Hurwich, Bastards

Bastards in the German Nobility in the Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries: Evidence of the "Zimmerische Chronik" Author(s):
Judith J. Hurwich Source: The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 34, No. 3 (Fall, 2003), pp. 701-727 Published by: The Sixteenth Century Journal Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20061530 Accessed: 14/10/2009 04:09
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Sixteenth Century Journal
XXXIV/3 (2003)
Bastards in the Fifteenth Evidence
Nobility Sixteenth Centuries: and Early of the Zimmerische Chronik
in the German
Judith J. Hurwich School of the Holy Child, Rye, New York

Many to the bastard sons of noblemen, scholars have stressed the favor shown partic in of in the noble bastards" the fifteenth age century This article exam ularly "golden in Southwest ines the position of noble bastards the Zimmerische Germany, using in the 1560s) and regional in Swabia studies of counts Chronik and barons (written in the fifteenth centuries. The and sixteenth of noble bas legal position was to that in France, where in Germany to inferior bastards were presumed sons were their fathers noble inherit status, or in Italy and Iberia, where illegitimate as heirs. Few German as nobles, often legitimated bastards established themselves and and Franconia tards their opportunities Reformation. The tors, for secular causes were and ecclesiastical not so much careers were religious or the declining long before factors as social fac political con and the increasing lineage
the German especially sciousness of German nobles. the estimate be too
definition
of nobility
"Would
high,
if one
regarded
a third
of
the
population
in
the lateMiddle Ages as of illegitimate birth?" asksRolf Sprandel, after looking at wills and personal chronicles that suggest that "the lateMiddle Ages teemed with
illegitimate appears formly are full One that negative children," in Germany attitude especially neither toward in the upper nor children. classes.1 the Neithard urban Here, patriciate too, family Bulst had says, "It the nobility illegitimate a uni
chronicles
of bastards."2 of the German family chronicles "full of bastards" is the Zimmerische
Chronik, or Chronicle of theCounts ofZimmern, written in the 1560s by the Swabian Count Froben Christoph von Zimmern (1516-56/7).3 This article examines the
position period About the of noble bastards drawing of the in Southwest primarily chronicle detail three 1400?1550, three-quarters 1560s, covering and Franconia) (Swabia Germany on the Zimmerische on my research is devoted generations to the period of from the family. in the Chronik. 1480s Much to
in great
the Zimmern
im Mittelalter," der unehelichen in Zur Socialge ^olf Kinder Sprandel, "Die Diskriminierung schichte derKindheit, ed. Jochen Martin and August Nitsche (Freiburg:Verlag Karl Alber, 1986), 487. 2Neithard Bulst, "Illegitime Kinder: Viele oder wenige? Quantitative Aspekte der Illegitimit?t im (Munich: Olden sp?tmittelalterischen Europa," in Illegitimit?t im Sp?tmittelalter, ed. Ludwig Schmugge 1995), 37. 3Karl Barack, ed., Zimmerische Chronik, 4 vols., Bibliothek des literarisches Verein von Stuttgart, vols. 91-94 1869). The best guide to the chronicle is Beat Jenny, Graf Froben Christoph von (T?bingen, Zimmern?Geschichtsschreiber?Erz?hler?Landesherr contains an (Lindau: Jan Thorbecke, 1959), which extensive bibliography. Unless otherwise noted, all translations from the chronicle are my own. bourg,
701
702
XXXIV/3
(2003)
of
the material other
in the family affairs
chronicle
is autobiographical giving of insights illegitimate anecdotes into
or
is based
on
oral
transmission
from
members, and treatment also
personal
extramarital chronicles.The ries from
children?which about
behavior?including are rare in and must be
author
tells many
acquaintances these on of be stories the
retells
family sto
sources or culture. Many of literary popular or but shed fictitious, partially wholly they light to share on the author his audience expected subject as illegitimate the views one nary of children. Although nobles, not this chronicle a cannot unique
regarded that the and of
assumptions
extramarital taken as on a jurist
sexuality representative these but
all German who
it offers
commentary moralist or
nobleman layman. The article
is writing
as a Christian
topics by as an ordi
will
place
the
evidence the
from counts especially
the and
chronicle barons the work
in the of Southwest
context
of
anal in on
yses the
of family fifteenth
relationships and sixteenth
among centuries,
Germany Spiess
of Karl-Heinz
the nonprincely
with one dence tinental the Zimmern) of the most available nobilities,
high nobility
and powerful for Southwest particularly law within regarding the Holy noble
of the Mainz
Heinz of counts of France families German those
region
Burmeister Swabia.4 and and and
(some of whom
on It will barons the with the counts also
intermarried
of Montfort, the other evi con
that of Karl
compare that on
Iberian
kingdoms. differed inheritance from prac
Customary to region region
inheritance Roman
family
relationships the
Empire;
moreover,
tices of nobles often differed from those prescribed by the customary

region. whether illegitimate in discussing where region In the the absence of evidence from of Swabian other and regions, Franconian it is impossible nobles attitudes children the and behavior were
law of the
to tell their
towards
status law family
German of other nobles. Similar typical in other European of noble bastards countries the actual practices of nobles both that also varied
arise problems such as France, from French region theorists nobles that these of to
customary and from
and
to family. French
Nevertheless, scholars assert
early modern the attitudes
of nobility toward differences
and modern
of German nobles, and
m?salliance were
and bastardy differed from those on based the differing "German"
of French and
"French"
definitions
nobility. The German

parents be nobles, nobilities?reckoned
system of reckoning nobility "by quarters" required that both

the "French" noble descent system?like through the that father of most alone.5 other European on Evidence
whereas
13. bis 4Karl-Heinz Spiess, Familie und Verwandtschaft im deutschen Hochadel des Sp?tmittelalters: Adelsspr?sslinge Anfang des 16.Jahrhunderts (Stuttgart: Steiner, 1993); Karl Heinz Burmeister,"Illegitime aus dem Hause Montfort," in idem, Die Grafen vonMontfort: Geschichte, Recht, Kultur. Festgabe zum 60. Konstanz, 1996), 103-16. (Constance: Universit?tsverlag Geburtstag, ed. Alois Niederst?tter ^Modern French writers on nobility comment on the strictness of the German definition of nobil ity: e.g. Jean-Pierre Labatut, Les noblesses europ?ennes de la fin du XVIIIe si?cle (Paris: fin du XVe si?cle ? la La noblesse au royaume de France de Presses Universitaires de France, 1978), 79-81; Philippe Contamines, de France, 1991), 57. In his treatise on nobility, Philippe le Bel ? Louis XII (Paris: Presses Universitaires on the inferior legal position of German noble the seventeenth-century theorist Thirrat commented bastards as compared to the bastards of French noblemen: Florentine de Thirrat, Trois traictez, savoir de la noblesse de race, de la noblesse civile, des immunit?s des ignobles (Paris, 1606), cited inMikhael Harsgor,
Hurwich
/ Bastards in theGerman Nobility
703
Swabian unique
and
Franconian attitudes
nobles
can
help
show whether
such
generalizations
about
"German"
are valid. of Noble the golden sons Bastards? age for noble were bastards recognized roles in western as nobles, at court, "Children of male aris in
A Golden The fifteenth one up and outside in France. grounds speaks for of century in which in their has been
Age called
Europe, brought the army,
illegitimate fathers' households,
of noblemen and accorded to
prominent Ludwig
in estate
administration. seem circles
begotten tocrats' ... not Harsgor
of marriage In noble social the
According to have been here and
considered
Schmugge, a luxury
elsewhere against
discrimination of noble
was in Europe, illegitimacy or Mikhael children."6 parents at the courts of France and
"flourishing
bastards"
Burgundy
phenomenon were bastards of
in the second half of the fifteenth

