WI: It was customary in Medieval Europe for kings to marry the daughters of local nobles

fashbasher

Banned
instead of marrying princesses from other kingdoms? Meaning that King Whomever I of England would likely marry a woman from an English noble house instead of Princess Whatever of France. This means that royal marriages are generally internal instead of external. How could this start and what impact would it have?
 
This happened occasionally but marriages were generally contracted to build alliances or placate neighbors. You could do this I suppose by even further decentralizing the European monarchies (i.e. each successive monarch marries off a child to secure a constantly shifting series of vassals in his favor), but then you run the risk of losing the Kingship altogether and becoming medieval Ireland
 
It was, Royalty only marrying Royalty was a Renaissance and later thing.

Stephen married Matilda of Boulogne
Henry II married Eleanor of Aquitaine who was the daughter of a fellow French Duke
John married Isabella of Angouleme
Henry III married Eleanor of Provence
Edward III married Phillipa of Hainault
Edward the Black Prince married Joan of Kent
Edward IV married Elizabeth Woodville
Richard III married Anne Neville
and 2/3rd of Henry VIII's wives were English.

It's a similar story with the French Kings.

Phillip I married Bertrade de Monfort
Louis VI married Adelaide of Savoy
Louis VII married Adele of Champagne
Phillip II married Isabelle of Hainault
Louis IX married Margaret of Provence and so on.
 
It was quite common and depended on the circumstances, often Kings needed the support of the most powerful nobles families in the country so would marry the daughter of one of these families to align the Royal and the other powerful family.
 
I intuitively think the naysayers are probably right; I'd add that if nationalism as modernly conceived was a thing in the High Middle ages maybe monarchs would do the patriotic thing but that is very much cart before the horse; nationalism emerged out of the era of dynastic marriage.
 
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