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An avunculate marriage is any marriage between an uncle/aunt and a niece/nephew. It may refer to a marriage between biological relatives or people related by marriage. In some countries, avunculate marriages are prohibited by law, while in others marriages between biological relatives of this kind are both legal and common.

If the partners in an avunculate marriage are biologically related, they normally have the same genetic relationship as half-siblings, or a grandparent and grandchild – that is they share approximately 25% of their genetic material. (They are therefore more closely related than partners in a marriage between first cousins, in which on average the members share 12.5% of inherited genetic material, but less than that of a marriage between, for instance, cousin-siblings, in which the partners share 37.5% of their inherited genetic material.)

Avunculate marriage is legal in Argentina, Australia,^[1], Brazil, Finland,^[2]Malaysia,^[3]The Netherlands,^[4] and Russia.^[5] It is explicitly illegal in most English-speaking countries.^[which?][6]

History

Avunculate marriage was the preferred type of union in some pre-modern societies. This has remained the case amongst, for instance the Awá-Guajá people of the eastern Amazon Basin.^[7]

Marriages between such close relatives were frequent in Ancient Egypt, at least among members of ruling dynasties.

In societies adhering to Jewish or Christian faiths, such marriages were sometimes allowed. The Talmud endorsed marriages between uncles and nieces; although some early Jewish religious communities, such as the Sadducees, believed that such unions were prohibited by the Torah.^[8] Amongst medieval and especially early modern Christians, a marriage between a woman and the sibling of a parent was not always interpreted as violating Leviticus 18; this was especially so amongst the royal houses of Europe and, in Catholic countries, a papal dispensation could be obtained to allow such a marriage.

Such marriages have traditionally been illegal in Islamic societies and are regarded as prohibited by Islam.^{[citation needed]}

List of historical or mythical avunculate marriages

• 
  Nahor, son of Terah and his niece, Milcah
  


• 
  Jochebed and her nephew, Amram
  


• 
  Leonidas, King of Sparta and his half-niece, Gorgo^[9]
  


• 
  Alexander I of Epirus and his niece Cleopatra of Macedon
  


• 
  Mithridates III of Pontus and his grand-niece, Laodice
  


• 
  Ptolemy VIII Physcon and his niece Cleopatra III of Egypt
  


• 
  Mithridates V of Pontus and his maternal half-aunt, Laodice VI (152 BC)


• 
  Ptolemy X Alexander I and his niece, Berenice III of Egypt
  


• 
  Ptolemy XII Auletes and his half-niece, Cleopatra V of Egypt
  


• 
  Emperor Hui of Han and his niece Empress Zhang Yan
  


• 
  Sun Xiu and his niece Empress Zhu
  


• Roman Emperor Claudius and his fourth wife and niece, Agrippina the Younger
  


• 
  Yamato Takeru and his aunt Futaji Irihime


• 
  Emperor Jomei and his niece Empress Kōgyoku
  


• 
  Emperor Kōtoku and his niece Princess Hashihito


• 
  Emperor Tenmu and his niece Empress Jitō, Princess Ōta, Princess Ōe, Princess Niitabe
  


• 
  Prince Kusakabe and his aunt Empress Genmei
  


• 
  Emperor Shōmu and his aunt Empress Kōmyō
  


• 
  Musa ibn Musa, Wali of Zaragoza and Governor of Upper March and his half-niece Assona Íñiguez


• 
  Emperor Junna and his niece Princess Seishi
  


• 
  Emperor Suzaku and his niece Princess Hiroko


• 
  Emperor En'yū and his niece Princess Sonshi


• 
  Emperor Go-Ichijō and his aunt Fujiwara no Ishi
  


• 
  Emperor Go-Suzaku and his aunt Fujiwara no Yoshiko


• 
  Emperor Horikawa and his half aunt Princess Tokushi
  


• 
  Emperor Nijō and his half aunt Princess Yoshiko
  


• 
  Emperor Go-Fukakusa and his aunt Fujiwara no Kimiko
  


• Vietnamese Prince Tran Hung Dao and his consort and paternal aunt, Princess Thien Thanh


• 
  Amaury I, Lord of Craon and his half-grandniece, Jeanne des Roches (1212)


• 
  Alfonso X of Castile had a concubinage with his paternal half-aunt Maria Alfonso de Leon


• 
  John, Constable of Portugal and his half-niece, Isabel of Barcelos (1424)


• 
  Afonso V of Portugal and his niece, Joanna of Castile (second wife) (1475)


• 
  Jacques of Savoy, Count of Romont and his niece, Marie of Luxembourg, Countess of Vendôme (1484)