in Castile more and concludes, and than sons and state had numerous Europe illegitimate in church while alliances common male
century7 J. P. Cooper
finds a similar
is that societies
"A general if superficial a more recognized place of post-Tridentine social function
impression in noble
fifteenth-century countries, offices families, dynastic (a of
in those served that of
these holding fathers' extend of
a vital enhanced
In all of Europe."8 for the nobility by and influence of helped legitimation was Italy) their to
the power sons and
the marriages and
illegitimate networks. Iberian of
daughters the and in
bastards
practice heirs
patron-client in the in the absence
Moreover, kingdoms
method
creating
adoption.9
"L'essor des b?tards nobles au XVe si?cle," Revue Historique 253, no. 2 (1975): 328. For the argument that the so-called Germanie of m?salliances than did concept of nobility led to a greater condemnation Le Roy Ladurie and Jean-Fran?ois the so-called French concept, see Emmanuel Fitou, "Hypergamie f?minine et population ESC 46, no. 1 (1991): 145. saint-simonienne,"^4??a/e5 6Ludwig Schmugge, Kirche, Kinder, Karrieren: P?pstliche Dispense von der unehelichen Geburt im Sp?t mittelalter (Zurich: Artemis &Winkler, 1995), 25?27.The quotation "a luxury of male aristocrats" comes from Marie-Th?r?se Lorcin, Vivre et mourir en Lyonnais ? la 1981), 95. fin du moyen ?ge (Paris: CNRS, On the concept of a golden age of bastards, see Harsgor, "Lessor des b?tards nobles," 319?54; J. P. Coo from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth per, "Patterns of Inheritance and Settlement by Great Landowners in Family and Inheritance: Rural Society in Western Europe 1200?1800, ed. Jack Goody, Joan Centuries," Thirsk, and E. P.Thompson Press, 1978), 236 n. 144, 302; Her (Cambridge: Cambridge University mann Winterer, Die rechtliche Stellung der Bastarde in Italien von 800 bis 1500, M?nchner Beitr?ge zur Medi?vistik terer, Die und Renaissance-Forschung (Munich: Arbeo-Gesellschaft, 1978), 28:112; Hermann Win rechtliche Stellung der Bastarde in Spanien im und Mittelalter, M?nchner Beitr?ge zur Medi?vistik (Munich: Arbeo-Gesellschaft, 1981), 31:117. Renaissance-Forschung 7Harsgor, "Lessor des b?tards nobles," 319. 8Cooper, "Patterns of Inheritance and Settlement," 238 n. 144, 302 n. 320. 9Harsgor, "L'essor des b?tards nobles," 335-46. Cooper, "Patterns of Inheritance and Settlement," 302, describes the recognition of bastard sons as a solution to the problem of female heirs in an increas sons were not usually allowed to exclude ingly patrilineal society. However, legitimated legitimate Caron, La noblesse dans le duch? de Bourgogne 1315 daughters from the succession: see Marie-Th?r?se 1411 (Lille: Presses Universitaires de Lille, 1987), 234;Thomas Kuehn, Law, Family andWomen: Toward a Legal Anthropology ofRenaissance Italy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 190; Isabel Beceiro Pita and Ricardo C?rdoba de la Llave, Parentesco, poder y mentalidad: La nobleza castellana siglos XII?XV cient?ficas, 1990), 248. (Madrid: Consejo superior de investigaciones
704
XXXIV/3
(2003)
These Harsgor dren
generalizations acknowledges
are based that "the to the with
primarily of
on the the
the bastards social social or position
of great of
nobles;
even chil fathers ... bas eco
of nobles Among much
increased
ambiguity extent that one
the natural of than were their that always
decreased. tards were
the nobles less esteemed"
only than in the high
seigneurie,
importance even less Bastards
nobility.10
nomically
servants,
inferior to their legitimate kin; they formed part of the large body of
clients, poor relations, and other dependents for whom the head of a noble
^ Nevertheless, most family took responsibility

nobility that often emphasize existed the between favored nobles treatment and their
studies of social classes below the high

to bastards and the affectionate siblings.12 ties offspring or half
given
illegitimate
The political and legal position of the illegitimate children of noblemen

riorated change ormations, toward products. to part strove in all continental ismost often attributed ecclesiastical sexuality Harsgor of European to the and and also countries influence secular toward by of the mid-sixteenth the Protestant took century. and Catholic hostile who
dete
This Ref attitude
as both extramarital However, the
authorities the the illegitimate declining of
a more children
were bastards which that
its in
attributes in the
status the French
of noble
centralization the numbers to of
power and
hands of as
to reduce
the power bastards of lineal
the nobility. inheriting
Cooper their
monarchy, notes noble
the
increasing may ers be tried seen
reluctance as part
recognize
fathers'
status
the process property of families but also of
consolidation, of a single the
by which patriline. inheritance and younger
great This
landown
to concentrate the number children
in the hands and kin" legitimate
restricting of illegitimate
reduced daughters
of "process not only rights sons.
10Harsgor, "L'essor des b?tards nobles," 346. 11 Caron, though writing of the same region and time period asHarsgor, emphasizes the marginal child ... never had anything position of the bastards of provincial nobles in France: "The illegitimate ... or attain the same standard other than a secondary position; he could not make his birth forgotten as in the best case, when he lived close to nobles recognized of living [as a legitimate child]_Even he was treated in his such, the situation of the noble bastard was inferior if not downright wretched; takes father's family "like a servant"; Caron, La noblesse dans le duch? de Bourgogne, 224, 230, 233. Nassiet amore positive view of the status of noble bastards in France, but states that the best they could hope for was to insert themselves as "auxiliaries, adjuncts, [or] clients" in a network of relationships with col si?cles (Paris: Editions de l'Ecole laterals; Michel Nassiet, Parent?, noblesse et ?tats dynastiques XVe?XVIe des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 2000), 83. and early modern In late medieval Spain, many illegitimate children fell into the ambiguous cat egory of" criado" or "reared one" (a term used for a servant but also for a foster child) or became clients of the household head; see James Casey, Early Modern Spain: A Social History (London: Routledge, 1999), si?cle (Paris: Armand Colin, Gerbet, Les noblesses espagnoles au moyen ?ge: Xle?XVe 209; Marie-Claude 1994), 207. 12Shahar remarks that throughout Europe, "[b]astard sons sometimes became the particular con fidants of their fathers, on whose mercies they depended, and served as their faithful assistants and emis Middle Ages (London: Methuen, Women in the saries"; Shulamith Shahar, The Fourth Estate: A History of in his study of the petty 1983), 116. Both Lorcin in her study of wills of the Lyonnais region and Nassiet nobles of Brittany in the lateMiddle Ages stress the close ties of affection between nobles and their ille en Lyonnais, 97?99; Nassiet, Parent?, noblesse et ?tats gitimate sons or half brothers; Lorcin, Vivre et mourir in the seven dynastiques, 83. Grimmer does the same in his study of the petty nobility of the Auvergnat teenth century; Claude Grimmer, "Les b?tards de la noblesse auvergnate au XVIIe si?cle," XVIIe Si?cle 117 (1977): 48. 13Harsgor, "L'essor des b?tards nobles," 352; Cooper, "Patterns of Inheritance and Settlement," 302.
Hurwich
705
Recent ited
research
suggests
that opportunities than in other a deterioration the Reformation.
for noble western in their In his
bastards
were countries
more even
lim in
in the Holy Roman Empire and that the fifteenth century, was evident long before position
European legal,
and social political, in of illegitimacy analysis
their Ages, Schmugge says, "The [German] nobles acknowledged natural children, it is true, but they did not climb nearly so high as in France." 14 the lateMiddle
No illegitimate sons succeeded to the thrones of German princely states in an era
when
d'Est? was the not
they often did so in Italy.Emperor Frederick

to the rank of duke of Ferrara marriage, Such bastards bastards countries; or bishoprics noble became in 1454 it would reluctance in prominent in the ecclesiastical notes be on born in a proper in wedlock."15 noble
III objected
the grounds to place
to elevating Borso
that "because him was Borso than higher not accus court. limited
unseemly
sons born to
suggests
that Frederick at were the
tomed
placing
positions sphere "in
Opportunities than in other in cathedral noble cathedral
for noble European chapters
imperial also more
Schmugge were almost bastards
that
unobtainable and Spain
the Empire, canonries even for bastards from frequently entered
families," chapters
whereas and
in France and abbots.16 for the
Scholars bastards than uality.
differ,
however, lands.
bishops on the reasons argues by
less-favored nobles norms
in German in other cites
those He
Sprandel countries European the
that German the for church's
position were more on held
of noble affected sex prince
extramarital by the
in particular
regulations
a tournament
bishop
known Thus
of W?rzburg
adulterers, "ecclesiastical had the of both person
in 1479, which
living policy free in social reached
excluded
from participation
and persons born out in which
all publicly
of wedlock.
previously interprets exclusivity proof the exclusion whose that
relatively regulations their social
had persons illegitimate the Karl Borchardt However, range [i.e., nobility]."17 as to maintain the knights' determination the showing order. Tournaments, like cathedral chapters, required and the father a of the applicant of were the of noble of descent; all those
concubinage, a sphere
the mother of bastards were was
thus merely
by-product
exclusion
mothers
nonnoble.18
*4Schmugge, Kirche, Kinder, Karrieren, 27. der unehelichen Kinder," 494. 15Sprandel,"Die Diskriminierung 16Schmugge, Kirche, Kinder, Karrieren, 27, 221?22. der unehelichen Kinder," 491. 17Sprandel,"Die Diskriminierung in den Di?zen W?rzburg, 18Karl Borchardt, "Illegitimate Bamberg und Eichstatt," in Schmugge, Illegitimit?t, 270. Some of the other provisions of the invitation clearly reflected a desire for social exclu outside the nobility were to be e.g., nobles who married sivity rather than concerns about morality; excluded unless the nonnoble bride brought a particularly rich dowry. The exclusion of bastards from of the exclusion of those by-product specifically aimed against illegitimacy. for participation in tournaments and toph von Zimmern was sworn in as cathedral chapters after the mid-fifteenth century may be a similar who lacked noble ancestry on both sides rather than a regulation The Zimmerische Chronik draws a direct analogy between the rules
those for membership in cathedral chapters. When Johann Chris amember of the chapter at Strassburg in 1531, he was required to prove that "fourteen ancestors of his father and fourteen ancestors of his mother were princes, counts, or barons" and that none of his ancestors were of lower rank. "It was ... where just like a tournament each had to prove his rank and descent"; Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 3:206.
706
XXXIV/3
(2003)
Borchardt's European German sometimes the status
countries, nobility. even of
argument we In most the
suggests need other to
that
in addition social
to the factors and legal
common unique legitimate
to other to the (and of
consider
factors the nobles status
western
illegitimate) In
aristocracies, European were children of a nobleman empire, however, noble
regardless noble
descent
required the paternal and maternal sides. The of Ebenb?rtigkeit requirement of birth) meant that even the legitimate of a marriage between (equality offspring a nobleman woman and a nonnoble did not inherit the rank and estate of their on both The illegitimate offspring to noble status of of a nobleman than did children and a nonnoble woman obviously marriage.
their
mother.
the
father.19 had even
less claim
born
of an "unequal"
Numbers Sprandel's impressionistic estimate
Illegitimate that a third of
Children the European population in the
lateMiddle Ages was of illegitimate birth is certainly too high for the general pop
ulation.20 isters, Bulst After a review concludes estimates that that in the research were of quantitative the true illegitimate late fifteenth on wills more and numerous The "The family; the family husband the widower estate with more studies illegitimacy children made of wills, birth well registers, under and tax reg rate was up 10 percent; of the Euro
Schmugge pean
3 to 5 percent
population However,
century.21 other demographic in the nobility system who of
sources and
indicates elite
that than
ille in
gitimate the
children
the urban
population sexual chosen
as a whole.22 relationships: for him by his and burden
marital wife
encouraged never emotionally accepted to remarry who did not wish legitimate heirs; the
the nobility
extra the after
his wife's
death
lay younger
son forbidden by his family tomarry; the clerical son compelled

