Royal Marriages Act 1772 facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Royal Marriages Act 1772

Act of Parliament
Parliament of Great Britain
Long title	An Act for the better regulating the future Marriages of the Royal Family.
Citation	12 Geo. 3. c. 11
Territorial extent	England and Wales; Scotland
Dates
Royal assent	1 April 1772
Other legislation
Amended by	Criminal Law Act 1967
Repealed by	Succession to the Crown Act 2013
Status: Repealed
1772 Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended

The Royal Marriages Act 1772 was a law made by the Parliament of Great Britain. This law set rules for how members of the British royal family could get married. Its main goal was to prevent marriages that might lower the status of the royal family. Many people at the time did not like the power this law gave the king to stop marriages.

This old law was cancelled because of the Perth Agreement in 2011. The new rules came into effect on March 26, 2015. Now, under the Succession to the Crown Act 2013, only the first six people in line to the throne need the monarch's permission to marry. If they don't get permission, they and their children might lose their place in the line of succession.

What the Law Said

The 1772 Act stated that no one descended from King George II could marry without the reigning monarch's permission. This rule applied to both male and female descendants. The only exception was for princesses who had married into royal families from other countries.

The monarch's permission had to be officially written down. It needed to be sealed with the Great Seal and announced in the Privy Council. Any marriage without this royal consent was considered completely invalid.

However, there was a special rule for royal family members over 25 years old. If the monarch refused their marriage, they could still marry one year later. This was allowed unless both parts of Parliament clearly said no to the marriage. The monarch never formally refused consent, but sometimes requests were ignored. Other times, people didn't even ask because they knew it would be refused.

The Act also made it a crime to help someone marry if the king hadn't agreed. This part of the law was later removed in 1967.

Why the Law Was Made

George III suggested this law. He did so because his brother, Prince Henry, Duke of Cumberland and Strathearn, married a commoner in 1771. Her name was Anne Horton. She was a widow and not from a royal family.

The king approved the Act on April 1, 1772. Later that year, he found out another brother, Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, had secretly married in 1766. This marriage was to Maria, who was also not from a royal family. King George III thought both marriages were very unsuitable. He felt he had been forced to marry for royal reasons, and his brothers should too.

Royal Marriages Affected by the Act

Many royal family members were affected by this law. Here are some examples:

• On December 15, 1785, George, Prince of Wales, secretly married Maria Anne Fitzherbert. She was a Catholic and a widow. This marriage was not valid under the Act. If it had been valid, George would have lost his right to become king.
• On September 29, 1791, Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, married Princess Frederica Charlotte of Prussia. They had to repeat the ceremony in London. This was because the official consent was not ready in time for the first wedding.
• Prince Augustus, the king's sixth son, married Lady Augusta Murray twice. The first wedding was secret in Rome, and the second was in London. Both marriages were later declared invalid by a court. Their children were not considered legitimate.
• After Lady Augusta Murray died, Prince Augustus married Lady Cecilia Buggin around 1831. This marriage was also against the Act. Queen Victoria later gave Lady Cecilia a special title, but she did not make the marriage legally valid.
• On January 8, 1847, Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, married Sarah Fairbrother. She was an actress and pregnant with his children. This marriage was not valid. No one asked Queen Victoria for permission because they knew she would say no.
• After Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha lost his British titles in 1917, his children married without British royal consent. Even though their marriages were legal in Germany, they were not valid under British law because of this Act.
• The only time permission was formally asked for but not given was for Prince George William of Hanover. He was a German citizen and a descendant of King George III. In 1946, he married Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark. The British King George VI did not respond to their request for permission. This was because Britain and Germany were still in a state of war.

Wider Impact of the Law

The Act made any marriage that broke its rules invalid, no matter where it happened. If a royal family member married against the Act, they did not lose their place in the line of succession. However, their children were considered illegitimate because the marriage was invalid. This meant the children could not inherit the throne.

The Act also applied to Catholics, even though they could not become monarch anyway. It did not apply to all descendants of Sophia of Hanover, only those who were also descendants of George II.

Some people thought that Prince Augustus's marriage might be legal in other countries. However, a British court ruled that the Act stopped any descendant of George II from marrying legally without the monarch's consent, anywhere in the world.

Many royal families around the world have rules about who their members can marry. But Britain's 1772 Act was unusual because it stayed the same for 243 years. This meant it affected a very large number of people, including distant relatives of the monarch.

The "Farran Exemption" Idea

In the 1950s, a law expert named Charles d'Olivier Farran had an idea. He thought the Act might no longer apply to anyone alive. He believed this because many members of the royal family were also descended from British princesses who had married into foreign royal families. The Act had an exception for these princesses' children. Farran thought this exception might apply to everyone.

For example, Queen Elizabeth II and other members of the House of Windsor are descended from King George II's daughters who married foreign rulers. These include Mary and Louise. King Charles III and his family also descend from Princess Alice, a daughter of Queen Victoria, who married a German Grand Duke.

This idea, called the "Farran exemption," got a lot of attention. However, other experts disagreed with it. Royal marriages continued to seek and receive the monarch's consent as before.

One argument against Farran's idea was about British citizenship. Many Protestant descendants of Electress Sophia of Hanover (from whom British monarchs descend) were British citizens. So, some marriages of British princesses to "foreign" royals were actually to British subjects. For example, Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) married Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. He was a Greek and Danish prince but also a descendant of Electress Sophia. This meant he was a British subject, even before he became naturalized.

Edward VIII's Special Case

In 1936, a special law was passed when Edward VIII gave up his throne. This law specifically said that the Royal Marriages Act would not apply to him after he abdicated. This allowed him to marry Wallis Simpson, who was divorced. The law also said that any children they might have would not be affected by the Act and could not inherit the throne. However, they had no children.

The Perth Agreement

In October 2011, David Cameron, who was the Prime Minister, suggested a change to the law. He proposed that the Act should only apply to the first six people in line to the throne. Leaders of other Commonwealth realms agreed to this change at a meeting in Perth, Australia.

Because of this agreement, the Royal Marriages Act 1772 was completely cancelled in the United Kingdom. It was replaced by the Succession to the Crown Act 2013. This new law says that the first six people in the line of succession must get the monarch's permission before marrying. If they don't, they lose their right to the throne.

The new Act also has a rule for marriages that happened before it came into force. If a marriage would have been invalid under the old Act, it is now treated as valid. This applies if the people involved were not among the first six in line to the throne at the time. It also applies if they didn't ask for royal consent because they didn't know the Act applied to them.

Other Laws About Royal Marriages

The Regency Act 1830 was another law about royal marriages. It was made in case Queen Victoria became queen before she was 18. This law would have made it illegal for her to marry without the regent's permission. Anyone helping her marry without permission would have been guilty of a very serious crime. However, this law never came into effect. Victoria turned 18 just a few weeks before she became queen.

Official Permissions for Marriages

The permissions given under the Royal Marriages Act were recorded. Since 1857, it became common to publish these permissions in the London Gazette. Here is a list of some of the permissions given: