====Ancient Near East====
Many cultures have legends concerning the origins of marriage. The way in which a marriage is conducted and its rules and ramifications have changed over time, as has the institution itself, depending on the culture or demographic of the time.<ref>[[Hobhouse, Leonard Trelawny]] (1906) [https://archive.org/details/moralsinevolutio00hobh ''Morals in evolution: a study in comparative ethics''], New York: H. Holt and Co, p. 180.</ref>

The first recorded evidence of marriage ceremonies uniting a man and a woman dates back to approximately 2350 BC, in ancient [[Mesopotamia]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://theweek.com/articles/528746/origins-marriage|title=The origins of marriage|date=January 1, 2007|work=[[The Week]]|access-date=December 8, 2019}}</ref> Wedding ceremonies, as well as dowry and divorce, can be traced back to Mesopotamia and [[Babylonia]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ehistory.osu.edu/articles/marriage-ancient-mesopotamia-and-babylonia|title=Marriage in Ancient Mesopotamia and Babylonia|last=Naranjo|first=Robert|website=eHistory.osu.edu|publisher=[[Ohio State University]]|access-date=December 8, 2019}}</ref>

<!---taken from article, "Jewish views on marriage"--->
According to ancient Hebrew tradition, a wife was seen as being property of high value and was, therefore, usually, carefully looked after.<ref name="JewEncMar" /><ref name="CheyneAndBlackMar" /> Early nomadic communities in the Middle East practiced a form of marriage known as ''[[Beena marriage|beena]]'', in which a wife would own a tent of her own, within which she retains complete independence from her husband;<ref name="WRSKinship167">[[William Robertson Smith]], ''Kinship and Marriage in early Arabia'', (1885), 167</ref> this principle appears to survive in parts of early Israelite society, as some early passages of the Bible appear to portray certain wives as each owning a tent as a personal possession<ref name="WRSKinship167" /> (specifically, [[Jael]],<ref>{{bibleverse||Judges|4:7|HE}}</ref> [[Sarah]],<ref>{{bibleverse||Genesis|24:26|HE}}</ref> and Jacob's wives<ref>{{bibleverse||Genesis|31:33–34|HE}}</ref>).

The husband, too, is indirectly implied to have some responsibilities to his wife. The [[Covenant Code]] orders "If he take him another; her food, her clothing, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish (or lessen)".<ref>{{bibleverse||Exodus|21:10|HE}}</ref> If the husband does not provide the first wife with these things, she is to be divorced, without cost to her.<ref>{{bibleverse||Exodus|21:11|HE}}</ref> The [[Talmud]] interprets this as a requirement for a man to provide food and clothing to, and have sex with, each of his wives.<ref name="JewEncHusWif">{{Jewish Encyclopedia|inline=1|title=Husband and Wife|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?letter=H&artid=986}}</ref>{{clarify|date=April 2013}} However, "duty of marriage" is also interpreted as whatever one does as a married couple, which is more than just sexual activity. And the term diminish, which means to lessen, shows the man must treat her as if he was not married to another.

