3. The Roman Emperor Who Arranged His Children’s Marriages Before They Were Born
There have been many weddings on this list which have led to very interesting and terrible marriages, and this next one is no different. In the early 1500s, it was very typical for marriages to be arranged. However, it was also very average for the people of the arranged marriages to be alive and not a fetus. In 1506, the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I arranged a marriage between his heirs and King Vladislas of Hungary and Bohemia. Surprisingly, this went over well for the families and actually worked.
The arranged marriages were between Maximilian’s two grandchildren. The first marriage was to be between his three-year-old grandson, Ferdinand, who was arranged to marry Vladislas’s daughter Anna, who was also three years old at the time. This marriage took place in 1515 when the two were teenagers. The next arranged marriage, which would also occur in 1515, was between Maximilian’s second grandchild, Mary, who was an infant. She was set to marry Vladislas’s unborn baby, who was still in his wife’s stomach when the arrangement was made.