• 
  Joanna of Naples and her nephew, King Ferdinand II of Naples (1496)


• 
  Ferdinand II of Aragon and his half-grandniece, Germaine of Foix (second wife) (1505)


• 
  Philip II of Spain and his niece, Anna of Austria (fourth wife) (1570)


• 
  Charles II, Archduke of Austria and his niece, Maria Anna of Bavaria (1571)


• 
  Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria, and his niece, Anne Juliana Gonzaga (second wife) (1582)


• Chiefess Kapohauola and her nephew, Chief Kakaʻe
  


• 
  Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria and his niece, Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria (1635)


• 
  Prince Maurice of Savoy and his niece, Princess Luisa Cristina of Savoy (1642)


• 
  Karl Eusebius, Prince of Liechtenstein and his niece, Johanna Beatrix of Dietrichstein (1644)


• 
  Philip IV of Spain and his niece, Mariana of Austria (second wife) (1646)


• 
  Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor and his niece, Margaret Theresa of Austria (1666).


• 
  Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet), lived in concubinage with his niece, Marie Louise Mignot Denis.^[10]
  


• 
  Prince Augustus Ferdinand of Prussia and his niece Margravine Elisabeth Louise of Brandenburg-Schwedt (1755)


• 
  Pedro III of Portugal and his niece Maria I of Portugal (1760)


• 
  Prince Benedetto, Duke of Chablais and his half-niece Princess Maria Ana of Savoy (1775)


• 
  Infanta Benedita and her nephew, José, Prince of Brazil (1777)


• 
  Prince Eugene of Saxe-Hildburghausen and his niece, Caroline of Saxe-Hildburghausen (1778)


• 
  King Kamehameha the Great of Hawaiʻi and his niece, Queen Keōpūolani (c. 1796)


• 
  Infante Antonio Pascual of Spain and his niece, Infanta Maria Amalie of Spain (1796)


• 
  Sir John Acton, 6th Baronet, Prime Minister of Naples and his niece Marianna Acton (1799)


• 
  Francis IV, Duke of Modena, and his niece, Maria Beatrice of Savoy (titular queen of England and Scotland according to the Jacobite succession) (1812)


• 
  Leopold, Prince of Salerno and his niece, Archduchess Clementina of Austria (1816)


• 
  Infante Carlos, Count of Molina, and his niece, Infanta Maria Francisca of Portugal (1816), and later his niece, Maria Teresa of Portugal (1838)


• 
  Kamehameha II and his half-niece Kalani Pauahi
  


• 
  Ferdinand VII of Spain and his niece Maria Isabel of Portugal (1816), and later his niece Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies (1829)


• 
  Gustav, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg and his niece, Princess Louise of Anhalt-Dessau (1818)


• 
  Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden and his half-grand niece Princess Sophie of Sweden (1819)


• 
  Infante Francisco de Paula of Spain and his niece Princess Luisa Carlotta of Naples and Sicily (1819)


• 
  Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and his niece Duchess Marie of Württemberg (second wife) (1832)


• 
  James Mayer de Rothschild, founder of the French branch of the Rothschild banking family, and his niece Betty Salomon von Rothschild (c. 1825).


• 
  Prince Francis, Count of Trapani and his niece Archduchess Maria Isabella of Austria (1850)


• 
  Mongkut and his half-grandniece Somanass Waddhanawathy (1851), and his half-grandniece Debsirindra (1851), and later his half-grandniece Phannarai (1851).


• 
  Svasti Sobhana and his half-niece Abha Barni
  


• 
  Richard von Metternich (son of the famous Austrian Chancellor) and his niece, Pauline von Metternich (1856).


• 
  Duke Nicholas of Württemberg and his half-niece Duchess Wilhelmine of Württemberg (1868)


• 
  Prince William of Hesse-Philippsthal-Barchfeld and his half-niece Princess Juliane of Bentheim and Steinfurt (1873)


• 
  Amadeo I of Spain and his niece, Maria Letizia Bonaparte (second wife) (1888)


• 
  Henryk Sienkiewicz, Polish novelist, and his niece, Maria Babska.^[11] (1904)


• 
  Alois Hitler and his niece Klara Hitler, parents of Adolf Hitler. After they were married, Klara still called her husband "uncle".(1885)^[12][13] Hitler himself declared that his own half-niece Geli Raubal was the only woman he ever loved.^[14]
  


• 
  Norodom Sihanouk and his half-aunt Sisowath Pongsanmoni (1945), and later his half-aunt Sisowath Monikessan.

See also

• Consanguinity


• Cousin marriage


• List of coupled cousins


• Sibling marriage

References