As a [[polygyny|polygynous]]<!--this is NOT a spelling mistake for 'polygamous'--> society, the Israelites did not have any laws that imposed marital fidelity on men.<ref name="CheyneAndBlackJeal">{{EncyclopaediaBiblica|article=Jealousy, Ordeal of|section=Jannaeus-Jerah}}</ref><ref name="JewEncAdu">{{Jewish Encyclopedia|inline=1|title=Adultery|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=865&letter=A}}</ref> However, the prophet [[Malachi]] states that none should be faithless to the wife of his youth and that God hates divorce.<ref>{{bibleverse||Malachi|2:15–16|HE}}</ref> [[Adultery|Adulterous]] married women, adulterous betrothed women, and the men who slept with them, however, were subject to the [[Capital punishment|death penalty]] by [[Adultery#In the Hebrew Bible|the biblical laws against adultery]]<ref>{{bibleverse||Ezekiel|16:40|}}</ref><ref>{{bibleverse||Leviticus|20:10|HE}}</ref><ref>{{bibleverse||Deuteronomy|22:22–25|}}</ref> According to the [[Priestly Code]] of the [[Book of Numbers]], if a pregnant<ref>''[[Peake's commentary on the Bible]]'' (1962 edition), ad loc</ref> woman was suspected of adultery, she was to be subjected to the [[Ordeal of the bitter water|Ordeal of Bitter Water]],<ref>{{bibleverse||Numbers|5:11–31|HE}}</ref> a form of [[trial by ordeal]], but one that took a miracle to convict. The [[literary prophets]] indicate that adultery was a frequent occurrence, despite their strong protests against it,<ref>{{bibleverse||Jeremiah|7:9|HE}}</ref><ref>{{bibleverse||Jeremiah|23:10|HE}}</ref><ref>{{bibleverse||Hosea|4:2|}}</ref><ref>{{bibleverse||Malachi|3:5|HE}}</ref> and these legal strictness's.<ref name="CheyneAndBlackJeal" />

====Classical Greece and Rome====
{{see also|Marriage in ancient Rome|Ancient Greek wedding customs}}

In [[ancient Greece]], no specific civil ceremony was required for the creation of a heterosexual marriage – only mutual agreement and the fact that the couple must regard each other as husband and wife accordingly.<ref name="WILLIAMSON 1998">{{Cite book |last=WILLIAMSON |first=MALCOLM |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YvvJtcFkRpcC |title=The Sacred and the Feminine in Ancient Greece |date=1998 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-12663-2 |language=en}}</ref> Men usually married when they were in their 20s and women in their teens.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Greek Women: Marriage and Divorce|url=https://www.pbs.org/empires/thegreeks/background/43.html|access-date=2021-06-28|website=www.pbs.org}}</ref> It has been suggested that these ages made sense for the Greeks because men were generally done with military service or financially established by their late 20s, and marrying a teenage girl ensured ample time for her to bear children, as life expectancies were significantly lower.{{Citation needed|date=October 2012}} Married Greek women had few rights in ancient Greek society and were expected to take care of the house and children.{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}} Time was an important factor in Greek marriage. For example, there were superstitions that being married during a [[full moon]] was good luck and Greeks married in the winter in honor of Hera.<ref name="WILLIAMSON 1998"/> Inheritance was more important than feelings: a woman whose father dies without male heirs could be forced to marry her nearest male relative – even if she had to divorce her husband first.<ref name="PT">[http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20170601170518/https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200505/marriage%2Dhistory "Marriage, a History."] ''Psychology Today'', 1 May 2005</ref>

There were several types of marriages in ancient Roman society. The traditional ("conventional") form called ''conventio in manum'' required a ceremony with witnesses and was also dissolved with a ceremony.<ref name="magnusHirschfeldSexology">{{cite web |url=http://sexarchive.info/ATLAS_EN/html/history_of_marriage_in_western.html |title=Magnus Hirschfeld Archive of Sexology |publisher=Erwin J. Haeberle }}</ref> In this type of marriage, a woman lost her family rights of inheritance of her old family and gained them with her new one. She now was subject to the authority of her husband.<ref>Frier and McGinn, ''Casebook'', p. 53.</ref> There was the free marriage known as ''sine manu''. In this arrangement, the wife remained a member of her original family; she stayed under the authority of her father, kept her family rights of inheritance with her old family and did not gain any with the new family.<ref name="RomanEmpireMarriage">{{cite web |url=http://www.roman-empire.net/society/soc-marriage.html |title=Roman empire.net marriage |publisher=Roman-empire.net  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212170628/http://www.roman-empire.net/society/soc-marriage.html |archive-date=12 February 2009 }}</ref> The minimum age of marriage for girls was 12.<ref>{{cite book|author=Treggiari, Susan |title=Roman Marriage: Isusti Coniuges from the Time of Cicero to the Time of Ulpian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I0J1A6o4GuQC&pg=PA39|year=1993|publisher=Clarendon Press|isbn=978-0-19-814939-2|page=39}}</ref>