church: The Southwest other all begot Zimmerische German illegitimate Chronik counts children."23 and the records at least of the counts
to celibacy by the
suggest children children made one of that as did up the
of Montfort
European 38 percent
noblemen. of the
produced In the period surviving
as many
illegitimate illegitimate
1342?1515, of
at least
offspring
the house
of Bourbon,
see "Ebenb?rtigkeit" and "Mis 19On "inequality of birth" of spouses and its legal consequences, 5 sheirat" in Handw?rterbuch zur deutschen Rechtesgeschichte, ed. Adalbert Erler and Ekkehard Kaufmann, hereafter cited asHRG. vols. (Berlin: E. Schmidt, 1971-1998), der unehelichen Kinder," 487. 20Sprandel, "Die Diskriminierung 21 oder wenige?" 30-31; Schmugge, Kirche, Kinder, Karrieren, 8. Bulst, "Illegitime KinderViele 22Lorcin found in her study of wills in Lyon that bastard children of the testator were mentioned in 1 out of every 12.1 wills by nobles, as compared to 1 out of every 23.2 wills by citizens of Lyon, 1 out of 29 wills by clergy, and 1 out of 52.2 wills by testators in the surrounding region; Lorcin, Vivre et tax registers in the fifteenth cen mourir en Lyonnais, 96.The illegitimate children reported in Florentine and fathers who opened accounts in the wealthier half of taxpaying households, tury were concentrated for their illegitimate daughters in the dowry fund of Florence were more likely to come from high-status a Tus and Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, lineages than were investors in the fund as whole; David Herlihy cans and Their Families: A Study of theFlorentine Castato of 1421 (New Haven:Yale University Press, 1985; original French edition, 1978), 245; Anthony Molho, Marriage Alliance in Late Medieval Florence (Cam Press, 1994), 279, 284. bridge, Mass.: Harvard University 23Spiess, Familie und Verwandtschaft, 381.
Hurwich
707
greatest of all the
families recorded high
of
the French offspring aristocracy of the men had
bastards made up Legitimated nobility.24 to adulthood in twenty-five survived who in period of highest rank.25 children the 1380-1580, Since and bastards 21 were the percent
13 percent lineages of of the
Portuguese recorded mated by
offspring men who
surviving
from
their marriages,
rarely legiti true propor
tion of bastards among the offspring of the Portuguese high nobility must have been considerably higher.26
In Swabia, Burmeister s study of the counts of Montfort identifies twenty-four
illegitimate
to the middle three
sons and three illegitimate daughters from the middle

of the sixteenth century. The Montfort genealogies children 1350-1550.The (including known forty-seven illegitimate sons) who children
of the fourteenth
record seventy to adulthood up a quarter
legitimate in the period
survived thus made
to a third of the total offspring; the known illegitimate sons made up a third of all sons.27 The Zimmerische Chronik indicates that in the period 1440?1570, the ten
adult male at least five members fathers of four of bastards, Fathers generations as shown of barons in the or counts of Zimmern included following table.
of Bastards
in the Zimmerische
Chronik Legitimate Surviving Children to Age 15 I)
Father WernerVIII Gottfried (unmarried) (d. 1483) (d. 1508)
Known
Illegitimate
Children
1 son (Hans Schilling) 2 sons (Hans, Heinrich) and at least 4 daughters (unnamed)
1 son (Johann Werner
Johann Werner (1444-1496)
1 son (Hans)
4 sons (Veit Werner, Johann Werner II, Gottfried Werner, Wilhelm Werner) and 4 daughters (Anna, Katharina, Barbara) Margarethe, 3 sons (Johann Christoph, Froben Christoph, Gottfried Christoph) 2 daughters (Anna, Barbara)
Johann Werner (1480-1548) Gottfried Werner (1484-1554)
II
3 sons (Christoph, Hans Christoph, Philip Christoph and 1 daughter (Barbara) 2 sons (Gottfried, Martin) and 6 daughters (unnamed)
These three
men
fathered children
at least who
twenty survived
legitimate
children, illegitimate so to adulthood,
compared that almost
to twenty half their
surviving offspring were
illegitimate.
Sprandel's
impression
that a third of the
24Harsgor, "L'essor des b?tards nobles," 354, tables 2 and 3. III, "Parental Investment and Elite Family Structure 25James L. Boone Case Study of Late Medieval-Early Modern Portuguese Genealogies,':'American 863.
in Preindustrial Anthropologist
States: A 88 (1986):
26Marie-Claude Gerbet, La noblesse dans le royaume de Castille: ?tude sur ses structures sociales en Estr?madure (1454-1516) de la Sorbonne, (Paris: Publications 1974), 199. 103. The statistics on legitimate children are derived 27Burmeister, "Illegitime Adelsspr?sslinge," from the genealogies in Burmeister, Grafen vonMontfort, 307-12.
708
XXXIV/3
(2003)
was population to the children
of
illegitimate
birth
may
thus
not
be
far off
the mark
when
it comes
of noblemen.
Bastards If a bastard If he does does evil,
in the
Zimmerische it's a miracle; according
Chronik
good, he
is acting
to his
nature.
The "old
chronicler
Froben
Christoph and swan.28
von
Zimmern that
cites the bastard reflects they
several who the
variations turns social
on out well
this is evi per
proverb" as rare as a white dent
or "French raven of
rhyme" or black
asserts His
attitude but
norms his own
in legislation
the mid-sixteenth
century,
also
reflect
sonality. According
was only an observer, gambling,
to his biographer Beat Jenny, Froben Christoph

not a participant, characterized in the boisterous much of that noble society
von Zimmern
drinking, in Southern
life of hunting,
and wenching
Germany
Froben his wife is no bastard
and which
he portrayed vividly
about the (who the von Eberstein affairs; disease.30 Zimmern
in the Zimmerische Chronik.29 Although

him between himself and relationship ten one and there son), daughters does not mention any mistresses,
Christoph Kunigunde
is reticent
emotional bore
evidence children,
of extramarital or venereal von
chronicle
was not From the point devout.31 particularly it is particularly criticisms that his of extra interesting are based on marital and of bastards and arguments pragmatic sexuality psychological He was than on Christian affected of his rather morality. deeply by the separation a to maintenance his father's of his of the due fantasies concubine; parents avenging In from his insult to his mother led to his permanent father. the chron estrangement Froben of Christoph of view the modern reader, icle, he condemns to the wives: them to extramarital "Their wives affairs had on the grounds it, live with he complains of the of that they cause keep lavish emotional quiet, provision and even if for
damage it stabbed illegitimate they
to see
it, and that
the heart."32 deprives the
In addition,
children and
deserve The
injures views
legitimate and the patrimony on the proper
children the prestige
attention the
affection
chronicler's
treatment
of bastards
lineage. are set forth
in great
detail in three "case studies" of bastards in the Zimmern family in the late fifteenth III (d. 1508) succeeded in and early sixteenth centuries. The bachelor Gottfried son Heinrich" his (Squire Henry) at least temporarily in the establishing "Junker Werner also attempted to Gottfried Two (1484-1554) generations later, nobility.
have his illegitimate sons accepted as nobles, whereas his brother Johann Werner II
28Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 2:172, 311. von Zimmern, 103. 29Jenny, Graf Froben Christoph von Zimmern, 193-94. 30Jenny, Graf Froben Christoph von Zimmern, 195. Jenny characterizes the religious views of Froben 31Jenny, Graf Froben Christoph as a largely political Catholicism; he took little interest in doctrinal questions or movements Christoph for personal spirituality. 32Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 3:389.
Hurwich
709
(1480?1548)
sons as clerics Junker who main ters
provided only sufficient financial support to establish his illegitimate

or Heinrich burghers. was small the estate son of Gottfried III von while never his Zimmern, his married, favorite. elder had Heinrich a younger brother several was held daugh unusu grew father son the
inherited family one
the estate other
of Herrenzimmern Gottfried, was who clearly
at Messkirch. son,
and
but Heinrich even
up
ally bright to be him
and
ambitious;
the hostile and very
chronicler and
acknowledged used his mind and to the the "gave income, in 1500 he
that "he well." office chronicle, him His
gave
eloquent, a seat in vor Wald.
intelligent, the ancestral
castle became
quick, at Herrenzimmern
of Ober he did
amtmann so
Heinrich revenues
by embezzling he wanted" and live in noble
from provided
the
wealthy; according estate. Since his father with a nobleman's and
his
office
him castles from
everything he was able his he over
to
legitimation himself He and "von
style. He purchased and a coat of arms Herrenzimmern" a woman after of noble her death
and villages, Emperor estate a von
secured
own
Maximilian. which his
Thenceforth father made him lower
after birth,
the
styled to him. sons a
married daughters; of
Hegelback, another wife
who from
bore the
several nobility,
he married family.33
member
the von Weitingen Heinrich
However,
squandered
money
and
soon
amassed
debts,
which
he
tried to cover by selling off estates and by secretly borrowing money

name. With won't sell his estates time," surname economic grim satisfaction, generations." estates acquired finally died the After to the chronicler his father's quotes death, branch the Zimmern and not hunger."34 regarded style of the Junker of proverb, Heinrich last three remaining he and had he
in his father s
"111 gotten gains was to forced family. in his "The
legitimate of
the Zimmern were
at the "in
expense great
poverty that he was
His
"Zimmerle," resources
indicating sufficient
life dissipated son bore the Jakob as a nobleman. Without Heinrich s son
to maintain
a noble
life, Junker
could not maintain the position during his lifetime.35

