A proxy wedding or proxy marriage is a wedding in which one or both of the individuals being united are not physically present, usually being represented instead by other persons. If both partners are absent a double proxy wedding occurs. Marriage by proxy is usually resorted to either when a couple wish to marry but one or both partners cannot attend for reasons such as military service, imprisonment, or travel restrictions; or when a couple lives in a jurisdiction in which they cannot legally marry. In most jurisdictions, both parties to a marriage must be physically present, and proxy weddings are not recognized as legally binding. Under the English common law, however, if a proxy marriage is valid by the law of the place where the marriage was celebrated (the lex loci celebrationis) then it will be recognised in England and Wales. History Starting in the Middle Ages, European monarchs and nobility sometimes married by proxy. Some examples of this include: Henry IV to Joanna of Navarre, the daughter of Charles d'Évreux, King of Navarre, on April 2, 1402 Lorenzo de'Medici to Clarice Orsini in 1469 Catherine of Aragon to Prince Arthur in 1501 Margaret Tudor to James IV, in 1503 Mary Tudor, Queen of France to Louis XII, in 1514 Anne of Austria to Louis XIII on October 18, 1615 Charles I of England to Henrietta Maria of France on May 1, 1625 Marie Antoinette to Louis-Auguste on April 19, 1770 Napoleon I of France to Austrian Archduchess Marie Louise in 1810 In 1490, Maximilian of Habsburg (the future Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian I) married Anne of Brittany by proxy, and was represented at the wedding by Wolfgang von Polheim. As part of the symbolism of the proxy wedding, on the wedding night Polheim went to bed with Anne but wore a full suit of armour apart from on his right leg and hand. A sword was placed between them in the bed. Further, a famous 17th-century painting by Peter Paul Rubens depicts the proxy marriage of Marie de' Medici in 1600. By the end of the 19th century the practice had largely died out. Many proxy marriages were carried out during the First and Second World Wars, with soldiers at the front marrying women at home, often participating in the wedding via telephone. During the First World War, proxy marriage was permitted in Belgium, France, Germany, Norway, Czechoslovakia