I got married in Gretna Green. Very romantic, though we didn't elope, I wasn't 15 and my husband is definitely not Mr Wickham 😊

Running off to Gretna Green may sound romantic to modern audiences and Lydia, but it has a far more insidious reason especially for fortune hunters like Wickham. By marrying in Scotland outside of the purview of the Marriage Settlement Act, and more importantly, without the protection of the woman's parents, there is no marriage articles aka pre-nup signed (ya know, the articles that allowed Mrs Bennet and her daughters to at least have control over the 5000 pounds she brought into the marriage that would otherwise have automatically become the property of her husband). Therefore, if the parents of the woman have no choice but to accept the marriage, they cannot have marriage articles signed in hindsight - the woman (esp dangerous if she's an heiress) will lose control over her ENTIRE dowry / inheritance as the money will now be rightfully her husband's and he can legally throw it all away, even on his mistress, without consulting her, and she will have no legal redress available as there were no articles signed. Also, the so-called "hypocrisy" at forcing Lydia to marry Wickham and not Georgiana is false. It is stated in the book itself that Darcy at first tried to persuade Lydia to LEAVE Wickham... she was the one who refused, and the subsequent marriage negotiations were made only so Darcy can minimize the effect it had on the Bennets because Lydia REFUSED to leave Wickham. If she had agreed, they could have concocted a story to hush up the incident, even though Lydia's extremely public elopement will make such a story very implausible, with the backing of the money and power of the Darcys, the Bennets COULD HAVE BEEN SAVED without Lydia having to marry Wickham BUT SHE REFUSED.

Fun fact... people are still “running away” to Scotland to get married as, in Scotland, you can get married without parental consent at the age of 16. In England and Wales you can only do this at 18 years of age.

I think Darcy caught Georgiana’s elopement in time, whereas Lydia had already been shacking up in London. Plus Georgiana’s mistake was easily covered up, while Lydia’s was under the social spotlight. Nice reference to Jane Eyre there!

Mr Darcy is actually stated in the book to persuaded Lydia to return to her family but Lydia said she wanted to marry Wickham so he arranged it. Maybe Mr Darcy had some poor but respectable friend in mind who could have married Lydia instead and Mr Darcy could have supported them.

One huge difference between a Common Marriage License and a Special Marriage License is the Special Marriage License allowed you to wed at anytime, anywhere. The Common Marriage License had to be used within 90-days and the marriage vows had to be completed within either the bride's or groom's parish church.

Ellie, that was done not only to save her reputation, but also aiming , by fixing the situation of Lizzie's family, to subsequently repeat his marriage proposal; otherwise, the situation would have been so heavily compromised that there was no chance to ever come up with the offer again. In other words, he had a vested interest in his choice of helping Lydia. I am not criticising him, because in any case he was by no means sure his proposal would be accepted. Per se, his act was generous, and the whole family derived benefits from it.

Darcy forced the Lydia-Wickham marriage also to protect the honour of her sisters, and by implication, as he was moving on Lizzy, his own. Honour is why Lydia's elopement was such a shock to her sisters: it reflected negatively on Lydia's upbringing and thus on their own moral character, substantially reducing their own chances for a good marriage. As Mr Collins so kindly points out: "They [Mrs Collins + Lady Catherine] agree with me in apprehending that this false step in one daughter will be injurious to the fortunes of all the others".

Gretna Green is a marriage town now tbh. The smithy is still there with an anvil that they tap at the end of the ceremony. Gretna had the first person who could officiate on the Scottish side of the border (the blacksmith) and often the whole town would hide lovers from family.

Lydia was a hair's breath from being sex trafficked for the rest of her life. The "fallen women" spoken about in hushes. Hence, the very real concern for her actual safety, as well as her status. It was one of the common methods to get new girls. They couldn't go back home and could easily be abandoned to a level where they had no familiarity or protection.

