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In the context of royalty, a morganatic marriage is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which prevents the passage of the husband's titles and privileges to the wife and any children born of the marriage. Now rare, it is also known as a left-handed marriage because in the wedding ceremony the groom held his bride's hand with his left hand instead of his right. Generally, this is a marriage between a man of high birth (such as from a reigning, deposed or mediatised dynasty) and a woman of lesser status (such as a daughter of a low-ranked noble family or a commoner).〔(Webster's Online Dictionary ). Retrieved 2008-07-10.〕〔Diesbach, Ghislain de. ''Secrets of the Gotha'' (translated from the French by Margaret Crosland). Chapman & Hall, Ltd., London, 1967. pp. 18, 25–26, 35, 179–182, 186–187.〕 Usually, neither the bride nor any children of the marriage have a claim on the bridegroom's succession rights, titles, precedence, or entailed property. The children are considered legitimate for all other purposes and the prohibition against bigamy applies.〔〔"Hugh Chisholm, editor. Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition. Volume 18. ''Morganatic Marriage''. University Press, 1911, p. 835.〕 In some countries, a woman could marry a man of lower rank morganatically. After World War I the heads of both ruling and formerly reigning dynasties initially continued the practice of rejecting dynastic titles and/or rights for descendants of "morganatic" unions, but gradually allowed them, sometimes retroactively, effectively de-morganatizing the wives and children. This was accommodated by Perthe's ''Almanach de Gotha'' (which categorised princely families by rank until it ceased publication after 1944) by inserting the offspring of such marriages in a third section of the almanac under entries denoted by a symbol (a dot within a circle) that "signifies some princely houses which, possessing no specific princely patent, have passed from the first part, A, or from the second part into the third part in virtue of special agreements."〔''Almanach de Gotha'' (Gotha: Justus Perthes, 1944), pages 43, 363–364, 529. French〕 The ''Fürstliche Häuser'' series of the ''Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels'' has followed this lead, likewise enrolling some issue of unapproved marriages in its third section, "III B", with a similar explanation (''Die in dieser Abteilung nachgewiesenen Familien besitzen kein besonderes Diplom, sondern sind nach besonderer Übereinkunft aus der 1. und 2. Abteilung übernommen worden'').〔''Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Fürstliche Häuser'' XIV. C.A. Starke Verlag, 1991, p. 565. ISBN 3-7980-0700-4.〕 Variations of morganatic marriage were also practised by non-European dynasties, such as the Royal Family of Thailand, the polygamous Mongols as to their non-principal wives, and other families of Africa and Asia. Morganatic marriage is not, and has not been, possible in jurisdictions that do not permit restrictive encumbrances with regard to the marriage contract, as it is an agreement containing a pre-emptive limitation to the inheritance and property rights of the spouse and the children. == Etymology == ''Morganatic'', already in use in English by 1727 (according to the ''Oxford English Dictionary''), is derived from the medieval Latin ''morganaticus'' from the Late Latin phrase ''matrimonium ad morganaticam'' and refers to the gift given by the groom to the bride on the morning after the wedding, morning gift, i.e., dower. The Latin term, applied to a Germanic custom, was adopted from a Germanic term, '' *morgangeba'' (compare Early English ''morgengifu'', German ''Morgengabe'', Danish and Norwegian Bokmål ''Morgengave'', Norwegian Nynorsk ''Morgongåve'' and Swedish ''Morgongåva''). The literal meaning is explained in a 16th-century passage quoted by Du Cange as, "a marriage by which the wife and the children that may be born are entitled to no share in the husband's possessions beyond the 'morning-gift'".〔Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd Edition〕〔Philological Society. A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. ''Morganatic''. Clarendon Press, 1908. p. 663.〕 Meyers Konversations-Lexikon of 1888 gives an etymology of the German term ''Morganitische Ehe''〔Meyers Konversations-Lexikon 4th Edition〕 as a combination of the ancient Gothic ''morgjan'', to limit, to restrict, occasioned by the restricted gifts from the groom in such a marriage and the morning gift. ''Morgen'' is the German word for morning, while the Latin word is ''matutinus''. The ''morning gift'' has been a customary property arrangement for marriage found first in early medieval German cultures (such as the Lombards) and also among ancient Germanic tribes, and the church drove its adoption into other countries in order to improve the wife's security by this ''additional'' benefit. The bride received property from the bridegroom's clan. It was intended to ensure her livelihood in widowhood, and it was to be kept separate as the wife's discrete possession. However, when a marriage contract is made wherein the bride and the children of the marriage will not receive anything else (than the dower) from the bridegroom or from his inheritance or clan, that sort of marriage was dubbed as "marriage with only the dower and no other inheritance", i.e., ''matrimonium morganaticum''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「morganatic marriage」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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