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"Borderers were not the kind to ask leave for anything, and especially not to go courting.
They married across the line with a fine disregard for the laws."

The last resort for a couple that wants to avoid a troublesome Arranged Marriage or a Parental Marriage Veto. Run away and get married!

Contrast Runaway Bride, although if the eloping occurs close enough to an Arranged Marriage, the two can overlap. Sister trope to My Own Private "I Do", where a couple about to be wed with fanfare runs off to get married quietly. Compare and contrast Shotgun Wedding, which takes place similarly on the fly, but almost always has one of the parties unwilling to go through with it. Sometimes overlaps with Fourth-Date Marriage, but this is not required, nor are all early-in-the-relationship marriages elopements.

According to dictionaries, elopement does not necessarily require marriage. Two people loving each other and running away from those who might tear their relationship asunder also counts.

The Inverted Trope, when people choose to divorce in a certain place because divorce laws are lax there, is Divorce in Reno.


Examples:

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     Anime and Manga  

  • Played for Laughs in Asteroid in Love. When the Earth Science Club is brainstorming on how to help Ao, who is moving away with her parents soon, Suzu barges in, takes Ao away on Princess Carry, and declares they are eloping. It only ends when Mira tells Suzu's missing the point; it's their Goal in Life that's at stake.
  • In Cardcaptor Sakura, Nadeshiko and Fujitaka did this, because Nadeshiko's parents did not approve of her relationship with Fujitaka at all. Partly because he was in his 20's and she was only a teenager (still in high school), and partly because he was a poor schoolteacher, while Nadeshiko's family was very wealthy. According to Sonomi, she was still in her Sailor Fuku when they married.
  • Chobits has Shinra and his cram school teacher eloping because her husband has rejected her for a computer android they purchased.
  • Mushishi has Hana and Zen, a pair of young lovers, who decided to escape, when Hana was to be forced into an Arranged Marriage. They probably would have succeeded, if Hana hadn't hesitated and fallen from a bridge, changing in the process into a Mushi-possessed zombie.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi: Nagi suggested to do this with Princess Arika when he realized she had developed feelings for him, getting a blast of magic in response. Ironically, they end up eloping after he rescues her from her execution.
  • Attempted by Haru and Tsurezure near the end of Ojojojo after the latter's status as a former child assassin is leaked to the public, though Tsurezure decides that it's a bad idea and they both head home. It also comes up again in the final bonus chapter when Haru has to beat her father in a golf game to earn his blessing for her marriage and he quietly mentions to Gramps that he's planning on giving it to her regardless of the outcome of the match because he knows she'd just elope again.
  • Tales of Wedding Rings:
    • In the middle of Krystal's wedding to someone she's never met, her childhood friend Sato falls through a portal. Before anyone (including Sato) knows what is happening, Krystal puts the ring on Sato's finger and kisses him, sealing their marriage. It's only later that Sato learns that Krystal is the Princess of Light, and he is now the Ring King, expected to marry four other princesses so that he can use their power to fight the Abyssal Lord.
    • The Water Princess, Saphir, does something similar. She approaches Sato in disguise, and once she confirms his identity she slips the Water Ring onto his finger and kisses him. She knew The Empire that has "benevolently" occupied her kingdom would try to interfere, so she needed to get it done as soon as possible. Furthermore, Saphir's twin sister Saphira was supposed to be the one who married the Ring King, but Saphira is in love with someone else, so Saphir stole the ring to do their duty herself.
    • Speaking of Saphira, she is initially pissed at Marse, the man Krystal was supposed to marry, for not becoming the Ring King as they had decided. But with both of them freed from their responsibilities to the rings, they soon get married off-screen when no one is looking.
  • It's invoked and subverted in Toradora!, where Ryuuji and Taiga find themselves finally in love with each other, but in dire circumstances; Ryuuji has left behind his mother and the scarce resources he had; Taiga has practically disowned herself from her mother's family after her absentee dad (her monetary sustenance thus far) skipped town following the failure of his business. As such, they only have each other. They decide to wait out the few months left for Ryuuji to turn eighteen so that they can marry unimpeded while living in manga cafés and odd places. Their friends Minori, Ami and Kitamura decide to help them by providing them with food vouchers, money and a roof to sleep; however, in her dejection and after leaving him behind, Ryuuji's mother provides him with a means not to elope by telling him to go to her parents' home. They resort to use this resource, preventing the elopement.