Romantic story about Gretna Green! Preface: my brother is an amateur blacksmith and history buff, he told me this. At Gretna Green you could be married by a blacksmith. The bride and groom stand on either side of the anvil, which as a blacksmith's work is to forge metal pieces into a single object, their marriage symbolically forges their lives and hearts together as well. There are a few other traditions associated with a blacksmith marriage, but I don't remember them. My brother and I had the opportunity to visit Gretna Green and see the blacksmith shop. Super fun and very interesting!

Hey, my grandma got married when she was 13 back in the 1930s in Montana and I still don't know what the crap that was all about. And my mom found out a few years ago that her real father was her mom's teenaged brother-in-law so there was a lot of messed up crap going around. All of this just supports my argument that anyone saying they were born in the wrong time needs to rethink their life choices. Better to dress up in old-fashioned clothes and go to conventions than to actually wish you lived back in a more primitive time.

Mr. Darcy didn't want Elizabeth's reputation to be compromised by Lydia's immorality if he could prevent it, because he still wanted to marry Lizzie.

It also stopped what were known as Fleet Marriages, where a woman marries a condemned man, he goes to the gallows, & she's a widow

I think Darcy is a very honorable person and I have nothing bad to say about his character. That said, he tells Elizabeth himself when she thanks him for what he did for Lydia that he he did it for her (Elizabeth). Fixing Lydia's problem was the only way that he could ever have even a hope of marrying her. With Lydia's reputation in ruins, there would be no chance of it.

I think the concern that Mr. Bennet would not allow the marriage of Wickham and Lydia may not be the real reason why she wanted to (or agreed to, as the case may be) elope with Mr. Wickham. Lydia may have done it even otherwise. In the novel she comes across as a self-willed, crazy teen who found thrill and enjoyment in flouting etiquettes and social mores, and shocking people around her. She would have thought an elopement the 'coolest' adventurous thing she could do to grab attention and become (in)famous! 😉 Aside from that, there is an instance in Fanny Burney's _Camilla_ where a character is abducted to Gretna Green by a fortune-hunter and forced into marriage for the sake of her fortune. Either Jane Austen had this mind when she wrote the Georgiana and Lydia affair, or maybe such scandals were common enough in Austen's time. I also happened to read that it was a blacksmith ('anvil priest') in Gretna Green who actually officiated such marriages for money? As Miss Bingley would say, shocking! 😯

The morality as it applied to Lydia is the same as that applying to Maria Bertram in Mansfield Park, although playing out in different ways. Lydia was unmarried so (financial) pressure could be placed on her seducer such that Wickham married her, and to some extent Lydia recovers her reputation. By contrast Maria was already married and runs away with the unmarried Henry Crawford. Her reputation is utterly destroyed and she lives out her life in social isoliation (and I don't count her aunt as company as that must have been torture) for the rest of her life with no chance of recovering her reputation. Henry Crawford, by the double standards of the day, was probably damned by his behaviour and yet he could still re-enter society and probably hope to marry well (a girl with new money marrying up perhaps). Thanks for an interesting video.

It also should be pointed out that it was because of the Presbyterian church in Scotland that had the more lax marriage laws, not just because it was Scotland alone.

My husband and I sort of eloped. We wanted to be married, but we weren’t that keen on the whole wedding nonsense and expense. So, we made a surprise visit to Orkney for my mother’s 50th birthday with my husband’s family in tow, and then, at the end of the evening, we said, “By the way, we’re getting married on Saturday”. The local registrar had been sworn to secrecy and had posted the marriage notice on the most out of the way place possible, under cover of darkness. We showed up to the office, got married and then went to the pub. We celebrated our Silver anniversary in 2019 (we did consider going back to Orkney for it, but in the end we decided for a warmer set of islands and took a Caribbean cruise instead).

Bands of marriage for sure, since I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be if noble blood. Another note is Mr. Darcey was I love with Elizabeth. There would be no hope in marrying her if Lidia didn’t marry.

My running commentary of your video: I never knew that's how the marriage banns works! Thanks for the insight! "Original Las Vegas" - love it! I'm poor, so marriage banns I guess. Lol.

