morganatic marriage, legally validmarriage between a male member of asovereign, princely, or noble house and a woman of lesser birth or rank, with the provision that she shall not thereby accede to his rank and that the children of the marriage shall not succeed to their father’s hereditary dignities, fiefs, and entailed property.

The name is derived from themedieval Latinmatrimonium ad morganaticum, variously interpreted as meaning “marriage on the morning gift” (from GermanMorgengabe), with theimplication that this morning gift, ordowry, was all that the bride could expect; or “restricted marriage” (Gothicmaurjan, “restrain”); or simply “morning marriage,” celebrated quietly at an early hour.

Essentially a German institution, it was adopted by somedynasties outside Germany but not by those ofFrance orEngland. The practice ensues from the German notion ofEbenbürtigkeit, orGleichbürtigkeit (evenness or equality of birth), which in the European Middle Ages had a widespread application inGerman law. It required that parties to many sorts of transaction be of the same standing or estate, but it could not be an impediment to marriage in the law of the church.