A Life-Long Courtship
It was pretty common for marriages in Europe to be arranged in the 1500s. Royal families would often arrange unions when their children were still very young, promising them to the ruler of another country in exchange for an alliance. Most people made these arrangements when these kids were, oh we don’t know, not living in their mother’s womb. The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I was not “most people,” though.
Maximilian arranged marriages for his two grandchildren. Three-year-old Ferdinand was to marry King Vladislaus II of Hungary’s daughter. His infant granddaughter Mary was set up to marry Vladislaus’ unborn son Louis. This seems like a pretty risky setup, considering the high infant mortality rate and risk that Vladislaus’ baby wouldn’t be a boy. It did end up working out, and Mary and Louis had a short but happy marriage.