The ate chronicler, for favor who an shown regards punishment the
in the lower nobility

the downfall bastard, Werner of Junker seethes von
that his father had acquired

Heinrich with appropri as he indignation to his illegitimate done to Gottfried to his bastards as the
overambitious by Gottfried both by their
describes sons. The Werner's
Zimmern damage
chronicler legitimate
condemns daughters
the psychological father's emotional
attachment
and the damage

result from Gottfried allowing
to the wealth
bastards von
and prestige of the Zimmern

recognized whose as nobles. wife, Apollonia von
lineage that would

Henneberg, bore
to be Zimmern,
Werner
him two daughters but no sons, had a total of eight illegitimate children
(two sons
33Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 2:166-70. 34Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 2:226-28. II von Zimmern in negotiating enlisted the help of his kinsman Johann Werner 35Jakob Zimmerle his marriage; Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 3:481.This suggests that the legitimate and illegitimate a patron/client branches of the Zimmern family maintained relationship.
710
XXXIV/3
(2003)
and
six daughters)
by
two
different
concubines.
At
one
time,
Gottfried
Werner
had
hoped
their finally
tomarry his concubine Anna Fritz after his wife's death and thus legitimate
natural married son, Gottfried, a forester."36 Gottfried to his Werner is portrayed the elsewhere chronicler in the here says chronicle as an indul chil as his heir. "However, God did not ordain it so: she
Although gent father
legitimate
daughters,
that his bastard
dren "unhinged his mind

attention berg." held the He to and boasted respect took about
so that he had an unbelievable

interest children, nations, in his daughters his by were
love for them but paid little

the Countess von Henne
little
"saying just were
in great law
in foreign
(juditia)
and human were affection
inclination the for victims
yet they were they illegitimate, as if were He said that they legitimate. not in agreement." conviction His that discrimination he to me could, that birth.... hanging led him he to have and the a
illegitimate "special advanced majority love
children and
of unfair
all bastards; people. servants were
whenever It seems of that
favored time
them
in preference and female
to other
at one Many from
of his male were
said bastards and had The daughters ries or Werner's
so favored should does
at Messkirch no
illegitimate if one were
people the sky
to fall, he chronicle and portions attempts his lifetime
choose not record about
other than Messkirch."37 place the names of Gottfried Werner except that all the children
s six were
illegitimate given dow
says nothing
them
(ausgesteuert). to have his to bear were although of money Gottfried
However, two bastard of arms to not for
a detailed account it gives sons treated as nobles. He ... with a tournament 'von the helm. Zimmern' of
of Gottfried allowed By his as them order Junker He
"during and permission Heinrich spent had a great
a coat allowed
they done, deal
sign done
themselves with
this was on Werner for entering them
consent
the
agnates.
universities his service with days; the sons of
(hochen to follow; a
Schulen)!'^ possibly
It is not they were
clear what to study
careers law as
intended the
preparation Gottfried
However, Gottfried, faction tin, was annual and object should food
Werner's died during
efforts his after
met
little
prince. success.
His reports
elder with
son, satis
apparently that "he still pension alive died
student
chronicle
miserably,
at the
there
assigned is no mention in the care not
."The other son, Mar squandering everything was written in the 1560s, time "on the the chronicle living never married, to him out of the estate." Martin apparently as an The chronicle the story of his occupation. presents of keeping people the use who of the bastards by in their proper law and are place: entitled themselves "posterity only to 'von
lesson take and
importance to allow
ecclesiastical name
support
to inherit
family
to sign
Zimmern.'"39 sons had three II, who surviving Johann Werner von Erbach, such generous did not make provision 36Zimmerische Chronik, 37Zimmerische Chronik, 38Zimmerische Chronik, 39Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 4:287. ed. Barack, 4:286-88. ed. Barack, 4:287. ed. Barack, 4:287. from for his marriage the four to Katha children born
rina
Hurwich
711
of his
liaison
with
Margreth
Hutler.
However,
he
took
great
pains
to ensure
that his
concubine
sons would chased Werner and her stoph, civic also
and illegitimate children would

not cheat rights them out of their in Rottweil
be provided for, and that his legitimate

A year before his death, he pur
inheritance.
required 200 children the heir to the
and her for Margreth Hutler children. Johann sons to a to pay the concubine his three legitimate sign pledge amonth after his death.40 Chri Froben gulden apiece within estate, grudgingly carried out these provisions even though
he suspected "the Hutler woman"

Werner evidently distinctly "all the s seal on to the forge side documents of the
of stealing the family silver and of using Johann

while the old man and her lay dying. for was Public the opinion was sounds and that children, Hutler for chronicler fairly their
concubine
defensive children
in his were
assertions for
that Margreth and lacked
treated After
provided
nothing."41
father's
death in 1548, the four illegitimate

from as the emperor. Heinrich of the sons However, had done Junker All port only instead was many became stoph, wanted wrote but as was
children purchased
attempt earlier. the The expectation eldest a to
a rescript of legitimation
purchase grants of nobility
no they made a half century educations with
received
themselves one of who a monk
through actually as he
ecclesiastical entered had an the
careers. church; he
they would was son, Christoph, parish priest
that
sup the
became The
in Breisgau Christoph, known poverty. He Chri to
originally organista but
intended. instead her
second
son, Hans well
supposed honest the
to become men's city the clerk one who a sons, at
"married here and The
a woman there youngest promise Werner "He had
and moved Hornberg showed
with and died
in great
there."
son, Philip in his von the best orders
the
greatest his
intellectual uncle Wilhelm abbots.
to become letters they
clergyman, run
and for him deep.' He
He youth. Zimmern prospects, but mar
of recommendation say, 'still waters
to two was
expected
to take holy
ried the daughter of a burgher of Rottweil.

money, geois for they was existence but were what of content Froben the high support by the played significant sense of with what Christoph nobility the hypothesis early any sixteenth role
Neither
he nor his wife
had much
the bastards These three
even cases
this modest bour they had."42 Clearly von Zimmern as regarded appropriate in the middle of the sixteenth century. that opportunities century. The for German chronicle of bastards or absence does not noble sug
bastards gest mern heirs that
were
declining factors most growing
religious The as a
in the was
treatment
in the Zim of legitimate
family. as well
factor lineage
the presence which
loyalty
mandated
the concentration
40Similar suspicions are evident in the story of the fifteenth-century duke of Bavaria who feared that his legitimate son would thwart his intentions to leave 10,000 gulden to a favorite bastard son; the the money father deposited in three imperial cities outside of Bavaria; Sprandel, "Die Diskriminierung der unehelichen Kinder," 493. 41 Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 4:87-88, 93. A capital sum of 200 gulden would have provided sons with a pension of about 10 each of Johann Werner's illegitimate gulden a year in addition to his income from an ecclesiastical benefice or a secular occupation. The bequest of 200 gulden to his daugh ter Barbara presumably represented her dowry, even though she married during her father's lifetime. It was not unusual for dowries to be paid only upon the father's death. 42Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 4:93.
712
XXXIV/3
(2003)
of property
in the
legitimate
male
line
of descent.
The
bachelor
Gottfried
III estab
lished his illegitimate

nephew of and commitment
son Junker Heinrich
on his estate rather than let it pass to his

chronicler censures Two as showing lack later, generations lineage.43 to by his marriage, attempted as nobles estates but did not give them of to his bastard sons was real property no sons to keeping the Zimmern estates
an act which the grandnephews, to the interests of the Zimmern who had sons to daughters accepted bequeath but
Gottfried have their his
Werner, two His
illegitimate reluctance related
own.
undoubtedly
to his
larger
commitment
intact: he designated his brother instead of his daughter as his heir so that his estates
would remain in the Zimmern sons, made ing legitimate sons and provided nificant The not the uncle coat be burden surviv had three II, who Johann Werner lineage.44 to status obtain noble his for three attempt illegitimate a not them small pensions that would constitute only with sig the estate of the legitimate heir. no Froben part and of they for Christoph their father's not his von Zimmern they maintains should not that bastards be He allowed criticizes the Zimmern of the to the right agnates to use should to use his
on
chronicler considered name,
lineage: be two
family
should
recognized illegitimate without
as nobles. sons the
Gottfried of arms of and
Werner and use
allowing the name "von line of
to bear consent of
Zimmern"
(members the name
the male arms
He of descent).45 evidently as a property the lineage right
conceives analogous
real
property,
which
consent who erty
in German
of the not the
law could not be bequeathed

heirs.46 The of the indiscriminate lineage would
to an illegitimate child without

extension diminish of this to the value
the
those
nearest
were of This
"real" members
right of the prop
"real" members. raises part the question: of their to what extent did was did German they it for see as their them nobles consider their toward bas their in their allowed in
tards
to be
children, illegitimate own households? Were to use the name and
lineage? What common and how noble arms of bastards their
obligations to raise the children to be nobles often did they
generally father's
considered How
and
lineage?
succeed
establishing
noble bastards
themselves
compare
in the nobility? And

in these respects towards restraint, as inevitable with
last, how did the position

those in other continental
of German
nobilities?
Obligations Despite concubinage his personal and sexual bastardy
Illegitimate Froben aspects Christoph of
Children von Zimmern life and regards not
aristocratic
does
action violated the contract he had signed in 1444 when he divided the Zimmern 43Gottfrieds estates with his brother Werner VIII: each had promised that if he had no legitimate male heir, his estate would go to his brother or to the latter s descendants; Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 1:314-15. Gott fried's legitimate heir, his nephew Johann Werner I,was unable to challenge the disposition of the estate since he was in exile and his estates were under 44Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 2:580. 45Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 4:287. Fjriedrich] sequestration.
46"Bankert," HRG; C[arl] gende Ehe (Halle, 1832), 5-6.
Dieck,
Beitr?ge zur Lehre von der Legitimation
durch nachfol
Hurwich
713
condemn III von
them Zimmern
as
long as a
as the men particularly
involved pious man
are unmarried. even though
He "he
refers never
to Gottfried married but
was blessed with many

