Royal Bastards
The Birth of Illegitimacy, 800-1230
Sara McDougall
Reviews and Awards
"With tremendous patience, [McDougall] skillfully and deeply contextualizes familiar primary sources (legal treatises, theological texts, chronicles, letters, and legal documents), taking nothing for granted. She takes great care to avoid facile assumptions about etymology and linguistic shifts while carefully accounting for authorial bias and purpose. She casts a sceptical eye at all the secondary literature on the subject of legitimacy as she tries to determine, as much as possible, what illegitimacy meant to kings and queens as they measured throne worthiness... This book is essential reading for all scholars, particularly those with an interest in monarchy and political theory." -- Theresa Earenfight, Speculum
"By reassessing traditional theories on illegitimacy and offering an alternative reading of primary sources, this study will likely serve as a stepping stone for new studies on marriage and inheritance practices in the Middle Ages." -- Lisa Demets, Ghent University, Women's History Review
"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." -- Erin L. Jordan , Journal for the History of Childhood and Youth
"Sara McDougall has written a brilliant and important book, one that should be essential reading as we reevaluate the assumptions of traditional scholarship on how political communities in medieval Europe were formed and maintained. â ... Her deep reading into the secondary literature and her willingness to reference works of scholars who are writing "against the grain" mark her as belonging to the community of trailblazers who demand that traditional political history be challenged, especially in the realm of assumptions about gender, women's roles, and female status. Both are deeply appreciated by this reader." -- Linda E. Mitchell, The American Historical Review
"Sara McDougall's new book on bastardy in the Middle Ages is a fundamental contribution to the field of family history, remarkable for the breadth and number of examples provided across Europe and the Mediterranean throughout four centuries, the in-depth analysis of literary, documentary and legislative sources considered, and the convincing nature of the case she puts forward." -- Francesca Petrizzo, CerÃ: An Australasian Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies
"This will remain a landmark study, a profound insight into a fundamental principle of social organization." -- R.I. Moore, Times Literary Supplement
"This is Sara McDougall's second book and it should establish her as one of the high flyers among American medieval historians...she concentrates on royal cases--explored in rich detail though without wasted words--which should interest political historians even if they are not particularly concerned with medieval marriage as such, but the thesis applies more generally, a fortiori. She attacks the conventional narrative with the verve of a brilliant litigator with all the facts at her command, ranging from Merovingian Francia to the thirteenth century....[An] important contribution to our understanding of politics, inheritance and the papacy in the Middle Ages."--David d'Avray, English Historical Review
"[U]ndoubtedly a significant work of scholarship, rich in detailed discussion, and full of thought-provoking suggestions that are sure to stimulate new research...[T]his book sets the agenda for a thoughtful reassessment of the ideas, laws, and practices of medieval inheritance and marriage as a whole, and will repay the reader's engagement with its suggestions."--Kathleen Neal, H-Net
"[T]hought-provoking....This is an important book that should stimulate the beginning of many new conversations..."--Kathleen Neal, H-Histsex
