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William the Conqueror, sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was Duke of Normandy from 1035 onward. By 1060, following a long struggle, his hold on Normandy was secure. In 1066, following the death of Edward the Confessor, William invaded England, leading an army of Normans to victory over the Anglo-Saxon forces of Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings, and suppressed subsequent English revolts in what has become known as the Norman Conquest. The rest of his life was marked by struggles to consolidate his hold over England and his continental lands, and by difficulties with his eldest son, Robert Curthose.
Edward IV was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470, then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in England fought between the Yorkist and Lancastrian factions between 1455 and 1487.
Lady Eleanor Talbot, also known by her married name Eleanor Butler, was an English noblewoman. She was a daughter of John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury. After the death of Edward IV of England in 1483 it was claimed by Robert Stillington, Bishop of Bath and Wells, that she was legally married precontract to Edward, which invalidated the king's later marriage to Elizabeth Woodville. The evidence was examined and the Bishop was questioned by the Three Estates, who determined that Bishop Stillington's claim was valid. The finding rendered Edward IV's second secret marriage to Elizabeth Woodville bigamous, thereby making all seven children illegitimate, including Edward's sons, the so-called Princes in the Tower. As the oldest male blood relative of Edward IV, his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was elected by the Three Estates to the throne as Richard III. Edward's sons remained in the royal apartments in the Tower and subsequently disappeared. Various explanations for their appearance have been put forward.
Matilda of Flanders was Queen of England and Duchess of Normandy by marriage to William the Conqueror, and regent of Normandy during his absences from the duchy. She was the mother of nine children who survived to adulthood, including two kings, William II and Henry I.
Robert FitzRoy, 1st Earl of Gloucester was an illegitimate son of King Henry I of England. He was the half-brother of the Empress Matilda, and her chief military supporter during the civil war known as the Anarchy, in which she vied with Stephen of Blois for the throne of England.
Henry FitzRoy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset was the son of Henry VIII of England and his mistress Elizabeth Blount, and the only child born out of wedlock whom Henry acknowledged. He was the younger half-brother of Mary I, as well as the older half-brother of Elizabeth I and Edward VI. Through his mother, he was the elder half-brother of Elizabeth, George, and Robert Tailboys. His surname means "son of the king" in Norman French.
Geoffrey was an illegitimate son of King Henry II of England who became bishop-elect of Lincoln and archbishop of York. The identity of his mother is uncertain, but she may have been named Ykenai. Geoffrey held several minor clerical offices before becoming Bishop of Lincoln in 1173, though he was not ordained as a priest until 1189. In 1173–1174, he led a campaign in northern England to help put down a rebellion by his legitimate half-brothers; this campaign led to the capture of William, King of Scots. By 1182, Pope Lucius III had ordered that Geoffrey either resign Lincoln or be consecrated as bishop; he chose to resign and became chancellor instead. He was the only one of Henry II's sons present at the king's death.
Arthur Plantagenet, 1st Viscount Lisle, KG was an illegitimate son of the English king Edward IV, half-brother-in-law of Henry VII, and an uncle of Henry VIII, at whose court he was a prominent figure and by whom he was appointed Lord Deputy of Calais (1533–40). The survival of a large collection of his correspondence in the Lisle Letters makes his life one of the best documented of his era.
Richard FitzRoy was the illegitimate son of King John of England and was feudal baron of Chilham, in Kent. His mother was Adela de Warenne, his father's first cousin and a daughter of Hamelin de Warenne by his wife de Warenne, 4th Countess of Surrey.
In the law of England and Wales, a bastard is an illegitimate child, one whose parents were not married at the time of their birth. Until 1926, there was no possibility of post factum legitimisation of a bastard.
Daniel Todd Gilbert is an American social psychologist and writer. He is the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and is known for his research with Timothy Wilson of the University of Virginia on affective forecasting. He is the author of the international bestseller Stumbling on Happiness, which has been translated into more than 30 languages and won the 2007 Royal Society Prizes for Science Books. He has also written essays for several newspapers and magazines, hosted a non-fiction television series on PBS, and given three popular TED talks.
Richard Plantagenet or Richard of Eastwell was a reclusive bricklayer who was claimed to be a son of Richard III, the last Plantagenet King of England.
Morgan was a medieval Bishop-elect of Durham.
Fulk FitzRoy was an illegitimate son of Henry I of England. He was perhaps the son of Ansfride, one of Henry's mistresses. He may have been a monk at Abingdon Abbey. Little is known about him.
A royal bastard is a child of a reigning monarch born out of wedlock. The king might have a child with a mistress, or the legitimacy of a marriage might be questioned for reasons concerning succession.
Elizabeth Lucy, also known as Lady Lucy, Lady Elizabeth, and Elizabeth Wayte, daughter of Thomas Wayte of Hamptonshire, was the possible mistress of King Edward IV of England, and possible mother of several children by him, including Arthur Plantagenet, 1st Viscount Lisle. Arthur was known in his youth as Arthur Wayte. He was elevated to the title, Viscount Lisle, by Henry Tudor.
Nest Bloet, sometimes called "Nest of Wales", was a Welsh noblewoman, best known for her many romantic liaisons, including an extramarital affair with King Henry II of England. She was the daughter of Angharad, daughter of Uthred, Bishop of Llandaff, and Iorwerth ab Owain, the lord of Caerleon.
Sibyl of Falaise was a kinswoman of King Henry I of England. She was possibly his illegitimate daughter or a niece, as the sources are unclear. Another possibility is that she may have been more distantly related to him instead. She married and had at least one daughter, although her husband's other children may possibly be her offspring also. Through her daughter, Sibyl was the grandmother of Reginald fitzUrse, one of the murderers of Thomas Becket.
In post-classical history, an affinity was a collective name for the group (retinue) of (usually) men whom a lord gathered around himself in his service; it has been described by one modern historian as "the servants, retainers, and other followers of a lord", and as "part of the normal fabric of society". It is considered a fundamental aspect of bastard feudalism, and acted as a means of tying magnates to the lower nobility, just as feudalism had done in a different way.
Chris Given-Wilson is a British historian and academic, specialising in medieval history. He was Professor of History of the University of St Andrews, where he is now professor emeritus. He is the author of a number of books.
References
- Given-Wilson, Chris; Curteis, Alice (1995). The Royal Bastards of Medieval England. New York: Barnes & Noble. ISBN 1-56619-962-X.
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