He age.47 concubines Rieneck, diminished he made The port his does and a canon by not
children" and was

the cathedral For children.
still conducting
canons among his his
love affairs in his old

kinsmen for for Thomas having von not
criticize
illegitimate of
Strassburg that Rieneck
the fact
respect example, oversee who his education, helped "had a great many for most bastards, before his death."48 for a nobleman as well a woman to pay
was
of whom
appropriate chronicler illegitimate
provision clearly children, He
long regards those recounts
it as a disgrace born of casual
to refuse as those who came
to sup born of
liaisons about
long-term imperial
concubinage. court to accuse
an anecdote young duke of
to the for her
a certain
refusing
support
child, which
tiers thought
she claimed was the offspring of their brief affair.Many

that the man she was accusing was Wilhelm Werner von
of the cour
Zimmern,
and one of his friends chided him, "Cousin, what kind of household
with your children on social being pressure carried from around other in the streets?" to force Clearly the counting demands.49 Froben to recognize law and Christoph and provide von for Zimmern their never illegitimate law granted man and questions children. child the obligation courtiers duke
do you keep,
was her to meet
the mother
of
all fathers
Strictly
tical dren"
customary of
German an unmarried
(the
offspring born
support an unmarried (adultery, even However, more than
ecclesias speaking, to "natural chil only woman), and clerical and denied concu clerics as we shelter as
it to children binage).50 an have have
of "forbidden the to provide who give law."51 aristocracies, as members alongside princes sons the
Nevertheless, obligation of fathers
chronicler for
relationships" assumes their offspring. anything
incest, married he
or
that
men
disapproves, and
seen,
them
"food
required by In some sons?were father's
ecclesiastical European regarded
it is said of the family
that
illegitimate and were often This elites was
children?especially brought particularly them and her into ... up in their true of
household both started the in
Italy, where households, vided for
legitimate of and members
children. urban
in careers,
testaments";
arranged marriages a widow was expected
"accepted for daughters, to care for
their pro
husband's
47Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 1:416. 4i'Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 3:235. 49Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 3:443. and France, only natural children were entitled to child support: Hans Conrad Ell 50In Germany richshausen, Die uneheliche M?tterschaft im alt?sterreichischen Polizeirecht des 16. bis 18.Jahrhunderts (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, Femmes s?duites et abandonn?es au 18e si? Demars-Sion, 1988), 114-15;V?ronique cle:L'exemple du Cambr?sis (Paris: L'Espace Juridique, 1991), 9. In Spain, only natural children were enti tled by law to child support, but the father or his kin could grant support to other illegitimate children as a matter of equity; Winterer, Rechtliche Stellung der Bastarde in Spanien, 108. In Italy all illegitimate children were entitled to child support, even those born of forbidden relationships; Winterer, Rechtliche Stellung der Bastarde in Italien, 52. 51 Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 3:443.
714
XXXIV/3
(2003)
illegitimate late medieval Dutch
offspring and
after
hid
death.52 Spain
Similar and
practices and
are found among the
among
nobles
in
early modern
France,
sixteenth-century
gentry.53 a Such practice father's the bastard household
doe
not from
necessarily birth.
mean
that from resided were being the
illegitimate Italy, with young. France,
children and
resided shows Spain in a separate bastards
in
their that
Evidence often children after
children
of noblemen when household the only
their mother Some others, that
household, entered were were sent their
particularly father's for out
noble usually
there
their
education
in much of an uncle
orphaned; same way
sons, children
legitimate lord.54
fostered
to the household
or of
a greater
There
household merische man were
is little evidence
was a common gives to the
that bringing
practice that father
up illegitimate
at any the bastard unless
children in their father's

social of level.55 a German (or The Zim noble separated
in Germany
Chronik unlikely
impression their
children
live with
he was
unmarried
from his wife)

of Johann "strange the the Werner
and maintained
II von
a household with
which was her for and Margreth so usually children the
his concubine. The four children

Hutler were the brought up in the chronicler.56 own her. or other male rela house, However, often in
Zimmern
household of
at Falkenstein" a married the castle, man and
enraged installed
concubine town It was outside
in her there with brothers
resided half
evidently
the norm
legitimate
tives of the father to become

for not we the chronicler his thinks to name shall
guardians of his illegitimate

to give an for explanation their for his guardianship as acted Zollern guardians as guardian assumed
children after his death,

for his father's half half decision As siblings.57 sister Anna the daughter
it necessary sons
see, Karl and
legitimate von Zollern von
illegitimate illegitimate
Zollerer,
Jos Nielas
of Anna,
Tuscans and Their Families, 146; James S. Grubb, Provincial Families 52Herlihy and Klapisch-Zuber, in theRenaissance: Private and Public Life in theV?neto (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), 39. 53On France, see Lorcin, Vivre et mourir en Lyonnais, 99?100; Caron, La noblesse dans le duch? de Femmes "Les b?tards de la noblesse auvergnate," 38-39; Demars-Sion, Bourgogne, 229?34; Grimmer, de la Llave, Parentesco, poder y men s?duites et abandonn?es, 12. On Spain, see Beceiro Pita and C?rdoba see Sherrin Marshall, talidad, 220?24, and Gerbet, Noblesse dans le royaume de Castille, 199. On Holland, The Dutch Gentry, 1500-1650: Press, 1987), 5-6. Family, Faith and Fortune (NewYork: Greenwood to 54The chances of illegitimate children being brought up in their father's household depended some extent on the status of their mother. Only the bastards of Italian Renaissance princes by noble mothers were educated in the palace. Similarly, the bastard sons born to petty nobles of the Lyon region some of those whose mothers villages, whereas by peasant women always remained in their mothers' " were of higher status were brought up in their fathers' households. Helen S. Ettlinger, Visibilis et Invi Court Society," Renaissance Quarterly 47 (1994): 777-78; Lor in Italian Renaissance sibilis:The Mistress cin, Vivre et mourir en Lyonnais, 99-100. German 55In awell-known case, one of the five children born to the merchant Lucas Rem by a woman inAugsburg; Schmugge, Kirche, Kinder, Karrieren, in Antwerp was brought up in his household in 1531 ordered a father to bring up his bastard child 194. At a lower social level, a court inMemmingen courts of his own. However, German and had a household if he was married in his own household, own house usually ordered a father to pay child support to amother who brought up the child in her Uneheliche M?tterschaft, 114. hold; Ellrichshausen, 56Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 3:307. 57Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 4:86.
Hurwich
715
of his
cousin entail
Christoph taking was barons the still
Friedrich illegitimate alive. of
von
Zollern. children s analysis region of their
However, into of one's
essarily if their mother of counts
guardianship own household, for
did not
nec
Spiess
and
the Mainz
the provisions not does suggest husbands'
bastards
especially in wills were
that widows children.58
expected
to undertake
the upbringing
illegitimate
In only four cases does the Zimmerische Chronik imply that an illegitimate child
was cases Zimmern brought involved up in a close a son. While his relationship living with in exile son Hans von his legitimate in Switzerland, from Swabia. kin, and only one of these I von out to to Hans Johannes was Werner fostered companion describes
brought
illegitimate Georg Wilhelm who
Hans
the household his legitimate
of Count half hateful brother rogue"
Werdenberg-Sargans, Werner. However, the wife
acting chronicle
as a
as a "coarse her with ously
alienated Such
Werdenberg's strongly he would daughters
by persistently that he taught been
the familiar in a noble other
"du."59
behavior where
suggests have been have
resided In three
household,
addressing not previ better manners. had up in or
cases, household.
illegitimate Leonora
may
brought
the daughter of Count Hugo Werdenberger, was at von in the household of her up Sigmaringen, brought possibly Werdenberg, or uncle. After to a furrier, of her marriage the breakdown she became the father von Counts and of two of her Felix mistress cousins, Christoph legitimate their father's Werdenberg.60
near
Anna,
the Augsburg mother family of said
the daughter of Count Christoph

patrician that to Anna
Friedrich von Zollern

not have taken forced cousin she her been place. Anna However,
(d. 1536) and

for her her father's the use Zollern, from clerks, is
claimed refused
may Rehlinger, a clandestine had marriage the marriage guardian, of most unjustly formed her of
illegitimate,
the Zollern to have
acknowledge name. Anna's cheated and her out
and father's
to renounce von
Jos Niclas should to marry have one
the money
inherited of his
her mother even
to have
acted
though Anna Zollerer, had
she had
already an illegitimate relationship Anna to consent
by forcing an attachment
to another
suitor.61 von von persuade Zimmerle. Zollern, The brother von
daughter with to reside her with
of Count half her marriage sister and
Eitelfriedrich Johanna tried to to Jakob
evidently widowed Karl
a close
Zollern. her
Johanna (Anna's
invited
guardian)
to Anna's
Karl
Zollern
dowry.
initially opposed
The marriage finally
the match, perhaps because he begrudged

