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.
In most
jurisdictions, both parties to a marriage must be physically present, and proxy weddings are not recognized as
legally binding. Under the
English common law, however, if a proxy marriage is valid by the law of the place where the marriage was celebrated (the ''
lex loci celebrationis In conflict of laws, the term ''lex loci'' (Latin for "the law of the place") is a shorthand version of the choice of law rules that determine the ''lex causae'' (the laws chosen to decide a case).''Black's Law Dictionary'' abridged Sixth Edition (1 ...
'') then it will be recognised in
England and Wales.
History
Starting in the
Middle Ages, European monarchs and nobility sometimes married by proxy. Some examples of this include:
*
Henry IV to
Joanna of Navarre, the daughter of
Charles d'Évreux, King of Navarre, on April 2, 1402
*
Lorenzo de'Medici to
Clarice Orsini
Clarice Orsini (1453–1488) was the daughter of Iacopo Orsini, and his wife and cousin Maddalena Orsini both from the Orsini family, a great Roman noble house and was the wife of Lorenzo de' Medici.
Life
Clarice and Lorenzo married 4 June ...
in 1469
*
Catherine of Aragon
Catherine of Aragon (also spelt as Katherine, ; 16 December 1485 – 7 January 1536) was Queen of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 11 June 1509 until their annulment on 23 May 1533. She was previousl ...
to
Prince Arthur in 1501
*
Margaret Tudor to
James IV
James IV (17 March 1473 – 9 September 1513) was King of Scotland from 11 June 1488 until his death at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. He inherited the throne at the age of fifteen on the death of his father, James III, at the Battle of Sauch ...
, in 1503
*
Mary Tudor, Queen of France
Mary Tudor (; 18 March 1496 – 25 June 1533) was an English princess who was briefly Queen of France as the third wife of King Louis XII. Louis was more than 30 years her senior. Mary was the fifth child of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth o ...
to
Louis XII
Louis XII (27 June 14621 January 1515), was King of France from 1498 to 1515 and King of Naples from 1501 to 1504. The son of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Maria of Cleves, he succeeded his 2nd cousin once removed and brother in law at the time ...
, in 1514
*
Anne of Austria
Anne of Austria (french: Anne d'Autriche, italic=no, es, Ana María Mauricia, italic=no; 22 September 1601 – 20 January 1666) was an infanta of Spain who became Queen of France as the wife of King Louis XIII from their marriage in 1615 unt ...
to
Louis XIII on October 18, 1615
*
Charles I of England to
Henrietta Maria of France on May 1, 1625
*
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne (; ; née Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child and ...
to
Louis-Auguste on April 19, 1770
*
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
to Austrian Archduchess
Marie Louise in 1810
Further, 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.
Many proxy marriages were carried out during the
First and
Second World Wars, with soldiers at the front marrying women at home, often participating in the wedding via telephone. During the First World War, proxy marriage was permitted in Belgium, France, Germany, Norway, Czechoslovakia and Italy.
On 4 April 1915 proxy marriage was legalised in
France.
Proxy marriage was common in the US, UK, Soviet Union and Nazi Germany during the Second World War, where obtaining
leave to return home and marry was difficult or impossible.
Kansas City, Kansas
Kansas City, abbreviated as "KCK", is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas, and the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is an inner suburb of the older and more populous Kansas City, Missouri, after which it is named. As of t ...
was known for its permissive proxy marriage laws; one lawyer in the city participated in 39 proxy weddings.
In
Italy between 1945 and 1976, 12,000 women were married by proxy to
Italian Australian men; they would then travel to Australia to meet their new husbands.
Today
, various Internet sites offer to arrange proxy and double-proxy marriages for a fee, although the service can generally be set up by any lawyer in a jurisdiction that offers proxy marriage.
Video conferencing allows couples to experience the ceremony together. A unique "space wedding" took place on August 10, 2003 when Ekaterina Dmitriev, an American citizen living in the U.S. state of
Texas where the ceremony was performed, married
Yuri Malenchenko
Yuri Ivanovich Malenchenko (russian: Юрий Иванович Маленченко; born December 22, 1961) is a retired Russian cosmonaut. Malenchenko became the first person to marry in space, on 10 August 2003, when he married Ekaterina Dmit ...
