MORGANATIC MARRIAGE ( morgan aticus, relating to the morning, from 01-1G. mar gen, Oer. liorgen, AS. morgen, morning; perhaps connected with ()Church Slay. narknati, to be come dark, mrakri, darkness, or with Lith. ;aerial, to blink, Gk. papnalpcm, marmairein, to shine). When a member of a reigning house, who by law can contract a perfect marriage only with a woman of equal rank (ebentdirtig), wishes to marry a woman of inferior rank, he may contract what is called a morganatic mar riage. In Germany those families that were reigning families at the close of the eighteenth centnry and that have retained their rank in spite of the loss of political power—the so-called 'mediatized houses' or 'high nobility' (hoher .1del)—are similarly restricted in the matter of marriage; and members of these families may also contract morganatic marriages.
A morganatic marriage is not a mere concubin age, nor may it exist simultaneously with a perfect marriage. From the ecclesiastical point of view, and from certain legal points of view, it is a perfect marriage. It is defective chiefly in public law. The morganatic wife does not acquire and the children do not inherit the rank of the husband and father, although, when the husband is a-reigning prince, it is usual to give to the morganatic wife and her children titles of nobility. The children do not succeed to the father's public position, or to property which goes with that position. or to family property
(entailed estates). In some States neither the morganatic wife nor her children have rights of succession even in the private property of the husband and father, except by testamentary pro vision or by ante-nuptial settlements.
The roots of the morganatic marriage go hack to early German law. A perfect marriage was concluded only when the husband bought the mundium or marital authority over his wife, at first by a payment to the father or guardian, later by a settlement upon the wife, which was frequently described as 'widowhood.' A further gift or settlement upon the wife might be made in the form of a 'morning gift' (Morgengabr, dos morganatica). In the case of an imperfect marriage without mundium only the morning gift was made. The Church, however, treated the imperfect marriage as a marriage, although it was unable to determine the civil results. When an ecclesiastical ceremony took place it was not unusual for the man to give the bride his left hand, whence the name 'left-hand mar riage.' For the history of the morganatic mar riage. consult Schroder, Deutsche Rechtsge sehichte (1889), pp. 293, 204, and works there cited. For modern law, Niehelsehtitz, Dc Jlatri moniis ad Norganatieam (1831).