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A 'marriage of state' in ancient use is a diplomatic marriage or union between two members of different nation-states or internally, between two power blocks, usually in authoritarian societies and is a practice which dates back into pre-history, as far back as early Greecian cultures in western society, and of similar antiquity in other civilizations. The fable of Helen of Troy may be the best known pre-historic tale reporting an incidence of surrendering a female of a ruling line to gain peace or shore up alliances of state between nation-states headed by small oligarchies or aknowledged royalty.
Napoleon, as emperor, gave out kingdoms and female relatives with equal largesse to favored Marshals and general officers. Through most of recorded history state marriage were also common at lesser levels of nobility, and many a lesser marriage of state was consummated and bargained over during all of the Middle Ages and through the middle of the twentieth-century in western society, and the old forms still hold sway in many other cultural contexts today. One famous example of a marriage of state for lesser reasons was that of George II of Great Britain's parents. The Princess Sophia's dowry included properties assuring an income of 100,000 thalers annually, which lead to 'George Louis, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg' (the future George I of Great Britain), marrying his first cousin Sophia Dorothea of Celle—when both were pressed into the arrangement by his mother— and that German dukal dynastic move accidentally gave the couple the inside track on the Protestant throne of England.
Our own modern era has seen the terms meaning drift somewhat to include purely domestic marriages involving prominent figures, especially royalty in those societies still supporting that institution. So recent times have witnessed press spectacles as British royalty paid court and public relations officials maneuvered both behind the scenes and within the public eye in such ''marriages of state'' (in the newer Western sense) between the Princes Prince Charles and Andrew and the princesses Princess Diana and Sarah amongst others.

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List of state marriages

List of state marriages