     Film- Animated 
  • At the end of Anastasia, Dimitri and Anastasia elope.

     Film - Live-Action 

  • The two protagonists of The Generation Gap after being rejected by their families, where their parents forbids their meeting. They end up leaving their homes to be together in a cramped, single-bedroom apartment, but soon their financial worries begin to pile up.
  • Niki and Marlene go to do this in Rush, in direct contrast to his rival James's very public and showy wedding that quickly ended in divorce. Niki regrets it, less because he's now married and more because now he has something to lose if he dies in a race. The very next race nearly kills him.
  • Secrets involves Mary, daughter of a wealthy banker, promised to marry an English lord. Only it turns out that she is in love with John, a lowly clerk at her father's bank. When her father not only forbids the romance and insists that she marry the lord, but also fires John and promises to make it impossible to find work, Mary and John elope. The second and third acts of the movie follow them going into cattle ranching in California and then John's rise in state politics.

     Literature  
  • In Earth's Children, Tholie and her future husband Markeno met during a trade meeting between their two tribes and quickly fell in love. However, Tholie's family demanded a very high bride price for her hand, which the couple skirted around by having Markeno and his friends 'kidnap' Tholie...with her full knowledge and consent, of course.
  • The Faerie Queene: The princess Ameylia decides leave her kingdom to marry the poor squire Amyas without her father interfering. Unfortunately for both of them, when the two go to meet each other in the forest, they each run into a different giant that kidnaps them.
  • In The Kingkiller Chronicle, Kvothe's mother is a noblewoman who ran away to marry his father, an itinerant performer.
  • Heathcliff and Isabella run away together in Wuthering Heights to get married, likely to Gretna Green. Within hours, Heathcliff makes Isabella regret it.
  • Subverted in Pride and Prejudice where everyone thinks, even hopes that Wickham and Lydia have eloped. It turns out they're in London, and very much not married.
  • In Mansfield Park, Julia Bertram elopes with John Yates. Her father doesn't approve of him and she is not crazy in love with him, but after her sister's scandal (she cheated on her husband and went to live with her lover), she thinks she would otherwise be without any romantic prospects whatsoever because of the family's reputation and her father's strictness.
  • Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi: After the whole mess with Jin Guangyao and Nie Mingjue has been dealt with, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji leave to elope so they can finally have their alone time while temporarily disassociating themselves from the cultivation world.
  • In Jane Austen's Love and Freindship, Janetta elopes, at Sophia and Laura's persuasion.
  • Bear and Lena in Redoubt get married to keep Bear's family from forcing their preferred Arranged Marriage. However, they've been in love for the entire Collegium Chronicles. (Which is part of Bear's problem with an arranged marriage to someone he doesn't even know.)
  • Mentioned in one of the Letters to His Son by Lord Chesterfield: "Here is a report, but I believe a very groundless one, that your old acquaintance, the fair Madame C------e, is run away from her husband, with a jeweler, that 'etrennes' her, and is come over here; but I dare say it is some mistake, or perhaps a lie." (letter 238)
  • In Sir Walter Scott's poem Lochinvar, Lochinvar and Ellen elope from her wedding to someone else.
  • Meg and Michael of the Meg Langslow Mysteries met during a summer where Meg had to organize three weddings within weeks of each other, for her best friend, brother, and mother. She tells him that her prime requirement for a husband is now willingness to elope. Sure enough, when they finally marry, they have a huge housewarming party and then sneak off, leaving a goodbye message thanking everyone for coming to their reception. They never do tell anyone where they went for their honeymoon after, even the readers.
  • In Roland Rat: Biography of a Living Legend, Freddy Rat tells Iris "There's a place up north where we can get married. It's called something Green", and they run off to Golders Green, which is technically north of Freddy's home in King's Cross ... by about five miles.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire:
    • Uncle and niece Daemon and Rhaenyra Targaryen secretly got married without the approval of Viserys I, Daemon's brother and Rhaenyra's father. This caused a scandal, not because they were uncle and niece, but because it had been less than six months since their previous spouses (Laena and Laenor Velaryon, who were brother and sister) died. To prevent inflaming tensions, they set their wedding venue at Dragonstone, away from the watchful eyes of King's Landing.
    • Lyonel Hightower's marriage to his stepmother, Samantha Tarly, was not considered legal since the High Septon, who viewed it as a form of incest, refused to bless it. As a result, their children were born bastard.
    • Aegon V Targaryen betrothed his children Jaehaerys II and Shaera to Celia Tully and Luthor Tyrell, respectively, but they ended up falling for each other, and decided to marry in secret. By the time the news became public, they already consummated the marriage, forcing Aegon to accept it to prevent Shaera from being Defiled Forever.
  • Waltharius: Living as hostages at Attila's court, Walther and Hiltgunt are taken with each other but know that Attila will not allow them to marry or to leave (as he has already expressed his will to find a Hunnish wife for Walther). Walther reveals to Hiltgunt that he has long planned to flee back to Aquitaine, but has been delaying his plan because he wants her to come with him. After the next royal feast, while Attila and his nobles are sleeping, the lovers depart in the night and, after weeks of travelling in the wilderness, eventually make it to Aquitaine.
  • Wearing the Cape: In Recursion, Hope marries Kitsune, the Japanese superspy who she has been dating, as part of a Memory Gambit, as the marriage should strengthen their magical connection and let her resist some Laser-Guided Amnesia. When her mother hears about this, she insists that it wasn't a real marriage because it wasn't in a church with her family. Hope and the family priest point out that it's hard to get more legitimate than having your marriage officiated by the Virgin Mary in Heaven. Or maybe she's just a nice super who thinks she's the Japanese version of the Virgin Mary, but either way Hope's mother insists that there's going to be a more public ceremony.