"Clandestine marriages" seem to have been a real problem, and (though I'm not a scholar of this history) it seems to have taken centuries to work out a helpful system. Without central recording or public proclamation of marriages, unscrupulous young men could engage in a series of secret marriages, then move on to the next town when they got bored and do it again. (There were instances of noble or royal men raising a family of supposed heirs, then finding them all ruled illegitimate when a previous secret marriage was uncovered.) So something really was needed to regulate and register marriages to prevent such abuses. But there always remained loopholes like Gretna Green. The better Pride and Prejudice dramatizations create additional dialogue to make clear what Austen's readers would have known instantly: that by "living in sin" with Wickham in London, Lydia is not only disgracing herself, she is reducing her sisters' marriage chances to zero -- they're all doomed.

I went to Gretna Green last time I was in Scotland just to check it out because of P&P. Just missed a couple that got married there!

I think it mentions in the book that Darcy did try to persuade Lydia to leave Wickham, go back to her family, and try to patch up her reputation. But she wouldn't, so the (almost) shotgun wedding was the only option.

Oh! And I do believe you were referring to Jane Eyrie at the beginning. The secret crazy wife of Mr.Rochester, locked in the tower. Her brother returns just in time to ruin their lives by spilling the beans

12 and 14-year-olds getting married absolutely blows my mind. Love your lip color + pearls here!

8:00 Also, Lydia really does consistently WANT to marry Wickham. Georgiana's desire for Wickham is relatively short lived.

One more reason Lydia had to marry: if they'd had sex (which they probably had, why else would he keep her around), she might have already been pregnant.

I knew a couple that got married at Gretna Green they were planning to get married later that year but were visiting Scotland and decided they would get married there for fun

Thank you, Ellie, for your clear explanation of Lydia's greatest folly.

Run away to get married at 15 is always a bad idea. My aunt did it and she regrets it

I know it's an old video, but I'm a new subscriber and can't resist commenting. If I lived in Regency England, I'd have been hounded out of the country. Um......because I crochet. I'm sure you know of Otavia Cox's excellent commentary series on P&P. She makes a very clear case that Wyckham was going to run away from Brighton anyway to escape debts of various sorts, including honor. Lydia was such a pushy young tart, that he thought he might as well take her along as a temporary companion, while he still aspired to marry a wealthier girl.

On the east coast of the United States, couples could be married in Maryland at an earlier age than in other states, and the town of Elkton, MD was where young couples from PA, or NJ would go to get married. FWIW, I always considered 'eloping' as an unauthorized departure from some location where an individual is in the care and control of a third person, and could apply to someone who departed from a location without proper authorization. The elopement refers to the departure and travel, and not to what goes on thereafter. So a couple would elope and then get married, not run away and then elope.

We don't know that Lydia ever intended to go to Gretna Green. We just know that that was what the family originally thought that they would do, as elopement was more acceptable than immortality

Lydia would brag for the rest of her life that she was the first of her sisters to get married despite being the youngest. I wonder if she ever stopped being immature.

Interesting series! It has been a while since I have read the book, but I seem to remember that once Darcy found Lydia and Wickham, he tried to convince her not to marry Wickham, because he knew this would be an unwise marriage. It was Lydia who insisted that she wanted to marry, and therefore, Darcy arranged to have the marriage happen. Did I remember that wrong?

My mam and dad have been together for 27 years and only got married 3 years ago, but they got married at Gretna over the traditional anvil. I'm from north east England so it's roughly a 2 hour drive from where I live. a beautiful place, although there are many beautiful places here

My family attends a very traditional Latin Mass parish in the Boise, Idaho area. They still read marriage banns before couples marry here. If I weren’t already married (we were married in the Catholic Church, but before we attended this parish), then we would also have the banns read.