took place after Johann Werner II von
paying Anna's
inter
Zimmern
vened on behalf of his kinsman; however,

and Johanna became involved in a m?nage scandal.62
it ended unhappily when

? trois, which caused a
Jakob, Anna,
major public
58Spiess, Familie und Verwandtschaft, 381-89. translation is from Erica Bastress-Dukehart, 59Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 1:540.The "Family of Honor, Family of Fortune: Aristocratic Strategies for Survival in the House of Zimmern" (Ph.D. dis at Berkeley, 1997), 211. of California sertation, University 60]Zimmerische Chronik, 61 Zimmerische Chronik, 62Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 2:311-12. ed. Barack, 2:467. ed. Barack, 3:481.
716
XXXIV/3
(2003)
It is noteworthy daughters, whereas
that most evidence for
of
these
cases
in Zimmerische aristocracies
Chronik suggests
involved that sons
other
European
were more
to have not give close the
likely than daughters

personal impression relationships that and
to be brought up in their fathers' households

with their daughters legitimate were Rehlinger kin. The treated chronicle generously. seem to have
and
does Both been
illegitimate the daughter
Leonora
Werdenberger
of Anna
exploited
brother in two was of
rather than protected

reluctant cases to imply spend these
by their legitimate kin, and Anna Z ollerer's half

the money for her dowry The sexual Zollerer Werdenberger family: one's and Anna a sexual legitimate relationships were not with have one's been
that Leonora of the their husband
considered legitimate considered
"real" members first cousin or
noble of
relationship sister would
incestuous.63
Were The legal status and of actual noble
Bastards bastards in all
Considered varied countries greatly
Nobles? in different from western the letter European of the the status law. of
countries, While those
practice
differed
the bastards whose In some
were of kings and great nobles fathers were of less exalted rank was continental aristocracies, legitimated. (those bastards
recognized more ambiguous. were of noblemen could unmarried such under and be
as noble,
legally acquired parents) were
consid in one could known be
ered of
nobles two ways.
only
if they were children"
"Natural the
born of of
Legitimation of two their parents;
by legitimated as "mantle-children" during
marriage subsequent from the custom ceremony. Both
children their children
placing
them
the marriage
"natural
children"
cloak parents' born of "for
bidden
granted mations or (more
relationships"
either were by by rescript
could be legitimated
or of the by secular the prince; children these
by "rescript
could be after
(order) of the prince,"

almost either by all legiti the father Except
the pope
authorities.64
In practice obtained reaching
commonly)
by
themselves
adulthood.
in England, which
of legitimation
did not acknowledge

some inheritance
legitimation
rights
in any form, both methods

law. However, mantle
conferred
in secular
children had more

Holy Roman Empire
inheritance
only they
rights than other legitimated

were eligible to inherit real
children, and in the

estate.65
63Counts and barons in the Mainz region avoided marriages between first cousins; Spiess, Familie und Verwandtschaft, 47. German laws on incest did not distinguish between relatives by blood and relatives is cited in Joel F.Harrington, by marriage; a case of awoman executed for incest with her brother-in-law Press, 1995), Reordering Marriage and Society inReformation Germany (Cambridge: Cambridge University 257. of legitimation in canon law and French law, see R. G?nestal, Histoire de 64On the development on continental la l?gitimation des enfants naturels en droit canonique (Paris: E. Leroux, 1905), 91-226; in particular, see Schmugge, Kirche, Kinder, Karrieren, 70?79. Europe in general and Germany seeWinterer, Rechtliche Stellung der 65On the superior inheritance rights of mantle-children, of German nobles were sometimes Bastarde in Italien, 84,95,102; "Mantelkind," HRG. Mantle-children even allowed to inherit fiefs, despite prohibitions in imperial law; Dieck, Beitr?ge zur Lehre von der Legi timation durch nachfolgende Ehe, 113-18. Schmugge, Kirche, Kinder, Karrieren, 74-75, contrasts the limited inheritance rights conferred by legitimation by rescript of the prince in the Holy Roman Empire with the broader rights it conferred in other countries.
Hurwich
717
Legitimation ple, compare Italy
was and and
much the
more Iberian
common kingdoms)
in the than
lands
of Roman of
law
(for exam law (e.g.,
in lands
customary the but
northern offspring
France of
the Holy could
Roman inherit his
Empire). father's
a noble
In Italy,"whether was debated nobility
illegitimate generally
denied on principle";
of dren lower in
if legitimated, the child theoretically

Italian at early nobles ages,67 that and and the patricians it is clear bastards
inherited only the status

legitimated from of great the their history nobles of were chil fif in
However, nobility.66 numbers and large Italian
teenth-century
princely
houses
practice regarded as inheriting

Commines all was made In parts dren selves made the famous a bastard Iberian (though allowed between of the
their father's rank in the high nobility.68 Philip de

remark and a that in his day "in ... Italy.. .no distinction at legitimate customary born of child."69 law "forbidden father's recognized the natural chil
Peninsula, not them those
of noblemen noble, and
relationships") arms.70 However, in Castile claimed Castilian to increase in Iberian
as them from the,
to bear strong from
their
mid-fifteenth demanded thereby
century documentary exemption use
onward, proof direct
centralizing noble
monarchs who
and Portugal noble rank and
bastards
from of
taxation.71 by rescript
Fifteenth-century of the prince
nobles
made of the
considerable male
legitimation the practice
the number nobilities in
heirs,72
and
remained
widespread
66Winterer, Rechtliche Stellung der Bastarde in Italien, 60 and n. 152. However, other authorities state to recognized that in Italy as in France, nobility (including the right to bear coats of arms) descended bastards even without legitimation; "Uneheliche," HRG. in Italy is 67Schmugge, Kirche, Kinder, Karrieren, 74. The frequency and early age of legitimation castato of 1480, which permitted bastards to be claimed as tax deductions only implied by the Florentine 1 percent of all the children claimed as dependents if they were legitimated. About in this castato were listed as illegitimate the birth reg (and were therefore, presumably, legitimated bastards) at a time when ister of 1451 suggests that 3 to 6 percent of the births in Florence were illegitimate. See Molho, Marriage oder wenige?" 30. Alliance, 277 n. 52; Bulst, "Illegitime Kinder:Viele to foreigners?for 68Burckhardt comments, "[T]he public indifference to legitimate birth which ... there no so remarkable_In Italy longer existed a princely house example to Commines?appeared where, even in the direct line of descent, bastards were not patiently tolerated." See Jacob Burckhardt, The Civilization 1958; original German edition, of the Renaissance in Italy (New York: Harper & Row, Ferrara, and Urbino, 1860), 1:38. On the succession of illegitimately born sons in the states of Rimini, see Ettlinger, "Visibilis et Invisibilis," 781?83. For a detailed discussion of the Este family of Ferrara, see Jane where five illegitimately born men came to the throne in succession in the period 1308?1450, in the Formation of aRegional Bestor Fair, "Bastardy and Legitimacy State in Italy:The Est?nse Suc cession," Comparative Studies in Society andHistory 38 (July 1996): 549?85. as evi "^Burckhardt, Civilization of theRenaissance in Italy, 1:38, cites this statement by Commines dence of the contrast in attitudes between Italy and northern Europe: It should be noted that Commines had served at the Burgundian and French courts during the "flourishing of noble bastards" described by Harsgor. 70Winterer, Rechtliche Stellung der Bastarde in Spanien, 92-93,110; Cooper, "Patterns of Inheritance and Settlement," 302. The customs of Aragon, Catalonia, and Navarre the natural sons of recognized nobles as themselves noble. In Castile, bastards theoretically had to be legitimated in order to receive these rights, but in practice recognition by the father often sufficed during the High Middle Ages. 7 Gerbet, Noblesse dans le royaume de Castille, 199. for the purposes of succession were particularly common among members of the 72Legitimations religious military orders, who were required to remain unmarried; Cooper, "Patterns of Inheritance and Settlement," 302. The Portuguese high aristocracy not only legitimated large numbers of bastards but recorded them in their genealogies Elite Family Structure," 861. alongside their legitimate children; Boone, "Parental Investment and
718
XXXIV/3
(2003)
sixteenth
and
seventeenth before though
centuries.73 1600, children no of noble fathers rights unless were they noble were even without
In France legitimation,
they
had
inheritance
legitimated.74
Writing
tinction remained
in 1606, the French theorist Florentine

between in principle the "usage "incapable of the of empire" all nobility,
de Thirrat drew a categorical dis

bastards or civil," of and noble the fathers "usage of natural
by which
France" by which
father.75 region sons who exempt small The to reality
the illegitimate
in France was even
child kept the name, nobility,

more complex, in the fifteenth and legally for customary century accepted
and arms of his

law differed those from
Moreover, region.76 were "lived nobly"
socially
only as nobles
illegitimate and were
the taille. "Living the possession of at least a paying nobly" implied or or revenue to maintain of office sufficient fief, providing military political a noble were of Until French noble in winning bastards successful life.77 1600, style status and lawsuits their noble from the taille. their However, confirming exemption from
statuswas altered by an edict of Henry

noble ment bastards fathers from were the noble only if they this Despite king.78 rare in France edict,
IV in 1600 which
secured legitimation and
provided
and
that bastards of
of ennoble of noble
letters
legitimations early seventeenth
ennoblements
remained
in the
century.79
In the Holy Roman

their father's few restrictive noble German status However, of the
Empire, bastards of nobles

or the right to bear to arms sought laws; few legitimate
theoretically
they children, for were
did not inherit

