The World's Most Expensive Wedding

For seven years, Christian I ruled all three Scandinavian crowns. Through his kingship of Norway, that rule also extended to Orkney and Shetland — distant, but strategically important parts of the Norwegian realm.

That power did not last.

In 1464, Swedish nobles rebelled and deposed Christian as king of Sweden. From that point on, his kingdom began to shrink. Denmark and Norway remained under his control, but the loss of Sweden weakened his position and placed severe strain on royal finances. Maintaining authority now depended as much on diplomacy as force.

Christian found his solution in marriage.

He arranged a match between his daughter, Margaret of Denmark, and James III of Scotland. For Scotland, the marriage offered prestige and a powerful Scandinavian alliance. For Christian, it promised something more urgent: security along Norway’s western flank at a time when his resources were stretched thin.

As was customary, the alliance required a dowry. Christian agreed to pay 60,000 florins of the Rhine — an enormous sum, equivalent to several years of royal income. As the wedding approached, it became clear he could not raise the money.

So instead, he offered land.

As security for the unpaid dowry, Christian pledged Orkney in 1468, followed by Shetland in 1469. The islands were not given away. They were placed “in wedset” — pawned — to be held by the Scottish crown until the full sum could be repaid.

On 13 July 1469, the marriage took place at Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh. James was seventeen. Margaret was thirteen.

In the immediate aftermath of the ceremony, legal charters were drawn up confirming the arrangement. Orkney and Shetland were to be held by Scotland “for security and pledge of the said dowry.” In plain terms, entire island groups had been pawned to underwrite a wedding.

Christian fully intended to redeem them. The agreement allowed for repayment. But the money never came. His finances did not recover, and the sums involved were too great. Over time, the pledge hardened into permanence. Orkney and Shetland passed into Scottish hands — first in practice, and later in law.

Modern attempts to calculate what that loss represents today vary widely. Any precise figure depends on how it is measured — royal income, state revenue, land value, or centuries of strategic and economic control. Even the most conservative estimates place the cost in the many billions of pounds.

A teenage marriage, arranged to solve a political crisis, ended Norway’s rule of Orkney and Shetland forever.

Measured not just in gold, but in land, power, and centuries of lost income, it remains — by any reasonable standard — the world’s most expensive wedding.