30 yr old man marries a 13 yr old girl- then and now

[Tonding]

People just didn't live as long as in our days.
A lot more women died while birthing babies.
So they should be married very young for having the chance to give birth as many times as possible.
You can see this now still in several 3rd world countries.
They just don't have the time to get married late.
When the average age of death is app. 40 you marry at the time you're able getting pregnant.
Several centuries ago women were considered mature when they reached puberty.
Another important point is dowry.
Today, nearly nonexistent in the industrial countries, it was the most common thing just a century ago.
It were always the brides parents who had to pay.

The whole view on this has changed.
The older people got, the bigger the difference in age would be.
You can see it somewhat differently still today.
There are a lot older men marrying young women.
Like 50 year olds getting married to 25 year olds.
But in earlier centuries 50 was considered old as the hills.
So you just substract some years from both genders and there you have the underaged marrying a 30 year old man.