====Germanic tribes====
[[File:Seuso and his wife at Lake Balaton.jpg|thumb|Seuso and his wife]]

Among ancient [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] tribes, the bride and groom were roughly the same age and generally older than their Roman counterparts, at least according to [[Tacitus]]:
<blockquote>The youths partake late of the pleasures of love, and hence pass the age of puberty unexhausted: nor are the virgins hurried into marriage; the same maturity, the same full growth is required: the sexes unite equally matched and robust, and the children inherit the vigor of their parents.<ref>Tacitus (by commentator Edward Brooks). 2013. [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/7524/7524-h/7524-h.htm#link2H_4_0002 The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus]. Project Gutenberg. Footnotes 121–122.</ref></blockquote>
Where [[Aristotle]] had set the prime of life at 37 years for men and 18 for women, the [[Visigothic Code|Visigothic Code of law]] in the 7th century placed the prime of life at 20 years for both men and women, after which both presumably married. Tacitus states that ancient Germanic brides were on average about 20 and were roughly the same age as their husbands.<ref>Herlihy, David. (1985). ''Medieval Households''. Harvard University Press, pp. 73–5, {{ISBN|0-674-56376-X}}.</ref> Tacitus, however, had never visited the German-speaking lands and most of his information on [[Germania]] comes from secondary sources. In addition, [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]] women, like those of other Germanic tribes, are marked as women from the age of 12 and older, based on archaeological finds, implying that the age of marriage coincided with [[puberty]].<ref>Green, Dennis Howard and Siegmund, Frank. 2003. ''The Continental Saxons from the Migration Period to the Tenth Century''. Boydell Press. p. 107</ref>

===Europe===
{{Further|History of the family|Royal intermarriage}}
[[File:Brauysegen im Bett.gif|thumb|Woodcut. How Reymont and Melusina were betrothed / And by the bishop were blessed in their bed on their wedlock. From the ''[[Melusine]]'', 15th century.]]

From the [[Early Christianity|early Christian]] era (30 to 325 CE), marriage was thought of as primarily a private matter, with no uniform religious or other ceremony being required.<ref>{{cite book |title=Marriage, sex, and civic culture in late medieval London |last=McSheffrey|first=Shannon |year=2006 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-0-8122-3938-6 |page=21 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dJX_Nr2fdzAC}}</ref> However, bishop [[Ignatius of Antioch]] writing around 110 to bishop [[Polycarp]] of Smyrna exhorts, "[I]t becomes both men and women who marry, to form their union with the approval of the bishop, that their marriage may be according to God, and not after their own lust."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/ignatius-polycarp-longer.html |title=St. Ignatius of Antioch to Polycarp (Roberts-Donaldson translation) |publisher=Earlychristianwritings.com |date=2 February 2006 }}</ref>

In 12th-century Europe, women took the surname of their husbands and starting in the second half of the 16th century parental consent along with the church's consent was required for marriage.<ref name="those_terrible_middle_ages">{{Cite book| last1 = Pernoud|first1 = Régine|title = Those terrible Middle Ages: debunking the myths| url = https://archive.org/details/thoseterriblemid00pern| url-access = limited|year = 2000|publisher = Ignatius Press| location = San Francisco|isbn = 978-0-89870-781-6|page = [https://archive.org/details/thoseterriblemid00pern/page/n52 102]}}</ref>

