Why men get down on one knee to propose
Many of our traditional wedding customs come from Queen Victoria's marriage to Prince Albert, where the infamously headstrong monarch popularised the white satin wedding dress at a time when coloured gowns were en vogue.
However according to Dr Kirby-Jane Hallum, honorary Academic at the University of Auckland's Faculty of Arts and author of Aestheticism and Marriage in Victorian Popular Fiction: The Art of Female Beauty, the original 19th century celebrity wedding doesn't give us all the answers.
"The origin of the tradition of getting down on one knee is unknown but it can be thought as part of established courtship, engagement and marriage rituals.
"It invokes both religious and courtly symbolism because it can be viewed as an act of humility. For example, Catholics bend on one knee as a sign of respect before taking their seats for the Mass. Knights bend down on one before the king when being knighted."
Hallum's own work highlights that the "husband's position as master is acknowledged through nineteenth-century legal frameworks".
"Under 19th-century common law, a wife was in many ways regarded as the property of her husband," she said.
"I would argue that the idealisation of women for their beauty, innocence and virtue during this period meant that the suitor would bend his knee when asking for of the object of his affection's hand in marriage as an act of reverence."
Written by Janan Jay. First appeared on Stuff.co.nz.