     Live Action TV  
  • 'Allo 'Allo!, Rene and Yvette constantly plan to do this one day, but circumstances keep preventing it. They finally do it during the Distant Finale.
  • One notable episode of Bridezillas featured a groom who never showed up at the wedding and stole the bride's car. The next day, he called her and apologized to her, and she agreed to meet him in Las Vegas, where they married in a private ceremony at the courthouse. (He also tried to get her to stop talking to her adult daughter, who was one of the bridesmaids, and as of 2017, they are divorced.)
  • The Buccaneers (2023): James and Jinny forgo the big society wedding that would be expected from their social class and elope ahead of the Tintagel ball. From Jinny's perspective this is a fun whirlwind romance, but the audience knows that James is a bad person who has trapped her in a toxic marriage.
  • Doctor Who: in "The Caretaker", Danny Pink accuses his girlfriend, Clara Oswald, of eloping with the Twelfth Doctor. She denies this, however in a later episode, "Last Christmas", her decision to return to travelling with the Doctor is framed in this fashion (by this point, Danny is no longer an issue), and in "Hell Bent", before she and the Doctor are forced to part, possibly forever, as forces gather to prevent their relationship from continuing, Clara invites the Doctor to "just fly away somewhere" with her.
  • Downton Abbey: Sybil and Branson make a run for Gretna Green (see below) in Series 2; Edith, Mary, and Anna interdict them (thank God Edith can drive.)
  • On Good Eats, Alton describes how one of his ancestors met Mrs. Lovett, and helped her improve her meat pies. When the police come knocking on her door investigating several "mysterious" disappearances in London, she and Alton's ancestor run away to America, with a secret wedding ceremony along the way. Before too long, Mr. Brown also ends up disappearing under "mysterious circumstances."
  • Good Omens (2019):
    Crowley: It's a big universe! Even if this all ends up in a pile of burning goo, we could go off together!..
    Aziraphale: Go off... together? Listen to yourself!..
    • Then in episode 4:
    Crowley: (pleads)...But we can run away together! Alpha Centauri! Lot's of spare planets up there, nobody'll even notice us!
    Aziraphale: Crowley, you're being ridiculous...
    • In episode 5 Crowley drives to Aziraphale's bookshop to try to convince him, only to find that the bookshop's burnt down and Aziraphale is probably dead. Utterly heartbroken, Crowley abandons his plans to go to Alpha Centauri and instead gets spectacularly drunk.
    • In season 2 Gabriel and Beelzebub surprisingly fall in love with each other and actually elope together. Crowley suggests Alpha Centauri for them, much to the surprise of Aziraphale, who only now starts to realise the true meaning behind Crowley's proposals in season one.
    • At the end of season 2, during his extremely Anguished Declaration of Love, Crowley once again asks Aziraphale to run away with him.
  • The second half of season two of Hannibal has the titular cannibal psychiatrist and his patient/frienemy/soulmate Will Graham planning on leaving their old lives behind together, complete with plans to go to Italy and to have their surrogate daughter, whose survival Hannibal had been keeping secret to surprise Will, join them. It doesn't work out according to plan since Will's loyalties were deeply conflicted.
