Royal Bastards

Sara McDougall is Associate Professor of History at John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York and is a member of the doctoral faculty at the CUNY Graduate Center. Her research focuses primarily on marriage and law in medieval Europe. She is the author of Bigamy and Christian Identity in Late Medieval Champagne (2012) and has also published on adultery, marriage, illicit sex, and the role of gender in canon law. She was a Mellon fellow in Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton in 2014-2015.

• Introduction1: The Language of Illegitimacy2: The Carolingian Example: The Sons of Concubines3: Illegitimacy and the Making of Medieval Dynasties 900-10504: Maternal Lineage and Anglo-Norman Succession 950-11505: Canon Law, Canonists, and Bastards in the World of Ivo of Chartres6: Redefining Marriage and Legitimacy (1140-1200): Ideas and Practices7: Royal Bastards of the Twelfth Century: The Monk-King of Aragon's Daughter, the Abbess-Countess of Boulogne's Daughter, and Tancred of Lecce8: Illegitimacy and Legitimation in the Thirteenth Century: Pope Innocent III, King Philip II, and Emperor Frederick II9: Scandal in Jerusalem: Royal Succession and Illegitimacy10: Saint Fernando III, The Bastard King of LeónConclusion

McDougall employs an impressive array of sources, including individual case studies, theological writings, chronicles, genealogies, letters, charters, and literary works, providing a rare glimpse into the lives of an array of noble families. The significance of maternal lineage in determining status calls into question past tendencies to discount the importance of royal wives and mothers during this period. McDougall situates the sources, particularly those issued by the church, within the wider context of the individual disputes that prompted their production. This approach allows McDougall to identify the full range of factors that informed attitudes about royal succession between 900 and 1250, providing an important caution against the temptation to "read back" terms and practices on the past.