With few local exceptions, until 1545, Christian marriages in Europe were by mutual consent, declaration of intention to marry and upon the subsequent physical union of the parties.<ref name="upennExcerptFromBook">[http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/toc/14042_toc.html Excerpt from Marriage, Sex, and Civic Culture in Late Medieval London] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090323055903/http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/toc/14042.html |date=23 March 2009 }} "the sacramental bond of marriage could be made only through the freely given consent of both parties."</ref><ref name="marriageDotAbout">{{cite web |url=http://marriage.about.com/cs/generalhistory/a/marriagehistory.htm |title=marriage.about.com |publisher=marriage.about.com |date=16 June 2010 |access-date=25 November 2008 |archive-date=14 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170214012630/http://marriage.about.com/cs/generalhistory/a/marriagehistory.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> The couple would promise verbally to each other that they would be married to each other; the presence of a priest or witnesses was not required.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.exploregenealogy.co.uk/FindingEarlyMarriageRecords.html |title=Marriage Records |publisher=Exploregenealogy.co.uk |date=29 October 2007 }}</ref> This promise was known as the "verbum." If freely given and made in the present tense (e.g., "I marry you"), it was unquestionably binding;<ref name="upennExcerptFromBook"/> if made in the future tense ("I will marry you"), it would constitute a [[Engagement|betrothal]].

In 1552, a wedding took place in Zufia, [[Kingdom of Navarre|Navarre]], between Diego de Zufia and Mari-Miguel following the custom as it was in the realm since the Middle Ages, but the man denounced the marriage on the grounds that its validity was conditioned to "riding" her ("''si te cabalgo, lo cual dixo de bascuence (...) balvin yo baneça aren senar içateko''"). The tribunal of the kingdom rejected the husband's claim, validating the wedding, but the husband appealed to the tribunal in [[Zaragoza]], and this institution annulled the marriage.<ref name="Matrimonios a lo Navarro">{{cite journal |last1=Esparza Zabalegi |first1=Jose Mari|date=March 2010 |title=Matrimonios a lo Navarro |journal=Nabarralde Kazeta |issue=7 |page=45 }}</ref> According to the [[Fueros of Navarre|Charter of Navarre]], the basic union consisted of a civil marriage with no priest required and at least two witnesses, and the contract could be broken using the same formula.{{citation needed|date=July 2014}} The Church in turn lashed out at those who got married twice or thrice in a row while their formers spouses were still alive. In 1563 the [[Council of Trent]], twenty-fourth session, required that a valid marriage must be performed by a priest before two witnesses.<ref name="Matrimonios a lo Navarro"/>

One of the functions of churches from the [[Middle Ages]] was to register marriages, which was not obligatory. There was no state involvement in marriage and personal status, with these issues being adjudicated in [[ecclesiastical court]]s. During the Middle Ages marriages were arranged, sometimes as early as birth, and these early pledges to marry were often used to ensure treaties between different royal families, nobles, and heirs of fiefdoms. The church resisted these imposed unions, and increased the number of causes for nullification of these arrangements.<ref name="those_terrible_middle_ages"/> As Christianity spread during the Roman period and the Middle Ages, the idea of free choice in selecting marriage partners increased and spread with it.<ref name="those_terrible_middle_ages"/>