, a
cosmonaut
An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally ...
, who was
orbiting the Earth in the
International Space Station, by proxy.
Legality
Gambia
Proxy marriage is legal in
The Gambia under
sharia law.
United States
In the
United States, proxy marriages are provided for in law or by customary practice in
Texas,
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...
,
Kansas, and
Montana. Of these, Montana is the only state that allows double-proxy marriage.
[Section 40-1-301]
. ''Montana Code Annotated 2015''. Montana Legislative Services. Accessed on May 19, 2016. Proxy marriages cannot be solemnized in any other U.S. states.
In 1924, a
federal court recognized the proxy marriage of a resident of Portugal, where proxy marriages were recognized at the time, and a resident of Pennsylvania, where
common-law marriage
Common-law marriage, also known as non-ceremonial marriage, marriage, informal marriage, or marriage by habit and repute, is a legal framework where a couple may be considered married without having formally registered their relation as a civi ...
s could be contracted at the time.
The Portuguese woman was allowed to immigrate to the United States on account of the marriage, whereas she would have been inadmissible otherwise due to being illiterate.
[
During the early 1900s, United States proxy marriages increased significantly when many Japanese ]picture bride
The term picture bride refers to the practice in the early 20th century of immigrant workers (chiefly Japanese, Okinawan, and Korean) in Hawaii and the West Coast of the United States and Canada, as well as Brazil selecting brides from their nativ ...
s arrived at Angel Island, California
Angel Island is an island in San Francisco Bay. The entire island is included within Angel Island State Park, administered by California State Parks. The island, a California Historical Landmark, has been used by humans for a variety of purposes, ...
. Since the early 20th century, it has been most commonly used in the United States for marriages where one partner is a member of the military on active duty. In California, proxy marriage is only available to deployed military personnel. In Montana, a double-proxy marriage is available if at least one partner is either on active military duty or is a Montana resident.[ In the United states if a proxy marriage has been performed in a state that legally allows it many states will recognize it fully or will recognize it as a common law marriage. An exception to this is the state of Iowa, where it is completely unrecognized.
]
Germany
Germany does not allow proxy marriages within its jurisdiction (§ 1311 BGB). It recognizes proxy marriages contracted elsewhere where this is possible, subject to the usual rules of private international law, unless the foreign law should be incompatible with German ordre public (art. 6 ''EGBGB''): this is not the case with the marriage by proxy ''per se'', but would be if, e. g., the proxy was held responsible for ''choosing'' the spouse without further asking rather than only contracting a marriage with a given spouse.
United Kingdom
Proxy marriage was argued for in the House of Commons by Jennie Adamson
Janet Laurel Adamson (née Johnston; 9 May 1882 – 25 April 1962) was a British Labour Party politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1938 to 1946, and as a junior minister in Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government.
Ea ...
in 1943.
In 2014 it was reported that "proxy marriage misuse" was common in the UK, in which an EU citizen
European Union citizenship is afforded to all citizens of member states of the European Union (EU). It was formally created with the adoption of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, at the same time as the creation of the EU. EU citizenship is additio ...
and non-EU citizen, both living in the UK, participated in a proxy marriage in an outside country. These were sham marriages which allowed one spouse to gain EU citizenship.
Citizens Advice Scotland warns that "It may be extremely difficult to prove that a marriage by proxy is a valid marriage, both legally and for claiming benefits."
Catholic Church
Catholic Canon Law permits marriage by proxy, but requires officiants to receive authorization from the local ordinary before proceeding.
References
External links
Operation ‘I Do’: Moody AFB Attorneys Help Couple Tie Knot
Ernest G. Lorenzen, "Marriage By Proxy and the Conflict of Laws" (1932)
Double Proxy Marriage in Montana (limited to Montana residents and active duty military personnel, all branches)
{{Types of marriages, state=autocollapse
Types of marriage