The banns are still in place today in the UK and other parts of Europe! (or a waiting period to get a marriage licenses for a civil marriage at the courthouse) You cannot just get married in much of Europe. And the banns were/are read not just the church they attended. They were read in THEIR HOME PARISHES. The idea of the bann date back to the 13th century but were codified in the 16th. The goal is to prevent invalid marriages from occurring. Because all marriages of people were publicly announced in their HOME parishes and most parishes were very small the hope was that someone would remember if the perspective bride and groom had a spouse somewhere still living or some other reason the marriage could not proceed, say the bride and groom were too closely related or an enforceable vow a celibacy (Remember! 13th century codified in 16th), etc. But the biggest issue was a preexisting marriage to a living spouse which had not been dissolved or annulled at the time of the new marriage! Apparently there was a problem of people leaving their spouses, moving some distance away and then marrying another people in their new town (the issue was mostly men abandoning wives). Not I'm not sure how much I believe that common license let you skip the waiting period, perhaps if it had statement requirements from people who have know the bride and groom for years that no legal impediment exists, say another marriage etc. (what the banns and waiting periods exist to check for). Waiting periods are pretty codified in much or European marriage laws and has only been removed in the past few decades (and NOT removed in countries like the U.K., France, and the Netherlands), I'm not sure I buy that they didn't exist in 19th century Scotland. I buy that parental permission wasn't required or that the waiting period was shorter, but the "banns" requirement existed in Scotland too and does to this day! And common license today has a public statement of intent and a waiting period in Scotland TODAY! BWT in countries the which formal public announcements and banns are still codified into law the "Speak now or forever hold your peace" isn't a joke, it's a legal requirement to check for valid objections to the marriage ie. other undissolved marriages to living spouses, the bride and groom being too closely related or an enforceable vow of celibacy (middle ages remember!). This means that if there is an objection THE CEREMONY MUST BE STOPPED, the objection cannot easily be withdrawn, and MUST BE INVESTIGATED before the wedding can proceed, even if it was a JOKE, it's a legal requirement. As a result frivolous objections result in fines and people getting sued for the cost of the wedding which now cannot occur because you made a joke!

Definitely have the bands read. My husband and I had a very ‘common’ wedding: ceremony in our home church, food and dancing with nothing fancy.

Think you are a bit hard on Hardwicke's Marriage Act of 1753 which was designed to protect young girls, especially heiresses , who might be lured away , seduced and married under-age for their money. Sometimes women thought they were married only to find it wasn't a valid legal ceremony. So the Act said that marriage could only take place in a church where you were known , in daylight with the consent of your family. If you wanted to have it elsewhere or without banns , then you needed to pay for a Common Licence ...though that still needed to be in a church and with family consent if you were under age. Or go off to Gretna Green, of course!

My husband and I basically did the bare minimum to get married- but since our city's courthouse is on an island, we call it our "destination island wedding". In the regency era, we probably would have done the same- as regular middle class folks who didn't want to put forth extra effort or expense, we'd just do the one where the pastor reads off our intention to get married for 3 weeks and as long as no one cares, we're good to go.

I think the real question is would Lydia have agreed to run away with Wickham if she knew he wasn't planning to marry her?

You have to think of total life expectancy back then compared to today. If people are dying between the ages of 50 and 60, you have to get married before 25 if you want to have what people then called a long marriage. The reason that the Jewish ceremony of adulthood [ the bar mitzvah ] happens at 13 or 14 is that you have to become an adult fast if you are going to die at 50.

I aspired to be a "happy little married people" Ellie, how are you SO CUTE 😂❤

I love this video best of all your videos. You are very respectful to the morality of the time. Thanks for the great info 😊

My mother eloped at 14 with a military man. Her parents thought they’d stopped it but they were too late. She lived secretly married while her husband was out of the country two years then when he csme back she announced it and they moved to Miami where he proceeded to treat her very badly. Her parents refused to take her back forcing her to live with her decision.

There's a reason for that low age in marriage. It's to prevent arranged marriages and children/teens getting their inheritance wasted before they can lay hands on it. It also prevents parents manipulating their kids in engaging age (people got engaged earlier back then) to get engaged or not at their parents/tutors' benefit over the person who's getting married. It also prevented some... very nasty abuse. Basically, it revolves around inheritance and arranged marriage in childhood.

Having just reread P& P recently and wondering why the emphasis on Scotland, this video really helped

You still have the banns read in the UK if you are having a church wedding. It's lovely hearing your banns being read!