In medieval Western Europe, later marriage and higher rates of definitive [[celibacy]] (the so-called "European marriage pattern") helped to constrain patriarchy at its most extreme level. For example, [[England in the Middle Ages|Medieval England]] saw marriage age as variable depending on economic circumstances, with couples delaying marriage until the early twenties when times were bad and falling to the late teens after the [[Black Death]], when there were labor shortages;<ref>Hanawalt, Barbara A. 1986. The Ties That Bound: Peasant Families in Medieval England. Oxford University Press, Inc. Pg 96</ref> by appearances, marriage of adolescents was not the norm in England.<ref>Hanawalt, pp. 98–100</ref><ref>33. Young, Bruce W. 2008. ''Family Life in the Age of Shakespeare''. Greenwood Press. pp. 21, 24, 28</ref> Where the strong influence of classical [[Celts|Celtic]] and [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] cultures (which were not rigidly patriarchal)<ref>John T. Koch, Antone Minard. 2012. The Celts: History, Life, and Culture. ABC-CLIO. p. 495</ref><ref>Young, Bruce W. 2008. Family Life in the Age of Shakespeare. Greenwood Press. pp. 16–17, 20</ref> helped to offset the Judaeo-Roman patriarchal influence,<ref>Greif, Avner. 2005. Family Structure, Institutions, and Growth: The Origin and Implications of Western Corporatism. Stanford University. 2011. pp. 2–3. {{cite web|url=http://www.aeaweb.org/assa/2006/0106_0800_1104.pdf |title=Archived copy |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=4 September 2015 }}</ref> in Eastern Europe the tradition of early and universal marriage (often in early [[adolescence]]),<ref>Levin, Eve. 1995. ''Sex and Society in the World of the Orthodox Slavs, 900–1700''. Cornell University Press. pp 96–98</ref> as well as traditional [[Slavs|Slavic]] patrilocal custom,<ref>Levin, 1995; pp. 137, 142</ref> led to a greatly inferior status of women at all levels of society.<ref>Levin, 1995; pp. 225–27</ref>
[[File:Dräkt, Gustav III, gnr 3485 & dräkt, Sofia magdalena, gnr 3502. Fel föremålsref - Livrustkammaren - 16527.tif|thumb|Swedish royal wedding clothes from 1766 at [[Livrustkammaren]] in Stockholm]]

The average age of marriage for most of [[Western European marriage pattern|Northwestern Europe]] from 1500 to 1800 was around [[Hajnal line|25 years of age]];<ref>Stone, Linda. (2010). ''Kinship and Gender''. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, pp. 231–36, {{ISBN|0-8133-4402-6}}.</ref><ref>Schofield, Phillipp R. (2003). ''Peasant and community in Medieval England, 1200–1500''. Medieval culture and society. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan. p. 98, {{ISBN|0-333-64710-6}}.</ref><ref name="autogenerated82">Laslett, Peter. (1965). The World We Have Lost. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 82, {{ISBN|0-415-31527-1}}.</ref> as the Church dictated that both parties had to be at least 21 years of age to marry without the consent of their parents, the bride and groom were roughly the same age, with most brides in their early twenties and most grooms two or three years older,<ref name="autogenerated82"/> and a substantial number of women married for the first time in their thirties and forties, particularly in urban areas,<ref>Coontz, Stephanie. (2005). ''Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage''. New York: Viking Press, Penguin Group Inc. pp. 125–29, {{ISBN|0-14-303667-X}}.</ref> with the average age at first marriage rising and falling as circumstances dictated. In better times, more people could afford to marry earlier and thus fertility rose and conversely marriages were delayed or forgone when times were bad, thus restricting family size;<ref>Kertzer, David I and Marzio Barbagli. (2001). ''The history of the European family''. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. xxii, {{ISBN|0-300-09090-0}}.</ref> after the [[Black Death]], the greater availability of profitable jobs allowed more people to marry young and have more children,<ref>Lehmberg, Stanford E. and Samantha A. Meigs. (2008). The Peoples of the British Isles: A New History: From Prehistoric Times to 1688. Lyceum Books. p. 117, {{ISBN|1-933478-01-2}}.</ref> but the stabilization of the population in the 16th century meant fewer job opportunities and thus more people delaying marriages.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1111/j.1468-0289.2009.00483.x|title=Girl power: The European marriage pattern and labour markets in the North Sea region in the late medieval and early modern period|year=2010|last1=De Moor|first1=Tine|last2=Van Zanden|first2=Jan Luiten|journal=The Economic History Review|volume=63|pages=1–33 (17)}}</ref>

