Tudor Marriage: Ceremony

A Tudor public church wedding ceremony began with the reading of the banns. Think of this as that movie moment when the priest asks if anyone knows of any reason why this couple should not be wed. The reading of banns was the moment to speak up if there was an objection or impediment to the couple’s marriage, such as a precontract with another, consanguinity, or vows to the church. Hopefully, this portion of the ceremony went off without a hitch or the rest of it would not take place.

Once the presiding clergy was satisfied that there was no barrier to the marriage, the bride was presented by her father or other male relative. In front of friends, family, and God, she would join hands with her soon to be husband. This “handfasting” was a remnant of medieval times when a ceremony outside of the church could create a handfasted marriage that was considered inferior to a church marriage.

Westminster Abby - author's photo

As we do today, the Tudor couple exchanged marriage vows. Portions of those vows were strikingly similar to our own. It was during the reign of young Tudor king Edward VI that vows were updated from a promise to be “bonny and buxom in bed and at the board” to “love, cherish and obey.” Edward’s reformation of the Church of England also added the phrases, “for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health till death do us part.” When Queen Mary I married Philip of Spain, she pledged to be obedient, “as much in mind as in body” though she was queen regnant of England.

The exchanging of rings came next. As the reformation surged in waves through Tudor England, this portion of the ceremony varied between the Catholic tradition and a simpler Protestant ritual. Early in the Tudor age, a man would place the ring first upon his wife’s thumb and move it to consecutive fingers until it rested on the middle finger while reciting, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Those who were married according to King Edward VI’s reforms would have simply placed the ring on the index finger and said, “With this ring, I thee wed.”

At this point in the ceremony, dowries and gifts were pledged to one another. Queen Mary I pledged, “This gold and silver I thee give. With my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow.” Hers was a generous gift compared to her husband, Philip, who pledged his own “moveable goods.”

All that had taken place thus far would happen just outside the church or at the church door before the couple approached the altar for the nuptial mass. A veil would then be spread over the couple, who would kneel or prostrate themselves before the altar. By the end of the Tudor age, with the Reformation firmly entrenched, the veiling was omitted from the ceremony and many weddings took place inside churches as the tradition of beginning outside was abandoned.

Philip and Mary I of England

Finally, the officiant would bless the couple, and, in the case of royal marriages, declare their new titles. At the wedding of England’s first queen regnant, the king of arms introduced them as, “Philip and Mary by the grace of God King and Queen of England, France, Naples, Jerusalem, and Ireland; Defenders of the Faith; Princes of Spain and Sicily; Archdukes of Austria; Dukes of Milan, Burgundy, and Brabant; Counts of Habsburg, Flanders and Tyrol.” Thankfully, not all Tudor couples were such a challenge to announce.

The Tudor wedding was not so different than we experience today. It was the process of choosing a spouse that is at odds with our modern sensibilities. The constraints around Tudor couples caused them to have different expectations and desires for marriage than we have today. At least, most of them did. A few Tudor couples scandalously broke through the barriers around marriage in their day, some with happier results than others.

Catch up on the entire Tudor Marriage Blog Series!

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Additional Reading:

Cummings, Brian (ed). The Book of Common Prayer: The Texts of 1549, 1559, and 1662. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Swinburne, Henry. Treatise of Spousals or Matrimonial Contracts. London: 1686.

Nichols, J.G. (ed) The Chronicle of Queen Jane and Two Years of Queen Mary, and Especially of the Rebellion of Sir Thomas Wyat. London: Camden Society 1^st series, 53, 1850.

Whitelock, Anna. Mary Tudor: Princess, Bastard, Queen. New York: Random House, 2009.