    • In season three, Hannibal and Will do escape together after viciously killing Dolerhyde together, admitting mutual romantic feelings while drenched in blood before Will throws them into the ocean. Although his true intentions (whether he wanted them to survive or not) aren't know because the show was cancelled in its prime, Word of God has confirmed that they did survive and would spend a hypothetical season four on the run as an Outlaw Couple.
  • The Legend of Xiao Chuo: Yan Yan and De Rang attempt to elope when they learn Xian has ordered Yan Yan to marry him. They're caught and Yan Yan is forced to marry Xian anyway.
  • Life With Lucy: Margo and Ted eloped because Lucy wanted the wedding to be extravagant and they wanted something simple.
  • On My Name Is Earl, all three of Earl's marriages were done in this way. All three of them, too, were examples of a Fourth-Date Marriage, and two were Accidental Marriages.
  • The final scene of Nikita reveals that Nikita and Michael, the series' main couple, had eloped off-screen a short while earlier.
  • In Once Upon a Time, Regina's Start of Darkness was caused by Snow White denouncing to her abusive mother Cora her intention to run with a stable boy to flee an arranged marriage with Snow's father. Far from being supportive, Cora killed the stable boy right in front of her daughter to teach her that Love Is a Weakness.
  • Game of Thrones universe:
    • Game of Thrones:
      • Robb Stark marries Talissa in secret, because he was already engaged to one of Lord Frey's daughters in order to seal a political alliance, but Robb wanted to Marry for Love instead. This move cost him dearly.
      • Later seasons confirm a long-standing fan theory that was almost as old as the books: that Robert's Rebellion was not sparked by Rhaegar Targaryen kidnapping Lyanna Stark, but instead by his elopement with her. Just like Lyanna's nephew Robb, this move cost them dearly; the anger of the families Rhaegar and Lyanna were betrothed or already married to sparked a bloody civil war, support for which was incited by rumors that Rhaegar kidnapped and raped Lyanna, that upended the Targaryen dynasty which was as old as the Seven Kingdoms themselves. Their child Aegon - better known as Jon Snow - was raised without knowledge of his true heritage for his own safety.
    • House of the Dragon:
      • Ser Criston Cole makes a proposition to Rhaenyra Targaryen, that is fleeing in Essos with her in order to leave their commitment behind (the Kingsguard for him since he broke his vow to it by having sex with her, and her heir to the Iron Throne role) and marry far from the court intrigues of Westeros. Rhaenyra refuses, and Criston doesn't take it well, making him an enemy of Rhaenyra in the long run.
      • Laenor Velaryon and Qarl Correy pull off the "gay lovers" variant without marriage, Faking the Dead so they can have a new life of swords for hire far away from House Velaryon. It also makes Laenor's wife Rhaenyra (who was The Beard to him) free to marry her beloved uncle Daemon.
  • Twice on Halt and Catch Fire:
    • Cameron and her ex-boyfriend Tom Rendon decide to do this off-screen when she returns to Texas for the Fourth of July weekend.
    • In the episode "Who Needs a Guy" Bos and Diane Gould decide to elope without telling Cameron.