Mr. Wickham never intended to marry Lydia, or he would have just gone to Gretna Green with her. . It was only Mr. Darcy's money that changed the situation.

The next question, in my mind, would be why would Wickham choose to run off with Lydia in the first place?

I think read that in the novel, Darcy tries to persuade Lydia to abandon Wickham, but she wants to marry him. So Darcy makes Wickham marry Lydia instead.

To be fair to him, Darcy did try to convince Lydia to 'quit her present disgraceful situation' and fall upon any friends willing to assist her. Thsi probably meant to be supported by her family again and being placed away, or if she were pregnant, secluded in some distant farmhouse. Darcy knew Wickham would not make a good husband. But Lydia refused any help, his or anyone elses. She believed she and Wickham would be married eventually and didn't care when. She kept going on and on about him to anyone who would listen and never once clocked in that she done anything wrong. In that situation, all Darcy could do to help was to expedite a marriage by bribing Wickham. Although a stink would remain, this saved Lydia's reputation and those of her sisters. Darcy and Bingley overlooked A LOT to marry Jane and Lizzie, but them having a 'girl upon the town' as a sister would kill any romantic notions. And that where Lydia was heading. Wickham had no intention of marrying her and was still hoping to marry richer elsewhere (he admits this much to Darcy). Lydia would be left alone and penniless in some seedy part of London, possibly pregnant. Her only option would have been appealing for help to the Gardiners (if she remembered their address) or sinking deeper and trying to earn money the lie down way.

Your videos have allowed me to get so much more out of historical books and movies and I really appreciate that. 🧡💜

I´ll common Licence since special licence, also was a rush wedding, and I Live in Regency era I love to make the big fuss about it

Let's be clear here, Darcy wasn't being a white knight; he saved Lydia's reputation to curry favor with Lizzie.

I have been there on my honeymoon. Very pittoresc, but a bit touristic. But sweet, happy I have been there

Initially, Elizabeth is quite taken with Wickam, and she still thinks Darcy is awful. Wickam seems to have a way with the ladies. He fools Elizabeth for a while, he nearly elopes with Darcy's younger sister, and then he almost gets away with condemning Lydia to a terrible fate.

Literally just finished listening to Jane Eyre for probably the 5th time...such a sweet, romantic novel ☺️ I love how Jane and mr Rochester describe each other

"Secret wife, locked in the attic..." wouldn't that be Jane Eyre?

Hmmmmm.... assuming that I (and more importantly, my parents) maintained roughly the same social class as in the modern era, I would peg myself riiiiiight at the border between getting the banns read and getting a common license. It would probably depend on my husband. Regardless, I highly doubt I would be getting married in Gretna Green unless I happened to live there. I’m WAAAAAY too much of a goody-two-shoes to pull off that kind of a stunt!

I’ve never understood Wickham’s motives for telling Lydia they were running off to get married when he had no intention of doing so. Just what was his end goal? Sex? He could get that anywhere... and we all know Lydia had no great fortune for a dowry.

My brain gets locked on the idea of the regency casino at Gretna Green. But not the casino itself but how would look regency hangover the next day with waking up in the most unexpected place.

First of all, you are looking very lovely and sophisticated in this video! I want to add to your explanation of why Lydia's shacking up with Wickham would have ruined her marriage prospects and damaged the prospects of her sisters. The assumption would be that as Lydia had put out for a man before marriage that she would be very likely to continue such behavior after marriage. Even today most men would not like that behavior in their wife. Her actions harmed her sisters because the assumption would be that they would be likely to behave as their sister had done. A lot of men would avoid taking that chance. It is only fair to say that Lydia did have the intention of getting married when she left Brighton with Wickham. How long it took for Wickham to "persuade" her to give up the idea is left to our imagination.

Have you ever done a video comparing Mr. and Mrs. Bennet's marriage with Mr. and Mrs. Collins marriage? One objection, I think, that Elizabeth had to Charlotte marrying Mr. Collins is that it would be another marriage where one could not respect the other. Elizabeth grew up with that in her house with her parents, so it's understandable that she would't want her best friend to have that same situation. Granted, as Elizabeth said, viewed in a prudential light, it was a good match for Charlotte given her age, lack of dowry, etc. However, the very essence of both marriages is the lack of respect of one for the other.

