I found an article on it. It certainly was feasible. The Article is by Loretta Dolan at the University of Western Australia... I've shortened it a bit to be within maximum characters.
Historically, marriage has never been the ‘traditional’ union of a man and a women based on love and mutual respect for each other. More often than not, marriages were arranged with the good of the family in mind and not the happiness of the betrothed couple. This was especially so in the cases of marriage between children. The examination of depositions (witness statements) from petitions for annulment of a marriage made by children below the canonical age of consent in the Dioceses of Chester and York between 1450 and 1603, reveal just why these marriages took place as well as the age at marriage of the parties.
Canon law decreed that no child under the age of seven could contract a marriage, although clearly not all parents followed this directive. Above the age of seven, the contract could be made but the marriage would not be valid unless both parties consented to the marriage when they came to the age of consent. This was legally defined by the Church as twelve for girls and fourteen for boys. The age at which children were married varied but tended to be around nine, ten or eleven years old, and past the legal age for contracting a marriage. However, children as young as two were taken to church and helped to recite vows of future consent.
The reasons for child marriages are not always apparent from the depositions but many do state that it was at the instigation of the parents or that the children were ‘forced’ into the union. It is worth considering here that marriages had a practical aspect to them in the sixteenth century: parents sought to make a good marriage for their children and children were expected to accept their parents’ choice of marriage partner. It was, as Peter Rushton described, the ‘lynchpin of the family system’ around which the family elders of both parties placed vested interests. The happiness of the bride and groom took a back seat to safeguarding or advancing fortunes, protecting land and forging connections.
Often, one of the children went to live in their father-in-law’s house after the marriage, but this tended to be the youngest child regardless of gender. Once children were in the house, they were treated more as siblings rather than man and wife and were often referred to as ‘sister’ or ‘friend’. Sleeping arrangements were those of siblings – sharing a bed with another child or servant of the same sex – and none were expected to lie with their spouse until they came to the age of consent. This though, did not stop one of the parties from planning to entice their partner into their bed chamber.
Marrying at such a young age presented challenges for the children involved and the depositions give some insight to their emotional responses and reactions. Whilst there are not always descriptions that can be classified specifically sixteenth- or twenty-first century emotions, there are descriptions of children ‘weeping openly’, which suggests unhappiness and fear.
Child marriage, like any other marriage, was an opportunity for a celebration. And whilst members of the community recognised that the parties in these marriages were very young by referring to them as ‘being then children’ when recounting the marriages, they still attended the church service and were able to recall the names of those present in addition to the total number of guests. The celebrations did not end at the church door and wedding feasts were common with witnesses either dining or serving at them. The manner in which the witnesses discussed the child marriages they attended suggests that the community identified the marriage as no different to marriages performed after the age of consent and therefore an acceptable practice in which to involve children from within the community.
The practice of child marriage as described above illuminates the larger topic of children and childrearing in sixteenth-century northern England. It emphasises the structure of society and families in a particular geographical area and within certain socioeconomic groups. Yet, due to a lack of research in this area in other regions of England during the same chronological period, we cannot conclude that child marriage was a northern phenomenon. What we can conclude is that parents married their children underage despite canonical stipulations, and the community regarded it as an accepted practice. Unlike the forced child marriages of today however, the practice of child marriage in sixteenth-century northern England did not necessarily diminish childhood experiences for those children involved. They continued with the activities expected of a child of their status with both the bride and groom treated according to their place in the life-cycle and not as a spouse expected to fulfil the obligations of adult marriage.
For more detail on child marriage and other aspects of childhood in sixteenth-century northern England see: Loretta Dolan, Nurture and Neglect: Childhood in Sixteenth Century England (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2017).
