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An appreciation of the rules governing when a marriage was void or voidable is crucial to understanding the choices made by our ancestors and the constraints within which they operated. These rules determined who could marry whom and so had an important role in preventing invalid marriages from taking place. Even so, there were a number of circumstances in which an existing marriage might be found to be void or voidable. This talk will trace the evolution of the rules from the canons of 1604 through to the present day, explaining the difference between marriages that are automatically void and those that are voidable, and how the classification and consequences of different types of marriages has changed over time.
Rebecca Probert is Professor of Law at the University of Exeter. Her research focuses on the law and history of marriage, bigamy, divorce and cohabitation and she is the author of numerous articles and books, including Marriage Law for Genealogists (2012) and Divorced, Bigamist, Bereaved? (2015). She has appeared numerous times on TV and radio, including Harlots, Heroines and Housewives, A House Through Time and Who Do You Think You Are? Her latest books are Double Trouble: Bigamy and the Law in England and Wales, 1604-2024 (2026) and Double Lives: Stories of Bigamy in England and Wales, 1604-2024 (2026).
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