BASTARDY of ROYAL PERSONAGES DEFINED by CECIL HUMPHERY-SMITH : ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY BOOK EXCERPTS AND REVIEW

Cecil Humphery-Smith, OBE, FSA, Principal of the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies, in the book ROYAL BASTARDS, previously posted on this month, explains the concept of BASTARDY...

This part of the book is the best part, because you're possibly going to research for your own, less than royal, family and ask yourself WHAT DOES IT MEAN.

Here are my notes.

Humphery-Smith states that who was regarded as illegitimate varied from time to time.

A child born of an annulled marriage or before his parents married might not be considered so.
(I think of the children of some of the Princes and Princesses of Monaco present day...)

Most European countries considered illegitimate children to be outlaws  and where Roman law was, these children had no inheritance rights.  The mother would be given rights but the father would have no legal obligation to support them.  There was a stigma and through all classes of people, including the agricultural an laboring.  The concern was that the people involved were Vagrants.

"That the church took a dim view of illegitimacy is obvious from the number of records of penances inflicted by the ecclesiastical courts for the incontinence of parents...."  (Apparently there are records of penances and punishments to the parents for fornication and adultery.)
In 1610 a woman who had an illegitimate child went to the House of Corrections.

Laws against illegitimate children encouraged infanticide and abortion.

But by the 16th century more bastards are mentioned in church books and from the 1750's forwards it seems that the occurrence was becoming more common, and of less commentary.

"Knobstick weddings" were a means of forcing couples to marry even if they had no homes.

By the Acts of 1732/3 a woman had to declare who the father was. Public whipping of the woman was done.  (One would wonder if this was meant to induce abortion!)  As a result women were desperate to name a father and would sometimes name a wealthy man who was not the father, so that she'd have a better chance of gaining support for the child.  Sometimes the woman would say the father was from another parish or district, making him hard to find.  People bribed others to call the child legitimate.

The children were not well off. There are stories of children becoming slaves on farms, servants or whipping boys.

Of concern then, and now, is who supports the child of a parent or parents with no income. What happens to the social order, the responsibilities of family?

C 2018-2025 Book Review by Ancestry Worship Genealogy

ROYAL BASTARDS : ILLIGITIMATE CHILDREN OF THE BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY: ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY BOOK REVIEW

ROYAL BASTARDS : ILLIGITIMATE CHILDREN OF THE BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY : ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY BOOK REVIEW

Peter Beauclerk-Dewar

 and Roger Powell are the authors of...

ROYAL BASTARDS, which is a book to learn from. Not just because it gives bio-profiles of the circumstances of birth and royal and noble connections of a whole lot of illegitimate offspring of:
THE TUDORS
Edward IV (1442-1483)
Richard III (1452-1485)
Henry VIII (1491-1547)  (yep!)
THE STUARTS
Charles II (1630-1714)
James II (1633-1701)
Charles Stuart (1720-1788)
THE HANOVERIANS
George I (1660-1727)
George II (1683- 1760)
as well as
Frederick, Prince of Wales (a Son of George)
George, Prince of Wales (later King George IV)
William, Duke of Clarence (Later King Willian IV)
as well as some Windsors…
But because we learn that the surname Fitz teamed with the father's given name was that of so many.

Because we learn that some of these children -and their mothers who were "mistresses," were treated well, but while other's were accepted and elevated their mothers were trashed and left to die in poverty and obscurity.

We learn that COATS OF ARMS/ SHEILDS were designed for some of them and by reading the code of the coat of arms there are clues of illegitimacy.

We learn that there was punishment for the parents of illegitimate children, and as a result the following happened (and this will challenge your DNA genealogy) people gossiped (to heal or destroy reputations), they lied (a mother could claim a better or wealthier man was the real father), that naming the child after a famous person - a noble or King - could indicate that he was actually the father - and that infanticide was not out of the question.  The children were sometimes supported by the father, but they had no inheritance rights.

Sadly, women were far worse off when it came to punishment then the men, as if it were all their fault.  (Sound familiar?)  the Poor Laws of 1662 and the Vagrant Act of 1575-6 were harsh.  What was being upheld was the economy, the fact that in marriage it was understood what man would be supporting what women and what children.  It wasn't until the Tudors and the Stuarts that the illegitimate children got titles of nobility and entered into the peerage.

As I was reading this book I was thinking that in my research of small towns I sometimes found that illegitimate children, as indicated in church records, were often given exotic names as if a given name might compensate for a maiden name.

I found that the APPENDIX and definition of bastardy by Cecil Humphery-Smith - who has a long list of honoraria after his name was the best part!  I'll post excerpts from that soon!

C 2018-2025 Book Review by Ancestry Worship Genealogy