“Marry in May, Rue the Day”: Tudor Wedding Superstitions and Bridal Beliefs
I’ll admit something: I’m not especially superstitious.
But this week? With the countdown officially in single digits? I’ve noticed I’m double-checking everything.
Did we sign everything correctly?
Did we forget anything?
Is the weather going to behave?
And that’s when I started thinking about Tudor brides.
Because if I feel the weight of anticipation now - in a world of marriage licenses and group texts -imagine stepping into marriage in 1530.
No modern medicine.
No safety net.
High maternal mortality rates.
Marriage as legal absorption into your husband’s identity.
Of course they had superstitions. Of course, they worried about tripping on the church steps. About marrying in the wrong month. About thresholds and omens and bells to scare off misfortune.
Now, I’m not planning to carry rosemary down the aisle. But I do understand why they did.
Superstition, after all, is just hope wearing ritual clothing.
If Tudor bridal dress communicated law and theology, wedding superstitions revealed something more intimate: fear.
Marriage was risky -medically, economically, spiritually. Superstition attempted to manage that risk.
Here are some of the most persistent Tudor-era wedding beliefs.
1. The “Unlucky” Month of May
The proverb “Marry in May, rue the day” circulated in early modern England. While its exact medieval origins are debated, seasonal caution around May appears in European folklore traditions.
May was associated with fertility festivals and sometimes moral looseness. In a Christianized framework, it could be viewed as spiritually unstable for solemn vows.
Parish marriage registers from the 16th century show fluctuations in marriage frequency around certain liturgical seasons, particularly Lent and Advent, when marriages were restricted by ecclesiastical law.
Timing mattered.
2. The Bride Must Not Trip
To stumble en route to the church was considered ominous. Physical imbalance symbolized marital instability.
This belief appears in various early modern conduct collections and later folkloric compilations, suggesting continuity from Tudor practice.
Movement itself was symbolic. A steady walk implied ordered transition.
3. Shoes and Thresholds
Carrying the bride over the threshold has roots older than the Tudor period but persisted into early modern England. Thresholds were liminal spaces -spiritually vulnerable zones.
Household spirits and misfortune were thought to gather at entry points. Lifting the bride protected her from stumbling and, symbolically, from spiritual harm.
4. Bells, Noise, and Protection
Church bells rung at weddings were not merely celebratory. Sound was widely believed to disperse evil spirits.
The Sarum rite prescribed celebratory ringing, but popular belief layered spiritual protection onto the practice.
Noise guarded joy.
5. Tokens for Fertility
Brides sometimes carried herbs associated with protection or fruitfulness, including rosemary (remembrance and loyalty) and rue (grace and protection).
Herbal symbolism appears frequently in early modern English herbals, including those influenced by classical authorities such as Dioscorides, whose works circulated in Renaissance England.
Fertility anxiety permeated marriage culture. Given the high maternal mortality rate in the 16th century, this concern was not unfounded.
6. Wedding Rings and Continuity
The circular shape of the ring symbolized eternity - a concept rooted in Christian sacramental theology. The Sarum marriage rite explicitly included the giving of a ring with the words, “With this ring I thee wed.”
Breaking or losing the ring was widely regarded as ominous.
Material continuity represented marital stability.
Why Superstition Persisted
Even after the English Reformation altered marriage from sacrament to holy estate, cultural anxieties endured. Official theology might shift, but human fear did not.
For Tudor brides, beauty prepared the body.
Ritual sanctified the vow.
Superstition guarded the unknown.
Marriage was joy — but it was also risk.
And perhaps that is the most human continuity between their weddings and ours.
Further Reading Suggestions
Academic (Scholarly & Foundational)
R.H. Helmholz — Marriage Litigation in Medieval England
Eamon Duffy — The Stripping of the Altars
Susan Brigden — New Worlds, Lost Worlds
Alexandra Shepard — Meanings of Manhood in Early Modern England
Barbara J. Harris — English Aristocratic Women, 1450–1550
Felicity Heal — The Power of Gifts
David Cressy — Birth, Marriage, and Death
💌 Academic but Accessible
Alison Weir — The Six Wives of Henry VIII
Eric Ives — The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn
Diarmaid MacCulloch — Thomas Cranmer (for Reformation marriage theology)
Suzannah Lipscomb — The King Is Dead
✨ Fun, Narrative & Immersive
Philippa Gregory — The Other Boleyn Girl
Philippa Gregory — The Constant Princess
Tracy Borman — The Private Lives of the Tudors
Alison Sim — The Tudor Housewife
Ruth Goodman — How to Be a Tudor
Academic Citations
John Heywood, A Dialogue Containing the Number in Effect of All the Proverbs in the English Tongue (1546).
Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars (1992).
Ronald Hutton, The Stations of the Sun (1996).
Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (1971).
William Turner, A New Herball (1551–1568).
