The Premodern Fight for Maternal Lineage in Legitimacy and Dynasty

The narrative around premodern royal dynasties tends to focus on male parentage and heirs for legitimacy and lineage. However, recent scholars have demonstrated that maternal lineage was crucial to male rulers and noblemen in marriage negotiations, choosing heirs, and the power of queen mothers. This paper will focus on royal women’s perinatal experiences, demonstrating that the moments before, during, and after the birth of heirs were acutely important in lineages and dynasties. Two southern Italian queens, Constance of Sicily (1154-1198) and Joanna of Naples (1326-1382), experienced very public pregnancies and childbirths to establish their dynasties and lineages and ultimately show that this was possible without their husbands’ presences. Constance’s older age at the time of her pregnancy caused much anxiety about whether she could become pregnant, resulting in her giving birth in a public square to prove her son’s legitimacy. Joanna was pregnant at the time when her first husband, Andrew of Hungary, was murdered. Despite Andrew’s death and Joanna’s reputation that emerged from this affair, her son, Charles Martel, was viewed as the rightful heir to her throne. Constance’s and Joanna’s examples demonstrate that paternity was important but not essential in determining legitimacy for heirs who found legitimacy through their mothers. The importance of maternal lineage to royal husbands and wives, as well as heirs, is further illustrated by Marie of Montpellier (1182-1213). Although lady of Montpellier and queen of Aragon, Marie spent her adult life fighting for her own inheritance from her father, William VIII (d. 1202), and the rightful inheritance of her son, Jaume I of Aragon (r. 1213-1276). Marie’s letters, wills, and her marriage contract demonstrate that the extraordinary efforts of women in establishing and preserving maternal lineage were not exceptional throughout the Middle Ages.