The age of marriage was not absolute, however, as child marriages occurred throughout the Middle Ages and later, with just some of them including:
* The 1552 CE marriage between John Somerford and Jane Somerford Brereto, at the ages of 3 and 2, respectively.<ref name="woman-compendium" />
* In the early 1900s, [[Magnus Hirschfeld]] surveyed the age of consent in about 50 countries, which he found to often range between 12 and 16. In the [[Vatican City|Vatican]], the age of consent was 12.<ref name="ascrim-persp">{{Cite book |last1=Bullough |first1=Vern L. |title=Adolescence, Sexuality, and the Criminal Law: Multidisciplinary Perspectives |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9d23AwAAQBAJ&q=Magnus+Hirschfeld+age+of+consent+50+countries&pg=PA37 |access-date=18 October 2015 |isbn=978-1-317-95499-6 |page=37|date=2014-06-03 |publisher=Routledge }}</ref>

As part of the [[Reformation|Protestant Reformation]], the role of recording marriages and setting the rules for marriage passed to the state, reflecting [[Martin Luther]]'s view that marriage was a "worldly thing".<ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle=History of Marriage}}</ref> By the 17th century, many of the [[Protestantism|Protestant]] European countries had a state involvement in marriage.

In England, under the Anglican Church, marriage by consent and cohabitation was valid until the passage of [[Marriage Act 1753|Lord Hardwicke's Act]] in 1753. This act instituted certain requirements for marriage, including the performance of a religious ceremony observed by witnesses.<ref name="WestLaw">''West's Encyclopedia of American Law, 2nd Edition.'' Thomson Gale, 2005. {{ISBN|0-7876-6367-0}}</ref>
[[File:Paolo Monti - Serie fotografica - BEIC 6363689.jpg|thumb|A marriage in 1960 in Italy. Photo by [[Paolo Monti]].]]
As part of the [[Counter-Reformation]], in 1563 the [[Council of Trent]] decreed that a [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] marriage would be recognized only if the marriage ceremony was officiated by a priest with two witnesses. The council also authorized a [[Catechism]], issued in 1566, which defined marriage as "The conjugal union of man and woman, contracted between two qualified persons, which obliges them to live together throughout life."<ref name="Witte">{{cite book|last=Witte|first=John Jr.|title=From Sacrament to Contract: Marriage, Religion, and Law in the Western Tradition|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|year=1997|pages=[https://archive.org/details/fromsacramenttoc0000witt/page/39 39–40]|isbn=978-0-664-25543-5|url=https://archive.org/details/fromsacramenttoc0000witt/page/39}}</ref>

In the [[early modern period]], [[John Calvin]] and his [[Protestantism|Protestant]] colleagues reformulated Christian marriage by enacting the Marriage Ordinance of Geneva, which imposed "The dual requirements of state registration and church consecration to constitute marriage"<ref name="Witte"/> for recognition.

In [[England and Wales]], Lord Hardwicke's [[Marriage Act 1753]] required a formal ceremony of marriage, thereby curtailing the practice of [[Fleet Marriage]], an irregular or a clandestine marriage.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/lhr/17.1/leneman.html |title=The Scottish Case That Led to Hardwicke's Marriage Act |last=Leneman |first=Leah |year=1999 |publisher=Law and History Review  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080706143516/http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/lhr/17.1/leneman.html |archive-date=6 July 2008 |access-date=8 June 2008 }}</ref> These were clandestine or irregular marriages performed at Fleet Prison, and at hundreds of other places. From the 1690s until the Marriage Act of 1753 as many as 300,000 clandestine marriages were performed at Fleet Prison alone.<ref>{{cite book|title=For Better, for Worse: British Marriages, 1600 to the Present|last=Gillis|first=John R.|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn = 978-0-19-503614-5|year=1985|url=https://archive.org/details/forbetterforwors00gill|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/forbetterforwors00gill/page/92 92]}}</ref> The Act required a marriage ceremony to be officiated by an Anglican priest in the [[Anglican Church]] with two witnesses and registration. The Act did not apply to Jewish marriages or those of Quakers, whose marriages continued to be governed by their own customs.