Actually, in France marriage banns are still an obligation. It should be published during 10 days before the marriage in the city halls of the places where bride and groom live, and also in the city hall where their marriage will take place.

Another perfect episode! Thank you 💖 and I think I would just have a simple banns read sort of marriage haha I don't think I could afford the other two if I lived in austens day - unless I married Mr Darcy! I liked your subtle jane eyre quote there haha 💖💖

How did you end up with such a Jane Austen name? It's perfect for what you talk about.

A special license also lets a couple get married anywhere at any time. Depending on the year the historical romance you're reading is set in, the couple can only be married between the hours of 6 am and 8pm or 8 am and noon and inside your parish church. The other Bennet sisters (minus Lizzie) probably wouldn't have been able to get married either because other families would have felt that if Lydia ran off with a man, who's to say that the others wouldn't do the same?

One of the reason Scotland still allowed marriage at 14 years of age may be because of the 40 years life expectancy...

The marriage laws have always been more relaxed in Scotland than in England for centuries. Those who were in their teens or twenties who just could not wait until the appropriate age to get married in England have always been eloping or at least sprinting to this famous Scottish border town to get married.

Just to nitpick, at the time "elope" just meant run away, not the act of marriage per modern terminology... and it's even a point made in the novel that they have eloped but may not marry.

Prior to 1753 all you needed to be married in England was SAY you were married. No priest, license,, witnesses or any kind of ceremony was required. Just call each other husband and wife and it was done. Which is the reason Henry VIII fussed so much over his wives former crushes when he wanted to divorce them. If they had ever said anything like "I want to be with you forever" to a boy that could be interpreted as a marriage vow. Thus his wife was a bigamist and he could get an annulment. This also made the line between being married and engaged very blurry.

The age thing is because until 1875 the age of consent in the UK was 13 (and until the Regency Era it was 12, the age established by a Tudor-Era law)

Marriage was and is an economical contract too. Therefore your parents had to allow the marriage, if you were not yet old enough to sign an economical contract.

I'm still waiting for someone to object to the banns being read in my church - and since it's a beautiful little parish church LOTS of people get married here, and no objections have EVER been raised. My vicar makes a joke every time of diligently looking around the congregation to see if anyone has an objection, but I guess there are no Mr Rochesters in my county!

I want to know what Lady Catherine meant when she told Lady Dashwood, “You have a small garden.”?

Special license does not only cost more, but it takes less time to procure as well (week vs. month, or something like that).

It never ceases to amaze me how little Mr. Bennett thought about his family's welfare. After a couple of daughters, he could have gone into trade, been a professor or married off daughters to prosperous tradesmen who wanted to raise their social status or sent them to America or Canada. I'm sure the disgrace of Lydia's elopement hit him hard, but by that time, it was too late for him to do much to change things. I'm sure in real life, one of the daughters would have married a moderately prosperous man with less social capital and then spent the rest of her life trying to help her mother and sisters avoid poverty or married off to old widowers.

Love your dress. I think the "oil" of the way they behaved may have helped them get along in marriage.

Lydia had no clue that what she was doing was so wrong or how it affected her family. ... thanks for this video I really enjoyed it!

It was mentioned in Bridgerton too, so it’s a kind of Vegas in the regency era?

I would definitely go to Gretna Green just to see Scotland 😸

If I were a person in Regency England, I’d probably get the bands read at church, but if I were allowed to be as chaotic as I am in modern times, I’d run away to Gretna Green! Was there anything particularly scandalously about being of age and engaged and *choosing* to elope to Gretna Green instead of doing one of the other options available?

this was so cool! Great job! And, as annoying as Lydia is in any form, whether it is the actual book, or any of the films or film adaptations I have seen, I must say that death comes to pemberley made her a much more sympathetic character, showing flashes of humanity behind her nonchalant selfishness.

Scotland has a different legal system to England and Wales to this day.

