diff --git a/django/forms/forms.py b/django/forms/forms.py
index b81c95f8ad..3a6182611e 100644
--- a/django/forms/forms.py
+++ b/django/forms/forms.py
@@ -171,6 +171,13 @@ class BaseForm(StrAndUnicode):
                 last_row = output[-1]
                 # Chop off the trailing row_ender (e.g. '</td></tr>') and
                 # insert the hidden fields.
+                if not last_row.endswith(row_ender):
+                    # This can happen in the as_p() case (and possibly others
+                    # that users write): if there are only top errors, we may
+                    # not be able to conscript the last row for our purposes,
+                    # so insert a new, empty row.
+                    last_row = normal_row % {'errors': '', 'label': '', 'field': '', 'help_text': ''}
+                    output.append(last_row)
                 output[-1] = last_row[:-len(row_ender)] + str_hidden + row_ender
             else:
                 # If there aren't any rows in the output, just append the
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/forms/regressions.py b/tests/regressiontests/forms/regressions.py
index 5e32cd397d..51aa41d2fb 100644
--- a/tests/regressiontests/forms/regressions.py
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/forms/regressions.py
@@ -88,4 +88,18 @@ doesn't come back.
 True
 >>> f.cleaned_data
 {'data': u'xyzzy'}
+
+A form with *only* hidden fields that has errors is going to be very unusual.
+But we can try to make sure it doesn't generate invalid XHTML. In this case,
+the as_p() method is the tricky one, since error lists cannot be nested
+(validly) inside p elements.
+
+>>> class HiddenForm(Form):
+...     data = IntegerField(widget=HiddenInput)
+>>> f = HiddenForm({})
+>>> f.as_p()
+u'<ul class="errorlist"><li>(Hidden field data) This field is required.</li></ul>\n<p> <input type="hidden" name="data" id="id_data" /></p>'
+>>> f.as_table()
+u'<tr><td colspan="2"><ul class="errorlist"><li>(Hidden field data) This field is required.</li></ul><input type="hidden" name="data" id="id_data" /></td></tr>'
+
 """