Royal Marriages Act 1772

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George IV as Prince Regent (1815). His first marriage to Maria Fitzherbert was illegal under the provisions of the Royal Marriages Act.

The Royal Marriages Act of 1772 is a United Kingdom law, expired in 2015 , that invalidated any marriage entered into by members of the British royal family before the age of 25 without the consent of the monarch. The regulation applied to all descendants of George II with the exception of the descendants of the princesses who had married into other families. Members of the royal family who were older than 25 years of age could marry even after their request for marriage was rejected, provided they had reported this to the Privy Council a year earlier and Parliament did not prohibit it.

The Royal Marriage Act also made it a criminal offense to support an illegal marriage of any member of the royal family in any way. This provision was repealed in 1967.

The Royal Marriage Act was repealed on March 26, 2015 when the extensive reform of the succession to the throne of the United Kingdom ( Perth Agreement ) came into force .

The Royal Marriage Act has been important on several occasions in the history of the United Kingdom. As Prince of Wales, George IV of Great Britain secretly married the twice widowed Catholic Maria Fitzherbert . This marriage violated not only the Royal Marriage Act, but also the Act of Settlement of 1701, which prohibited marriage between a member of the royal family and a person of Catholic faith. George IV officially married Princess Caroline of Braunschweig in 1795 ; his previous marriage - invalid under the Royal Marriage Act - nevertheless endangered his right to succeed to the throne. This played a significant role in the arguments with his official wife when he tried to separate from her. The provision of the Royal Marriages Act was also applied when the British Princess Margaret toyed with the idea of getting married to Peter Townsend .

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