Illegitimacy in Medieval Scotland, 1100-1500 (Scottish Historical Review Monograph Second Series)

The question of illegitimacy was as important and complex in Scotland as elsewhere in the Middle Ages. This book examines its legal, political, and social implications there between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries. It explores illegitimacy in relation to royal succession and to the inheritance of ordinary estates; investigates the role it played in major political events; and considers how being, or having, a bastard affected the lives of elite women,and the careers of people in ecclesiastical life. Scotland's earliest surviving legal treatise, Regiam Majestatem , denied inheritance rights to offspring legitimated by the intermarriage of their parents, while the law of the Church regarded such children as legitimate and, by implication, capable of inheritance. The volume scrutinises the tension between these two positions, alongside contemporary evidence which provides new insights into legal theory and practice concerning inheritance and birth status. By contextualising illegitimacy within its socio-political as well as legal settings, it challenges existing assumptions about the meaning and significance of bastardy in the Scottish middle ages. Table of Contents Introduction Church law and Scottish families Illegitimacy and royal succession I: before the Great Cause Illegitimacy and royal succession II: from the Great Cause to James Wives, daughters, and sisters Church careers and sacrilegious bastards Illegitimacy in political life Conclusion Timeline of key events Bibliography First full-length examination of bastardy in Scotland during the period, exploring its many ramifications throughout society.The question of illegitimacy was as important and complex in Scotland as elsewhere in the Middle Ages. This book examines its legal, political, and social implications there between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries. It explores illegitimacy in relation to royal succession and to the inheritance of ordinary estates; investigates the role it played in major political events; and considers how being, or having, a bastard affected the lives of elite women,and the careers of people in ecclesiastical life. Scotland's earliest surviving legal treatise, Regiam Majestatem, denied inheritance rights to offspring legitimated by the intermarriage of their parents, while the law of the Church regarded such children as legitimate and, by implication, capable of inheritance. The volume scrutinises the tension between these two positions, alongside contemporary evidence which provides new insights into legal theory and practice concerning inheritance and birth status. By contextualising illegitimacy within its socio-political as well as legal settings, it challenges existing assumptions about the meaning and significance of bastardy in the Scottish middle ages. SUSAN MARSHALL has worked as a Teaching Fellow in Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Studies at the University of Aberdeen; she is currently an independent historical researcher. The question of illegitimacy was as important and complex in Scotland as elsewhere in the Middle Ages. This book examines its legal, political, and social implications there between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries. It explores illegitimacy in relation to royal succession and to the inheritance of ordinary estates; investigates the role it played in major political events; and considers how being, or having, a bastard affected the lives of elite women, and the careers of people in ecclesiastical life. Scotland's earliest surviving legal treatise, Regiam Majestatem, denied inheritance rights to offspring legitimated by the intermarriage of their parents, while the law of the Church regarded such children as legitimate and, by implication, capable of inheritance. The volume scrutinises the tension between these two positions, alongside contemporary evidence which provides new insights into legal theory and practice concerning inheritance and birth status. By contextualising illegitimacy within its socio-political as well as legal settings, it challenges existing assumptions about the meaning and significance of bastardy in the Scottish middle ages Front cover 1 Contents 8 Tables 9 Preface 10 Acknowledgements 13 Abbreviations 14 Introduction 18 1 Church law and Scottish families 24 2 Illegitimacy and inheritance 46 3 Illegitimacy and royal succession I: before the Great Cause 72 4 Illegitimacy and royal succession II: from the Great Cause to James I 100 5 Wives, daughters, and sisters 134 6 Church careers and sacrilegious bastards 166 7 Illegitimacy in political life 190 Conclusion 208 Appendix I: Scottish kings and their illegitimate offspring 213 Appendix II: Illegitimate sons of Scottish kings 216 Timeline of key events 227 Bibliography 230 Index 248