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September 22, 2026

Real History Had Child Marriages – So My Fantasy World Should Too

The walls and towers of a castle, with two big round towers with turrets. In the foreground is a suspension bridge anchored to the castle, and the railing of a road bridge.

Okay, first of all, you absolutely can have child marriages in your fantasy world, and whether I judge you for it depends on how you write it.

But using their prevalence in Medieval and Renaissance Europe as your justification shows that you haven’t actually read history…and if you’re going to do even pseudohistorical fantasy, you should be reading your history.

So, when did people actually get married?

It’s older than you think.

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