     Music  

  • In the song Project "Ma", Adam Moonlit (played by KAITO) runs away with Eve (played by Hatsune Miku) to Eldoh Forest after said project failed.
  • Sara Evans' "Suds in the Bucket" is about a young woman who abruptly leaves her chores in order to elope to Vegas with her lover.
  • In "Bobbie Sue" by The Oak Ridge Boys, the male narrator plans to take the eponymous Bobbie Sue out of state to keep her away from her parents, who disapprove of him.

     Newspaper Comics  

  • Jenny and Luis do this almost by accident in Safe Havens, when they accidentally pull into a drive thru chapel in Las Vegas instead of a fast food joint. They didn't get it annulled since they did love each other, but were too embarrassed to tell their friends until Jenny ended up pregnant. It does show how much Jenny loves Luis though: the normally greedy Jenny gave up thousands in wedding presents to elope with him.
    • Later, Rupert and Rosalind do this, mainly cause they still had student loans to pay off and didn't want to go further in debt to stage a fancy wedding.
  • Subject of a gag in one Calvin and Hobbes strip, where Calvin offers to show Hobbes an "antelope".. and leads to him a nearby ant hill, where he points out the ladder being leaned against the female ant's window.
  • Retail: Cooper and Val elected to just get married at the courthouse and use the money they would have used for a wedding for a honeymoon in Hawaii instead. The deal was Cooper tells their coworkers, while Val tells her parents. Marla agrees Cooper got the better deal.

     Theater  

  • In The Lady's Not for Burning, Alizon is promised in an Arranged Marriage to the mayor's nephew. When she comes to the mayor's house to meet her husband-to-be, she meets Richard, the mayor's clerk, and they fall in love. They elope near the end of the play, since even if the respective parents could be persuaded to call off the arranged marriage, Alizon's parents would never accept Richard as a suitable prospect.
  • Anne and Henrik elope near the end of A Little Night Music. Since Anne is already married to Henrik's father this is really the only option.
  • Romeo and Juliet run away to Friar Lawrence to get married.
  • In A Midsummer Night's Dream Hermia and Lysander run off to do this, since Hermia is going to be forced into an Arranged Marriage to Demetrius (or put into a convent). However, events work out so that Demetrius cancels the wedding and the two are able to get married in Athens after all.
  • In The Taming of the Shrew, Lucentio wants to do this.
  • In The Rose Tattoo, Rosa runs away from her home with Jack in the final scene.

