Marriage by proxy

A proxy wedding or (proxy marriage) is a wedding in which one or both of the individuals being united are not physically present, usually being represented instead by other persons. If both partners are absent a double proxy wedding occurs.

Marriage by proxy is usually resorted to either when a couple wish to marry but one or both partners cannot attend for reasons such as military service, imprisonment, or travel restrictions; or when a couple lives in a jurisdiction in which they cannot legally marry.

Proxy weddings are not recognized as legally binding in most jurisdictions: both parties must be present. A proxy marriage contracted elsewhere may be recognised where proxy marriage within the jurisdiction is not; for example, Israel recognises proxy marriages abroad between Israelis who might not have been permitted to marry in Israel. Under the English common law, if a proxy marriage is valid by the law of the place where the marriage was celebrated (the lex loci celebrationis) then it will be recognised in England.

Beginning in the Middle Ages European monarchs and nobility sometimes married by proxy. A well-known example more recently involved the marriage of Napoleon I of France and the Austrian Archduchess Marie Louise in 1810. There was another proxy wedding that occurred at Eltham on 3 April, 1402 between Henry IV and Joan, the daughter of Charles II, King of Navarre. Another famous example is the marriage of Mary, Queen of Hungary to Louis I, Duke of Orléans in 1385. Catherine of Aragon wed Prince Arthur by proxy in 1499. A famous 17th-century painting by Peter Paul Rubens depicts the proxy marriage of Marie de' Medici in 1600. By the end of the 19th century the practice had largely died out.

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