Posthumous marriage

Posthumous marriage (or necrogamy) is a marriage in which one of the participating members is deceased. It is legal in France and similar forms are practiced in Sudan and China. Since World War I, France has had hundreds of requests each year, of which many have been accepted.

During World War I, a few women were married by use of proxy to soldiers that had died weeks earlier. This practice came to be called posthumous marriage. Posthumous marriage for civilians originated in the 1950s, when a dam broke and killed 400 people in Fréjus, France, including a man named André Capra, who was engaged to Iréne Jodart. Jodart pleaded with French President Charles de Gaulle to let her go along with her marriage plans even though her fiancé had died. She had support from the media and within months was allowed to marry her fiancé. It is likely that posthumous marriage was made as an extension to France’s Proxy Marriage.

Within months after the Fréjus dam tragedy, France’s parliament drafted a law permitting posthumous marriage. Since then, hundreds of women have formally filed for what is known as postmortem matrimony. Posthumous marriage became legal in France by Article 172 of the civil code which states, The President of the Republic may, for serious reasons, authorize the solemnization of marriage if one of the spouses died after completion of official formalities marking it unequivocal consent. In this case, the effects of marriage dated back to the day preceding the death of the husband. However, this marriage does not entail any right of intestate succession for the benefit of the surviving spouse and no matrimonial property is deemed to have existed between the spouses.

Anyone in France who wants to file for posthumous marriage sends a request to the President of France, who forwards it to the Justice Minister, who forwards it to the prosecutor for the surviving member’s district. If the couple had originally planned on getting married and the family of the deceased approves, the prosecutor sends the application back to the President. One out of every four applicants for posthumous marriage is rejected.

Examples of ways to legally show intent are for the man to have posted banns (official wedding announcements) at the local courthouse or written permission from a soldier’s commanding officer.

Requests also include important records that show a serious cause such as the birth of a child or the death of the fiancé.

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Wikipedia