Every time someone on the internet uses the argument that “teenage marriages and teenage pregnancy was common in Europe in the middle ages” to defend teenage pregnancy today, I like to remind them of Margaret Beaufort.

Yes, noble women and princesses were often married at age 12, but it was expected that their husbands waited until their brides were 15 or 16 to consumate the marriage. Noble marriages between 25 year-old men and 12 year-old girls reflected political interests, not a supposed “lost wisdom” about female “peak fertility”. In fact, these girls husbands treated them like sisters until they came of age.

When Margaret Beaufort was married and fell pregnant at 13, THE ENTIRE ENGLISH NOBILITY WAS SHOCKED AND APPALLED. She was considered too young to be pregnant, even in the 1400s.