[[File:Flodmark-Ehrs Marriage 2016 crop.jpg|thumb|Newlyweds after a civil ceremony in the tower of [[Stockholm City Hall]] in 2016]]
In England and Wales, since 1837, civil marriages have been recognized as a legal alternative to church marriages under the [[Marriage Act 1836]]. In Germany, civil marriages were recognized in 1875. This law permitted a declaration of the marriage before an official clerk of the civil administration, when both spouses affirm their will to marry, to constitute a legally recognized valid and effective marriage, and allowed an optional private clerical marriage ceremony.

In contemporary [[English law|English common law]], a marriage is a voluntary [[contract]] by a man and a woman, in which by agreement they choose to become husband and wife.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://topics.law.cornell.edu/wex/Marriage |title=Marriage&#124;LII / Legal Information Institute |publisher=Topics.law.cornell.edu |date=19 August 2010  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110325205909/http://topics.law.cornell.edu/wex/Marriage |archive-date=25 March 2011 }}</ref> Edvard Westermarck proposed that "the institution of marriage has probably developed out of a primeval habit".<ref>{{cite book|title=The History of Human Marriage|last=Westermarck|first=Edward Alexander|author-link=Edvard Westermarck|publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan and Co., Ltd., London]]|year=1903|isbn=978-1-4021-8548-9|edition=reprint}}</ref>

Since the late twentieth century, major social changes in Western countries have led to changes in the demographics of marriage, with the age of first marriage increasing, fewer people marrying, and more couples choosing to [[Cohabitation|cohabit]] rather than marry. For example, the number of marriages in Europe decreased by 30% from 1975 to 2005.<ref>Vucheva, Elitsa. (30 July 2013) [http://euobserver.com/social/27161 / Social Affairs / Europeans marry older, less often]. Euobserver.com. Retrieved on 5 September 2013.</ref> As of 2000, the average marriage age range was 25–44 years for men and 22–39 years for women.

===China===
{{Main|Chinese marriage}}

The mythological origin of Chinese marriage is a story about [[Nüwa]] and [[Fu Xi]] who invented proper marriage procedures after becoming married. In ancient Chinese society, people of the same surname are supposed to consult with their [[family tree]]s prior to marriage to reduce the potential risk of unintentional incest. Marrying one's maternal relatives was generally not thought of as incest. Families sometimes intermarried from one generation to another. Over time, Chinese people became more geographically mobile. Individuals remained members of their biological families. When a couple died, the husband and the wife were buried separately in the respective clan's graveyard. In a maternal marriage, a male would become a son-in-law who lived in the wife's home.

The [[New Marriage Law]] of 1950 radically changed Chinese marriage traditions, enforcing [[monogamy]], equality of men and women, and choice in marriage; [[arranged marriage]]s were the most common type of marriage in China until then. Starting October 2003, it became legal to marry or divorce without authorization from the couple's work units.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cntoc.html|title=Danwei|access-date=7 October 2014}}</ref>{{clarify|reason=new marriage law or what?|date=October 2013}} Although people with infectious diseases such as AIDS may now marry, marriage is still illegal for the mentally ill.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/1439403/China-relaxes-laws-on-love-and-marriage.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/1439403/China-relaxes-laws-on-love-and-marriage.html |archive-date=10 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live | location=London | work=The Daily Telegraph | first=Richard | last=Spencer | title=China relaxes laws on love and marriage | date=21 August 2003}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

===Korea===
The practice of [[matrilocality]] in Korea started in the [[Goguryeo]] period, continued through the [[Goryeo]] period and ended in the early [[Joseon]] period.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Molony |first1=Barbara |title=Gender in Modern East Asia |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |page=22}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=김선주 |title=연애와 혼인 사이 |url=http://contents.history.go.kr/front/km/view.do?levelId=km_001_0030_0010_0020 |website=National Institute of Korean History |language=ko}}</ref> The Korean saying that when a man gets married, he is "entering ''jangga''" (the house of his father-in-law), stems from the Goguryeo period.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lee |first1=Bae-yong |title=Women in Korean History |date=2008 |publisher=Ewha Womans University Press |page=19}}</ref>