This is a list of child brides, women of historical significance who married at a young age.
Women have traditionally married at younger ages than men although the average age of marriage has increased for both sexes with time. Historically girls were married at a young age more frequently in the past due to both law (increases in the minimum age required for marriage) and trends.
Some of the child marriages recorded include:
Aisha, betrothed to Muhammad at the age of 9 in 623 CE.
Margaret Beaufort, (age approximately 7) was married to John de la Pole (age 7) in 1450 by the arrangement John's father. The marriage was annulled in 1453.
Joan of France, Duchess of Berry, betrothed in a wedding contract at age 8 days old, she was officially married at age 12 in 1476.
Anne de Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk (age 6) was married to Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York (age 4) in 1477. She died at age 10 and he, as one of the Princes in the Tower is believed to have been murdered at age 10.
Rukhmabai was married in India to her husband when she was 11 and he was 19. After a lengthy court battle, the marriage was dissolved by an order from Queen Victoria and the publicity helped influence the passage of the Age of Consent Act, 1891 which outlawed child marriages across the British Empire.
Janakiammal Iyengar was married at the age of 10 years to the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan.
Nujood Ali, an arranged marriage by her father to a 30-year-old man at age 10 in 2008. Coverage of her self-presented application for divorce later that year led to the legal age of marriage in Yemen to be raised to 18.