     Video Games  

  • Played for Laughs in The Curse of Monkey Island, where reuniting Minnie Goodsoup and Charles de Goulash causes them to dramatically proclaim their love for each other and elope against the wishes of their parents, despite both Minnie and Charles (and presumably their parents) being long dead.
  • Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade:
    • This trope is the story of Lyndis' parentage. Her mother, Lady Madelyn, was the daughter of the Marquis of Caelin. Her father, Hassar, was the leader of the Lorca Tribe, one of the three tribes of Sacae, a group of nomadic people. In order to stay together, Madelyn left Caelin to live with her lover on the Sacaen plains.
    • In the Japanese version, Guy and Priscilla's paired ending. Guy considered giving up on Priscilla, because of their different background, the former being a nomadic mercenary and the latter being a noblewoman. However, seeing her cry is too much for him and the two agree to elope. In the English version, this is completely removed because of a mistranslation.
  • Hawke's parents from the Dragon Age II Back Story: he was a runaway apostate mage, she was a noble with an Arranged Marriage looming.
  • In the Trespasser DLC of Dragon Age: Inquisition, the player character can do this if she's a female Inquisitor who has romanced either Cullen or Sera. Her love interest will propose during their first conversation at the Exalted Council, and the wedding takes place literally moments later. The only ones in attendance are the happy couple, Mother Giselle and, in the case of marrying Cullen, his dog.
  • One of the subplots of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door involves the daughter of a Pianta mafia don eloping with one of his underlings. The first time you meet, he agrees to secure you a ride to the place where the next Plot Coupon is if you bring them back. On finding them, they return of their own accord and he tells them to get lost but gives them his blessing in a roundabout way. They settle on a tropical island a few chapters later. In the next chapter you need a ride once again, so you return and find him sick (literally) with worry about them. One subquest later and you have your ticket, the couple and the Don reconcile and everyone's happy.
  • Elwyn and Nancy's sidequest from Tales of Phantasia, Elwyn's father is a rich business man who rejects Nancy being a poor girl. Keith suggests Elwyn elope with her, with which he complies. The rest of the quest is a chain of fetch quests to fix the father and son's conflict and finally get the lovers married properly.
  • In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, you can find a journal at a campsite near an inn on the road to Markarth. The journal belonged to the daughter of the head of a rich mining family who fell in love with one of the workers in her father's mine. She noted her father would never approve of her relationship, not only because of the class difference, but because her lover was a Dark Elf. They decided to save up some money and run away together after meeting up at the campsite. Unfortunately, they were both killed by a saber cat at the campsite. If you come back to the campsite later, you'll find a Shrine of Dibella there with various tributes strewn around it.
  • In Spore's Maxis adventure, "Delicate Negotiations," the children of the Duke and Baron, Julio and Romiette, attempt to elope. They're forced to stop and return to town because their parents are under the mistaken impression that they've been kidnapped and are about to start a war over it.
  • In Spyro: Year of the Dragon, at the level Charmed Ridge, you are tasked by saving the fairy princess who was kidnapped by cat wizards and stop their wedding, when you get to the end, it's revealed that Princess Ami and Prince Azrael actually like each other and plan to elope because the fairies and wizards won't let them get married.

     Web Comics 
  • Parodied in MoringMark - TOH Comics when Skara is introducing Viney to her father for the first time. Her dad clearly doesn't approve and being both a busy man and an apparent avid watcher of soap operas tells her to just fast forward to the part where she runs away from home so they can be together. Of course, this is then immediately subverted when Viney provides him with a lucrative deal of humanely sourced griffon hair harp strings for his instrument business.
    Mr. Rosenkrantz: Well, we all know what's going to happen. I'm gonna bribe her into leaving you. She'll refuse and you are gonna hate me forever. Then you'll run away to be with her and live a life of your own. And I'll regret the whole thing on my deathbed. Something like that.

     Web Original  

     Western Animation  

  • On The Fairly OddParents!, Cosmo and Wanda both ran away from home to get married, with Cosmo pulling an inversion of Parent Never Came Back from the Store and telling his mother he was going out to get milk. Both Cosmo's mom and Wanda's Dad remain unaware that their kids are married until their first appearance.
  • The Ghost and Molly McGee: In "The Best of Nin-tensions", it is revealed Pete and Sharon have eloped and thus never had a proper wedding.
  • Steven Universe: The episode "The Answer" tells Garnet's origins, in which Ruby and Sapphire ran away from the Homeworld's wrath after the two accidentally fused for the first time into Garnet, which was a breach of their rigid caste system. In this case, the running came first (Ruby was going to be executed, and Sapphire wasn't going to stand for that), then they decided to stay together romantically later.
  • Queen Eclipsa from Star vs. the Forces of Evil eloped with her monster husband Globgor as Mewni doesn't allow marriage with monsters.
  • "Hare Trimmed," a Bugs Bunny cartoon, has Yosemite Sam out to marry Emmy (Tweety's owner) just to get her money. Bugs thwarts Sam by disguising himself as Emmy and suggesting they elope. As Bugs!Emmy tosses out personal effects to Sam:
    Sam: That dame's takin' everything but the kitchen sink! (next thing he catches is a kitchen sink)