legitimated.80 because by subse
unless their
nobles
probably
inheritance
bastards
qualified
legitimation
600 noble families ofValencia petitioned 73In the single year 1626, sixty-five of the approximately the cortes for legitimation of offspring for the purposes of inheritance; Casey, Early Modern Spain, 214. characterizes the French system of nobility, which normally depended on the status 74Contamines to the German of the father alone, as "lax" in comparison system of reckoning nobility by quarters. In the status of the mother," a rule that also general, "the children of a noble father were nobles, whatever to noble bastards; Contamines, Noblesse au royaume de France, 57, 61. On the inability of bas extended see Lorcin, Vivre et mourir en Lyonnais, 97; Grimmer, "Les b?tards de tards to inherit unless legitimated, auvergnate," 40; Nassiet, Parent?, noblesse et ?tats dynastiques, 85-86. 75Thirrat, Trois traictez, cited in Harsgor, "L'essor des b?tards nobles,"328. 76The custom of Artois held that "bastards born of nobles are reputed noble and enjoy the privi stated that the succession leges of nobility." In western France, the customs of Tours, Anjou, and Maine to a noble bastard did not pass as that of a noble but as that of a commoner; Harsgor, "L'essor des b?tards inherited their father's noble status; J. nobles," 332. In the Franche-Comt?, only sons (not daughters) de France, 1974), 98; cited in Cooper, Heers, Le clanfamilial au moyen ?ge (Paris: Presses Universitaires "Patterns of Inheritance and Settlement," 238 n. 144. 77Contamines, Noblesse au royaume de France, 61; Lorcin, Vivre et mourir en Lyonnais, 99. la noblesse IV is discussed in Fran?oise P. Levy, L'Amour nomade: La m?re et l'enfant hors 78The edict of Henri si?cle (Paris: Seuil, 1981), 177-79; Nassiet, Parent?, noblesse et ?tats dynastiques, 85-86; mariage XVIe-XX "Les b?tards de la noblesse and Grimmer, ibid., 41, quotes Charles auvergnate," 41, 46. Grimmer, Loy seau,Trait?s des ordres et simples dignit?s (1666) as saying that the edict went against the ancient custom of France, and that it should not extend to bastards of seigneurs. Loyseau argued that bastards should be considered to be "one degree below [the legitimate children], so that bastards of kings are princes, those are gentlemen of princes are noblemen (gentilshommes), and those of gen (seigneurs), those of noblemen tlemen are commoners (roturiers)."This view is remarkably similar to that held by German nobles in the Middle Ages and the sixteenth century. and ennoblements of noble bastards in his reign 79Louis XIII granted only nineteen legitimations from 1610 to 1643, making up 11 percent of the total of 165 ennoblements granted in his reign; Grim mer, "Les b?tards de la noblesse auvergnate," 41.
Hurwich
719
quent confer
marriage the right
of to
their
parents, land.
and Spiess and
inherit of
legitimation by rescript states status that "the was determined by
of and
the prince the
did
not
illegitimate the case (Herrschaft) The Werner
of
offspring eventual and had
counts
barons
for provision in the fact that even in the lordship
no were they granted legitimation, no claim to the inheritance."81 paternal Chronik reports which several noblemen cases?including
share
Zimmerische von Zimmern?-in
that
of Gottfried
concu considered their marrying 82 a "natural" son as heir. one man to bines in order is However, legitimate only so: Hans von a bachelor to have done from the lower Weitingen, actually reported on his extinction from who saved his lineage his concubine by marrying nobility, von sons two The widower whose deathbed.83 Christoph Werdenberg, legitimate is said to have considered his concubine after she bore had died, seriously marrying him a son. have "The married old gentleman in order took such a joy his in this that people if it had not were been sure for he the
would
her
to maintain
lineage"
opposition
German connection children.85
of his legitimate heirs.84

nobles with However, the sometimes grant only sought of noble one possible legitimation status and coats case of by of rescript arms to occurred of their the prince illegitimate in the Mont in
legitimation
fort family in two hundred years, and Spiess finds only two cases in his fifteen fam ilies of counts and barons in theMainz region in the period 1300-1500.86 The two in the Zimmerische Chronik (those of Junker Heinrich and legitimations mentioned of the four children of JohannWerner II von Zimmern) were both obtained by the
children imate them rather his bastard recognized than sons, the father. despite It is noteworthy his indulgent that Gottfried treatment of them Werner and his did desire not legit to have
as nobles.
which were still part of the Holy 80"Uneheliche," HRG. This also held true in the Netherlands, Roman Empire; in the sixteenth cetury,"the bastards of the Holland nobles were not reckoned among the nobility," at least not in law. H. F. K. van Nierop, The Nobility ofHolland: From Knights toRegents, 1500-1600 Press, 1984), 53. (Cambridge: Cambridge University 81Spiess, Familie und Verwandtschaft, 381. 82Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 4:288. 83Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 3:171. were raised by Christophs 84Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 3:129. Objections brother Felix (who stood to inherit his fiefs) and his son-in-law Friedrich von F?rstenberg (whose wife Anna stood to inherit her father's allodial estates). Since F?rstenberg was counting on the inheritance Werdenberg to pay his debts (ibid., 3:137), he would certainly have mounted a legal challenge if Christoph had tried to make his illegitimate son his heir. However, the question was rendered moot by the early death of the concubine and her son. "had 85Schmugge, Kirche, Kinder, Karrieren, 74-75: Duke Eberhard the Bearded ofW?rttemberg two sons legitimated and raised to the nobility by Emperor Maximilian in 1494"; Count Adolf von Nassau was legitimated by King Frederick III in 1442 and allowed to carry his father's arms with a "sign of bastardy." 86Count Hugo XVII of Montfort-Bregenz had three children raised to the nobility by Emperor Charles V in 1536; this presumably their legitimation; also involved Burmeister, "Illegitime 115. Spiess, Familie und Verwandtschaft, 381 and n. 334, mentions the case of Adolf of Adelsspr?sslinge," a bastard daughter of Count Eberhard von Nassau and one in which was legitimated Katzenelnbogen in 1408. by King Ruprecht
720
XXXIV/3
(2003)
Very the letter
few of
German the
noble
bastards
thus
qualified from the
for
noble
status Ages regarded below and
according and as that the belong of
to six
law. Nevertheless, show that in practice
sources some the region
late Middle were step
teenth ing?even fathers.
century without Spiess
German social
nobles order one
legitimation?to that in the Mainz
their
says
in the
fourteenth
fifteenth
centu
ries "the route to the lower nobility

of are counts and barons_This one step for below the Nobles latter pattern their established
(Ritteradel) lay open to the illegitimate children

of relationships order to place in which (Stand) their illegitimate is encountered illegitimate children as well offspring cen in father's
among the order
the princes, of counts."87
attempted
in the Zimmerische
Chronik
in the mid-sixteenth
tury continued
(count chronicler people selves." Muffler, The problematical. or baron)
to hold the view

ranked as amember that bastards
that the bastard of amember

of of great von but the lower and nobility barons have as saying counts squires Waldburg Squire children illegitimate Hans to claim a high
of the high nobility

or noble squire). The status: "These of them
(a Junker
complains usually He quotes Hans think
themselves Truchsess
and
opinion bastard
Georg
of his and
son Hans
"Lord
is too much, of illegitimate most
is right their
fitting."88 lineage and was barons always in the
relationship
father's of counts
Nevertheless,
children
fifteenth
using traditional with
and sixteenth centuries

form in their of their father's father's
identified themselves with

surname; Some their Werner and of their not they were also sons arms, Zimmern the
their father's family by

given used thus Christian the claiming allowed arms.90 without Bastards the the noble of the or family the his names name status
some
the noble we
of nobles: sons
particle seen have themselves cases,
lineage.89 "von" and bore that. Gottfried "von Zimmern" a form they
illegitimate father's von to bear father's regarded "Montfort"
bastard
to style In most
bastards
used that usually
family surname as nobles.
particle counts
"von," of Montfort
indicating were
were surnamed
(without
"von")
to the order one step 87Spiess, Familie und Verwandtschaft, 389. The view that bastards belonged below their father's was also prevalent among Salzburg nobles in the High Middle Ages: "The natural a ministerial's son of a king became a count; a noble's son, a ministerial; son, a knight"; John Freed, Archdiocese of Salzburg 1100-1343 Noble Bondsmen: Ministerial Marriages in the (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996), 126-27. 88Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 2:173. the practice described 106. This contrasts with 89Burmeister, by "Illegitime Adelsspr?sslinge," in Freed in Salzburg in the High Middle Ages, inwhich bastards were usually given names uncommon the lineage in order to distinguish them from their legitimate kin.The difference may be due to the use of surnames in the later period. Freed, Noble Bondsmen, 127. of the lower nobility under 90In other cases, sons of counts established themselves as members names differing from their father's; these were often taken from a family castle. Sons of the fourteenth as Simon von Argenschwang, were known II von Sponheim Johann von century Count Johann two illegiti andWalrab von Koppelstein; Kreuznach, Spiess, Familie und Verwandtschaft, 383-86. Only mate daughters are specifically identified as nobles in the records: the "mulier nobilis" Christina von Fal kenstein (who used the particle "von" with her father's surname) and Maria von Flugberg, one of the raised to the nobility by Charles V. Georg Wieland, three children of Count Hugo XVII von Monfort aus der Di?zese Konstanz 'de defectu natalium' fur Antragssteller "R?mische Dispense (1449-1533): Fallstudie meister, an dispensierten Klerikern "Illegitime Adelsspr?sslinge," aus dem Bistum 115. Konstanz," in Schmugge, Illegitimit?t, 294; Bur
Hurwich
721
"Montforter," merer" fathers, or were
while "Zimmerle." known von is no and who
those
of
the Zimmern bastards,
family
are
usually
referred
to as "Zim by the their son
Some by
their mother's
though obviously name: for example, use not surnames. always
acknowledged Hans Schilling,
ofWernerVIII There particle four two without their
Zimmern.91 pattern family to arms the did of Those who a noble two used style parish the of noble life: the and and of
clear the styled
"von"
maintain included both of with their
bastards
themselves
"von Montfort" appeared the name son
priests "von" the name
Some of Speyer.92 bastards burghers it. Others both under appeared mother: a for example, under Hans, the the name and lower
the particle father III von but and
of Gottfried Hirligack
Zimmern, appears known bore a
who in parish by their
received records mother's name:
under
dispensation the names were Truchsess not
Johannes
"Zimmern" necessarily von Waldburg
"Zimmerer."93 in status his than
Children those who Muffler
name Georg
the father's and two
called
son Hans
squire,
of the most
Gabler, the
successful bastards in theMontfort

