Royal bastard


A royal bastard was a common term for the illegitimate child of a reigning monarch. These children were considered to be born outside of marriage - either because the monarch had an extra-marital affair; or because the legitimacy of the monarch's marriage had been called into question.
Notable royal bastards include Henry FitzRoy, son of King Henry VIII of England, and the Duke of Monmouth, son of Charles II. The Anglo-Norman surname Fitzroy means son of a king and was used by various illegitimate royal offspring, and by others who claimed to be such. In medieval England a bastard's coat of arms was marked with a bend/baton sinister.
Notable fictional instances include the legendary character Mordred, who was often portrayed as King Arthur's villainous illegitimate son. Some fictional portrayals of royal bastards were less negative, such the character of Philip the Bastard in Shakespeare's King John''.

Ancient Rome

Unlike medieval royalty, the Romans were more concerned with continuity of family name than with bloodline. If a man recognized a child as his, this was accepted by law, and the issue of who the biological father was did not arise. If a child was not recognized, he or she could be exposed or brought up as a slave. For example, Emperor Claudius initially accepted a girl as his daughter, but later rejected her and had her exposed. Emperors often adopted their successors. There are no recorded examples of aristocrats in classical times accusing other aristocrats of being illegitimate, as was common among in later periods.
Caesarion was possibly the illegitimate son of Julius Caesar by Cleopatra, which would also make him Caesar's only known child besides Julia.

Belgium

A book published in February 2011 claimed that Albert II of Belgium has an illegitimate half-sister named Ingeborg Verdun, the daughter of King Leopold III and Austrian-Belgian ice skater Liselotte Landbeck.

Flanders and Brabant

Older illegitimate children founded important family branches, as reported in the Trophées de Brabant: tome 1:

English kings

Papal legates decree in 786

In the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy then Kingdom, descendants of kings were called aethelings, whether legitimate or not. When a kingship became vacant, a Witan would meet to name an aetheling as king. Papal legates visited the great hall of Offa of Mercia in 786 and decreed that an English king "must not be begotten in adultery or incest" and that "he who was not born of a legitimate marriage" could not succeed to the throne. It is likely no rule of succession had set as to bastardy before this decree.

Edward the Elder

, his acknowledged illegitimate son, succeeded as king in 924.

Duke of Normandy

was an acknowledged illegitimate son of a line of three Norman dukes noted for many truces; he was of Scandinavian, Breton, Anglo-Saxon and North French royal and noble descent.

Stephen

Gervase de Blois, a bastard of Stephen I, was Abbot of Westminster from 1138 to 1157.

Henry I

had 21 to 25 illegitimate children, including Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester, Sybilla of Normandy Maud FitzRoy, Constance or Maud FitzRoy, Mabel FitzRoy, Alice FitzRoy, Gilbert FitzRoy, and Emma. "It might be permissible to wonder how it was that Henry I managed to keep track of all his illegitimate children, but there is no doubt that he did so," wrote historian Given-Wilson.

Henry II

had several bastards, most notably Geoffrey, Archbishop of York and William Longespée, 3rd Earl of Salisbury. William's mother was Ida de Tosny, while Geoffrey's may have been called Ykenai.

Richard I

had at least one illegitimate child: Philip of Cognac, who died young. He features as Philip the Bastard in Shakespeare's King John.

John

had at least five children with mistresses during his first marriage to Isabelle of Gloucester, and two of which are known to have been noblewomen. He had eight or more others including Jeanne/Joan, Lady of Wales and Richard FitzRoy.

Edward IV of England

had at least five illegitimate children, including Arthur Plantagenet, 1st Viscount Lisle by his mistress Elizabeth Lucy.
Perkin Warbeck closely resembled Edward IV and claimed to be his son Richard of Shrewsbury; it has been theorised that Perkin was one of Edward's illegitimate children.
Richard III justified his accession to the throne by claiming that the children of Edward IV were the product of an invalid marriage.

Richard III

had at least two illegitimate children: John of Gloucester and Katherine, first wife of William Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke.

Henry VII

Sir Roland de Velville was, in one account, the illegitimate son of Henry VII and "a Breton lady."

Henry VIII

had one acknowledged illegitimate child, Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset. As he had many mistresses, historians put forward six other likely instances including the mercenary Thomas Stukley, the poet Richard Edwardes and two of Mary Boleyn's children.
His daughter Elizabeth was in then Catholic canon law illegitimate, as Henry had married her mother, Anne Boleyn having divorced Queen Catherine; it was lawful under his new Anglican legal system.

Scottish kings

was an illegitimate son of Alexander I of Scotland who unsuccessfully claimed his throne.
William the Lion had at least 6 illegitimate children, including Isabella Mac William.
Alexander II's illegitimate daughter Marjorie married Alan Durward.
Robert the Bruce had maybe six illegitimate children, including Robert Bruce, Lord of Liddesdale.
Robert II had 13+ illegitimate children, including Thomas Stewart, later Bishop of St Andrews.
Robert III at least two illegitimate children, including John, ancestor of the Shaw Stewart baronets.
James II had an illegitimate son, John Stewart, Lord of Sticks.
James IV had at least 5 illegitimate children with his mistresses, including Alexander Stewart, Archbishop of St Andrews, James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray and Lady Janet Stewart, la Belle Écossaise.
James V had at least 9 illegitimate children with his mistresses, including Lady Jean Stewart, Robert Stewart, 1st Earl of Orkney and James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray.

