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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1996-11 > 0847051556


From: "Todd A. Farmerie" <>
Subject: Re: 13th century illegitimation
Date: Sun, 3 Nov 1996 15:05:56 -0500


Rodolphe Audette wrote:
>
> William Addams Reitwiesner wrote:
>
> > I just noticed that John I, Count of Holland (1218-1257),
> > great-grandfather of Philippa of Hainault, was declared illegitimate in
> > 1236 by the Pope. My guess is that this was a consequence of his
> > parent's 1221 divorce. John was legitimated in 1242 by the Emperor,
> > Frederick Barbarossa, before his 1246 marriage with the heiress Alheidis
> > of Holland. Does anybody have any further details on this story?
>
> I don't have any further details, but I have difficulty with the fact
> that a child can be declared illegitimate because of what his parents
> did 3 years after he was born (divorce). How can anyone do that, even
> the Pope?
>

You must keep in mind that their is no divorce in the Catholic church.
We simply use that term for convenience. In fact, the marriages were
annulled, declared invalid in the eyes of God from the time they were
contracted. The parents thus had been living in sin the whole time and
any children were illegitimate. It was not what they did three years
after that made the children bastards, but instead it was the parents
act of forming and maintaining an unholy union, and this was only
discovered three years after the child was born.

ta

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