medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>From: Madeleine Gray In medieval Wales there is no real concept of
>illegitimacy as such. What matters is acknowledgement of paternity. All a
>man's acknowledged sons, whoever their mothers, will share in his
>inheritance. (Though again, the
concept of inheritance is a tricky one in Welsh land law.)
All of this is essentially true in Ireland of the same period, as well. The
basic concern of medieval Irish law is to determine who is responsible for
the care of the child, as well as issues of inheritance. There's no concept
of illegitimacy. Blood is blood.
Marriage was seen as an arrangement that produced children, was intended to
produce children, or was the result of mutual attraction. Irish law
recognized a number of types of "marriage" ranging from one formally
arranged between two people of equal rank and wealth to a quickie under a
bush. Also factoring into this was the practice of fostering the children of
nobility. Children were raised by a close ally and the relationship was
considered as strong as blood. Such alliances might be important in enabling
someone to become king (see below) or lead his kin-group.
An important aspect of Irish law is that men were allowed to have multiple
wives, and divorce was permissible and primarily a matter of dividing
property. There were numerous grounds for divorce, but none were intended to
prohibit the divorce: "fault" determined who got what. Ecclesiastical
outrage had little effect on these customs. They were basic to the social
structure. It took Anglicization of the bassic social structure to change
the marriage laws.
To the best of my knowledge, the only children who were ostracized were
those born of incest. They were put in boats or baskets and taken out beyond
the surf line. If the bark returned to the shore, the child was accepted.
Otherwise, the child's fate was left to "God's hands."
>This one goes right up to the inheritance of the crown. When Llywelyn ab
>Iorwerth of Gwynedd, Llywelyn the Great, died in 1240, the kingdom was
>disputed between his 'legitimate' son Dafydd, son of Joan (who was herself
>the illegitimate daughter of King John of England) and Llywelyn's older but
>technically illegitimate son Gruffydd.
In pre-Norman Ireland, succession to kingship was not simply a matter of
sons inheriting from father. There was a pool of possible candidates, all
sharing the same great-grandfather. The kingship was given to the
"strongest" candidate, the one backed by the leaders of the kin-groups. As
time passed, a king designated his choice of successor from this group
before his death. Of course, holding onto the kingship was not always easy.
Another important qualification for kinship in Ireland was physical
wholeness. Possible successors were blinded or had a limb chopped off to
keep them from becoming king. (This appears both in myths and in the
annals.) In hagiographical legend, the Cornish uncle of the Breton St.
Mellor had his young nephew mutilated to keep him from inheriting the throne
from his father.
I imagine that the Welsh laws, like the Irish, come from common Celtic
heritage, though that heritage is hypothetical.
>This may or may not be of some interest in the context of northern France.
>The church didn't like the Welsh practice - so I suppose what it does
suggest is that ecclesiastical concepts of illegitimacy didn't have it all
their own way.
Exactly!
Francine Nicholson
_________________________________________________________________
STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE*
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|