Charles II

Charles II fathered at least 20 illegitimate children, of whom he acknowledged 14. The most famous of these was James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, his son by Lucy Walter. After Charles' death, Monmouth led a rebellion against his uncle James II. Charles had no legitimate children who survived childhood.
When Nell Gwynn brought her first child to Charles, she told it, 'Come hither you little Bastard and speak to your father!'.
Charles then named the child "Beauclerk" and bestowed the title "Earl of Burford".

Illegitimate children of Charles II

By Lucy Walter
  1. James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, found and executed nine days after skirmish of his forces' Battle of Sedgemoor.
By Elizabeth Boyle, Viscountess Shannon
  1. Charlotte FitzRoy, Countess of Yarmouth,
By Catherine Pegge
  1. Charles FitzCharles, 1st Earl of Plymouth, known as "Don Carlo", created Earl of Plymouth
  2. Catherine FitzCharles
By Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland
  1. Anne Lennard, Countess of Sussex. She may have been the daughter of Roger Palmer, but Charles accepted her.
  2. Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Cleveland.
  3. Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton. Ancestor of the Dukes of Grafton.
  4. Charlotte Lee, Countess of Lichfield.
  5. George FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Northumberland.
  6. Lady Barbara FitzRoy. She was probably the child of the Duke of Marlborough. She was never acknowledged by Charles.
By Nell Gwyn
  1. Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St Albans
  2. James, Lord Beauclerk
By Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth
  1. Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond and Lennox. Ancestor of the Dukes of Richmond and Lennox.
By Moll Davis, courtesan and actress of repute
  1. Lady Mary Tudor

    James II and VII

had 13 illegitimate children.

George I

had 3 illegitimate children by his mistress, Melusine von der Schulenburg, Duchess of Kendal, including Melusina von der Schulenburg, Countess of Walsingham.

William IV

had 11 illegitimate children. They used the surname "FitzClarence", because he was duke of Clarence.

Queen Victoria

When Victoria became queen, she banned royal bastards from court as "ghosts best forgotten." Since then, the issue has been shrouded in secrecy and any subsequent illegitimate children have gone unacknowledged.

Edward VII

was claimed to be the natural father of the model Olga de Meyer.

Bastard pride

In recent years, there has been significant public attention given to the modern descendants of illegitimate British royalty. Referring to such people as "royal bastards" has become common, although they are generally neither royal nor illegitimate. For example, the term is used by the hereditary society "Descendants of the Illegitimate Sons and Daughters of the Kings of Britain." The society offered to admit Queen Elizabeth II, noting that she is a descendant of Henry I's illegitimate daughter Constance and has two other illegitimate ancestors. PBS produced a show called Lost Royals that tracked down such descendants.

France

was the illegitimate son of Philip the Good of Burgundy. He was known as le grand bâtard. He was legitimized by King Charles VIII in 1485.

Henri IV

Henri IV had many mistresses and illegitimate children. The children of Gabrielle d'Estrées are notable because the King may have signed a wedding agreement with their mother before her unexpected death in 1599.
had many mistresses and illegitimate children. Madame de Maintenon was their governess.
"The bastards", as they were called, were compared to mules, unnatural hybrids who should not reproduce. "No issue should come of such species," the king once said. Louis, nonetheless, found appropriate spouses for his illegitimate children.
As illegitimate children were considered impure, their mothers might attempt to purify them through pious behavior. Louise de La Vallière had six children by Louis XIV, including Marie Anne de Bourbon and Louis de Bourbon. She repented by joining a Carmelite convent. There she wore a belt of iron spikes that cut into her flesh.
Church leaders denounced Madame de Montespan, Louis' best-known mistress, who had seven children by him. In 1675, Father Lécuyer refused to give her absolution. "Is this the Madame that scandalises all France?" he asked. "Go abandon your shocking life and then come throw yourself at the feet of the ministers of Jesus Christ."
The king's efforts to legitimize his illegitimate children showed his, "Olympian disdain for public opinion," according to one modern author. The edict of Marly, issued in July 1714, granted two of Louis' sons by Montespan the right to succeed to the French throne. This hugely unpopular decision led to a political crisis called the "bastard distortion" in 1714–1715. It was reversed by the Parliament of Paris in July 1717, after Louis had died.
Like his great-grandfather, Louis XV had many mistresses and illegitimate children, but contrary to him, he never legitimized any of them.
has two illegitimate children, Jazmin Grace Grimaldi and Alexandre Coste.

Spain

In 2003, Leandro Ruiz Moragas, an illegitimate son of King Alfonso XIII's, gained the right to call himself a prince.