     Real Life  

  • The Scottish village of Gretna Green is the place where English teenagers used to traditionally run to to get hitched when they wished to defy their parents (because Scottish law was more easygoing about such things, and it was the first Scottish village on the main London-Edinburgh road). It's still possible to go there for a traditional "wedding of the anvil", although this is no longer recognized in law.
  • In the United States, Las Vegas is popular for this since the marriage offices are open until midnight every day, and in Nevada, you don't have to wait between getting the marriage license and getting married. Convenient! Before Vegas became a big city, Reno had this reputation. (So you could have your quickie divorce from the one you hate, followed by your quickie marriage to the person you love!)
    • Hawaiʻi is another popular destination for this, because of the beaches (especially the ones off the beaten path), and like Nevada, the fact that Hawaii doesn't require a waiting period between getting the marriage license and the wedding.
  • The Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille were united in this way in 1469. While Isabella was still the heiress presumptive of Castille, her half-brother, King Henry IV, promised her that he would not force her to marry, while stipulating that she would not marry against his will. However, he broke his promise and made several attempts to arrange marriages for her that Isabella found unacceptable. She averted this by eloping with her cousin Ferdinand, the future King of Aragon, whom she considered a more fitting match. This strained her relationship with her brother, but after his death, she managed to get herself proclaimed Queen. Isabella's marriage to Ferdinand effectively united Spain in the long term.
  • The 17th-century aristocratic French writer Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de la Force fell in love with a much younger man, Charles Briou, whose family did not approve of their union. When Charles was locked up at home, the resourceful de la Force visited the Brious with a theater troupe disguised as a dancing bear. She managed to get access to him in this guise. They ran off and got married with the King's permission. Unfortunately, Charles had a highly-placed and influential father. His family had the marriage annulled and Charles locked up in a madhouse. Perhaps unsurprisingly, de la Force published the fairy tale Persinette in 1698. An early version of Rapunzel, it also deals with the theme of forbidden love.
  • In 1795 the then-Army officer and future short-lived President of the United States William Henry Harrison wanted to marry Anna Tuthill Symes, but her father, a judge, disapproved of the match and would not sanction the relationship. They were married when the father was away. Supposedly, when Judge Symes returned and demanded to know how Harrison meant to support his daughter, he gallantly replied "by my sword, and my own right arm, sir".
  • Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, married his Pennsylvanian wife, Emma Hale, by eloping to nearby New York in 1827. The reason Emma's father gave for disapproving of the match was that, beside being a stranger, he could not approve of Smith's occupation, which, at the time, involved using psychic powers to look for minerals and hidden treasure.
  • Scotland seems to be a country where elopement was an accepted fact of life. A story is told of Archibald Chisholm, who became an officer in the Black Watch in 1841. As the story goes, Archibald wanted to marry Maria Frances Lynch, who was of a very wealthy, well-connected family. Apparently, due to her brother's disapproval, Maria's father withdrew his consent. In what must be one of the boldest elopements on record, a priest was brought into the bride's home at night who married Archibald and Maria in the kitchen. In the morning, Archibald informed her father of the fact and drove her away to Glasgow for a church wedding. Just in case Maria's family were to attempt to pursue them, officers from Archibald's regiment were standing guard along the way! The marriage is said to have been a happy one.
  • Another contemporary Scottish anecdote concerns the celebrated piper John Ban Mackenzie, who was piper to Davidson of Tulloch. Allegedly, his employer wanted to (bigamously!) elope with the heiress Maria Mackenzie and used John Ban as his go-between. The piper, however, was a handsome man, and in 1833, she ended up eloping with him instead. In need of a job, John Ban, who was a master of his art, was taken on by the Marquis of Breadalbane. He had to be single for the position, so Maria lived apart from him. Eventually, though, John Ban was compelled to admit to the Marquis that he was married. The latter took it well and brokered a reconciliation between both John Ban and Davidson and Maria and her uncle.
  • Alice, the beautiful young daughter of James Douglas, the first Governor of British Columbia, fell in love with Charles Good, her father's secretary. Governor Douglas forbade them to see each other. In 1861, when Alice was 17, they caused a public sensation by sailing to the nearby United States and being married by a justice of the peace. On their return, Douglas saw that they were properly married in the Anglican Church. The event was immortalized in the song "Chief Douglas' Daughter". The union did not last, however, and was dissolved in 1878, after which Alice remarried.
  • The Spanish parents of French actor Louis de Funès moved to France to marry away from their disapproving families.

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