A question about the scope of "Classical Literature". What time frame do you deal with? Any Epic of Gilgamesh, Gospel of St. John, Beowulf, Sir Gwain and the Green Knight, The Pilgrims Progress, Macbeth, Robinson Caruso, Great Expectations, The Jungle Book, Heart of Darkness.... What language/nationality? Any Alexander Dumas, Miguel Cervantes, Leo Tolstoy...

One question I have is whether sisters of men who committed immorality had their reputation affected as well by it, or not at all? Like in Mansfield Park, Mary Crawford does not seem to have her marriage prospects affected at all by her brother running off with a married woman (as it's mentioned at the end of the book that she still has a lot of suitors to choose from, but is now determined to choose wisely after being told off by Edmund). Maybe her wealth played a big part in this as well though.

Mr Darcy's mother was nobility. Her father was an earl and now Darcy's uncle (Colonel Fitzwilliam's father) carries the title. While his aunt is still aristocracy. So perhaps he could get a special license through those connections. Mr Palmer and Charlotte probably had one, with her father being nobility and him being very wealthy and him aiming to be an MP.

The marriage laws still differ between England and Scotland (I don't know about Wales). In England only set buildings are licensed for weddings like churches, registry offices and some hotels etc, whereas in Scotland it is the person performing the ceremony that is licensed. This is partly because in England you have to be married in a public place, I think this is so that if someone wishes to object to the wedding they can do so.

I've always wondered why Mr Wickham married Lydia... I'm sure he knew she and her sister's weren't of the best means so he wouldn't get what he would have gotten from Georgiana had he been able to marry her.

While studying Silas Marner, a blonde in the class asked why the rich guy (I don’t remember the names) married a common girl. “I ‘spec he had to,” replied the teacher. I think we all enjoyed the girl’s embarrassment.

Girls being married possible at 12 was probably cases where the girl was pregnant. You can still get married in many places if you are 16 and pregnant and ask special permission. It’s better for the children to be born in marriage in eyes of the law (since there are then clearly two parents legally taking care of the children) and in early 1800 obviously the girls would be better of married if they were pregnant. I just hope the fathers were 14 and not older... and people would abuse it to marry as teen for other reasons so that’s why it’s better to get special permission if you are a pregnant teen rather than let all teen to get married when they want.

"Elope" cannot be used in the passive form (as you do several times in this video). It means to run away as a couple without the girl's parents' permission.

Learned something new again.

Thanks for sharing the analysis.

They are called wedding banns, aren't they?

From what I remember in school even if you opted for a licence you still had the banns read in your local church. The Reverend or Priests would often use full names and titles, relevant grand connections or just boasting on your behalf when announcing those of Well-bred classes (probably with a generous donation in their pocket too). Whereas for the riff-raff it was just Farmer John Smith and Maggie Jones the Bakers daughter are wanting to wed in three weeks, goodbye. Obviously, if you were for some reason in a rush (oops she's pregnant and all that) you didn't, but was usually still done. It was as with everything way to not only announce you managed to snag someone it also to remind and show off to everyone in your community each week when they were all trapped... er I mean in attendance at church on a Sunday as all good Christians of the time should be. You can bet your boots Mrs Bennet made sure Lizzy and Jane's weddings were announced, especially as it would have been seen as a real rise in the families connections, fame and a good way to make up for any gossip and local looking down upon the family due to Lydia scandal. Even today we still have a version of the Banns. I got married by the registrar in a Great house (so no church), when we went to our licence interview a few months before (you show your IDs, answer various questions, declare your both free to marry and pay your fees). We were told we had to post banns, they would post it in either the local county paper or on the Council public notice board for three weeks for us (can't remember which) it was included in the feed and not optional. They explained it was so anyone who had a legitimate reason to object had the time to do so. We were advised we could also have them read at our local church as well, which is still very common here for couples who have a church ceremony though some churches opt to use the parish weekly newsletter for announcements.

My friends got married in Gretna Green, because the now husband was an immigrant. So these laws are still working and still useful for people, who just want to get married.