sons of Count Wilhelm V
family were Heinrich
and Wilhelm
von Montfort.94
Provision The nobles appear it was perception is due in the only the that noble in large records part than ones bastards to the
for
Illegitimate had a that sank good
Children chance who social children of establishing did so were status. As of counts themselves more Spiess likely points as to out, who
fact
children to lower
those who among themselves was interest the
succeeded fathers. made Their for
lucky in establishing social and
illegitimate
and barons
position the
them
one in the nobility the rank of their step below on the financial their father dependent provision careers. in he took their could furthering They
become members
resources castle marry not cash married The depended was the be sufficient the the and/or into
of the lower nobility

to maintain income from a noble estate Children cases,
only if their fathers provided

style of for did life. For a not a son, a this usually dowry daughter, receive for
them with
meant a to sufficient would or given
offices; who
lower
nobility. were too
such the
provision church but were rank.95 sons may significant heirs
regarded
as nobles. daughters dowries that extent or
In such
sons were
educated
pensions; off with
occasionally small to secure father status of made
in convents, placed a husband of noble for his illegitimate but the most and of
usually
provision to some presence
a noble on the of
have factor who
the mother, children
absence
legitimate
collateral
91Bastards of the counts of Montfort Rot; Burmeister,
"Illegitime Adelsspr?sslinge,"
92Burmeister,"Illegitime used the surname Montforter. 'de defectu natalium,'" 295. 93Wieland, "R?mische Dispense that the cleric Wilhelm Gabler 107-9, speculates 94Burmeister, "Illegitime Adelsspr?sslinge," wished to conceal his illegitimate birth and, therefore, avoided using the name and arms of theMontfort also used the name Gabler, even though he was proud of his con family. However, his brother Heinrich arms with amark of bastardy. nection to the Montforts and bore on his seal the Montfort 95Spiess, Familie und Verwandtschaft, 383, 389.
also bore the surnames Gabler, Stadler, Ziegler, Bechrer, and 106. 114-15; the two burghers had two other brothers who Adelsspr?sslinge,"
722
XXXIV/3
(2003)
would could Bastard had
be not
likely inherit
to
challenge of
substantial real estate
bequests. without to men as we From or the
Under consent were seen
German of the
law, bastards other heirs.96 or
bequests greater from
sons
assumed heirs
importance
who
either cases
unmarried of Gottfried
no male
III and Gottfried establishing them "loyal their
Werner bastard
their marriages, von Zimmern. sons either
have the
in the
in secular
of view of noble fathers, point careers in ecclesiastical for secured policy were more and important than
anything sons as counselors, more estates
else."
followers 97
to whom
the goals
of family
advantageous
the granting Spiess regards to both the father and or servants provided and who The
of fiefs the the sons.
(castles Using with be
offices) sons bastard
to bastard as officials, who were the
castellans, than
father
trustworthy in the
nonkinsmen of the family.
could from
employees to administer expected offices and fiefs
interests
income
these
allowed
the sons to live in the style of the lower nobility without

burden on the family's economic resources. Sometimes 98 nobility. of the illegitimate sons of these
placing any additional

illegitimate sons con
tinued to hold office after their father's death, and a few founded
ranked One as members of the most of the lower successful the Swabian
families which
was
nobility
Heinrich
fort-Tettnang, Montfort legitimate earlier lows: As by "He
Gabler
who estates. children,
(fl. 1424, d. 1452). He was the son of Count Wilhelm

had Though he was been a parish priest before now Count diligent Wilhelm married
V of Mont
to the and begot to him as fol
succeeding unexpectedly a noblewoman sons
a concubine. served of As Duke the a
Burmeister Friedrich counts Junker was
in furthering of the the careers sums up the career of Heinrich of Tyrol he of as governor climbed to at Bludenz the peak was
born
Gabler
and Werdenberg. of a fief the Montforts' of the counts
counselor
of Tettnang, and the holder
administration.
a castle, which
of Montfort,
Rosenharz."99 aspired?though Similar merische turn
he founded
This on stories
at a lower level of nobility

the sort of career his employed grudgingly past examples ahead to which son Junker as estate scale?for sons which cites financial son of
the new family of Gabler von

Gottfried Heinrich. officials are that of told a few loyalty in the Zim bastards who do were Adam of the III von Zimmern
a lesser of bastard
Chronik. the
In a passage chronicler
concedes of paragons of their
out well,
to put willing von Rosenstein,
the family's the bastard
interests a count
own. became
For
of Eberstein,
example, an official
Eberstein family and "stood by his lord faithfully in time of greatest need. The son and other goods would fall to his lord after his did not marry, so his movable
death."100 can be However, trusted to be the so chronicler loyal; he does cites not believe Heinrich that bastards as an in modern of times a bastard Junker example
von Sponheim, when making pro 96Spiess, Familie und Verwandtschaft, 383-85. Count Johann II son Simon von Argenschwang in 1335, had the document vision for his illegitimate signed by all the in order to prevent any future challenges. secular counts of Sponheim 13. 97Burmeister, "Illegitime Adelsspr?sslinge," 98Spiess, Familie und Verwandtschaft, 383-85. 108-11. "Burmeister, "Illegitime Adelsspr?sslinge," 100Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 2:173.
Hurwich
723
who
damaged
the interests of his legitimate kin by attempting failed to maintain

quantitative actually In his only three achieved study eleven who
to establish himself after his

of in
in the nobility.
Even Junker Heinrich

father's German pasing death. counts it on to The and their available barons children. mentions and only
his position
suggests noble
in the nobility
that few less over were in
evidence
bastards succeeded the period clearly the
status, much noble families sons enduring who
of fifteen
1300?1500, regarded
Spiess as nobles,
illegitimate established
lines
lower
nobility.101
rarely founded
Burmeister
new
notes
that illegitimate
in general did
children of the Montfort

not establish "a lasting
family
lineages
and
connection
with
counts be
the family of counts."102 Of

of Montfort nobles recorded or "equal in the considered
the twenty-seven
period 1350?1575, and only
illegitimate
only seven Gabler
children of the
or eight succeeded could in
to nobles,"
Heinrich
establishing himself and his descendants

For of provision tical career, sons who illegitimate was an education. but in the late as were This not
in the lower nobility.103

given fiefs served sixteenth and as offices, the next for some best form preparation an ecclesias sons
normally and
fifteenth lawyers orders, of
centuries
educated
pursued
secular to
careers take the
or bureaucrats. it was necessary birth. for a bastard son to secure a dis to
In order pensation from
holy defect
illegitimate
Schmugge's
analysis
of petitions
the Papal Curia

group stance, of laymen where
in the period
who petitioned
1449-1553
for over such
shows that nobles made
up the largest
of Con members were
the Zimmern
lived,
In the dispensations. 13 percent of all petitioners
diocese
of the nobility. They included the counts (later dukes) ofW?rttemberg and many of the Swabian noble families mentioned in the Zimmerische Chronik, including the
counts of F?rstenberg, Lupfen, Montfort, Werdenberg, Zollern, and the Zimmern themselves.104
"The church accepted many of the illegitimate children of the nobility of the High and Late Middle Ages into the ranks of her clergy, though very few reached
a bishop's it became see," notes increasingly despite their Schmugge. difficult noble However, for birth illegitimate and respectable "in the sons course of the fifteenth century and other to obtain academic prebends degrees,
benefices
as cathedral
studied by Spiess, only four noble bastards received castles or offices in the fif had century and clearly ranked as nobles. In the fourteenth century, the counts of Sponheim granted castles and offices to seven of their illegitimate sons, three of whom founded the houses of Kop in the lower nobility. In addition, Spiess mentions three illegitimate daughters penstein and AUenbach in these fifteen families who received dowries large enough to marry into the lower nobility; they pre themselves; Spiess, Familie und Verwandtschaft, 383-86, 389. sumably were considered noblewomen 105. 102Burmeister, "Illegitime Adelsspr?sslinge," 103The children who could be considered "noble or equal to nobles" include two holders of fiefs, two cathedral canons, and the three children of Hugo XVII von Montfort who were ennobled by Charles V. One parish priest who styled himself "von Montfort" and used the family sealmight possibly be considered noble. teenth 104Burmeister, "Illegitime Adelsspr?sslinge," 112?13; Schmugge, Kirche, Kinder, Karrieren, 240?41.
101In the families
724
XXXIV/3
(2003)
chapters of both Two cathedral son "at
became parents.105 of the canonries
increasingly
closed"
by
the
requirement
of proof
of
the noble
birth
illegitimate in the
sons early
of
counts
of Montfort
did
succeed
in obtaining the secured of
fifteenth a typical
of Count least
Wilhelm
V, followed mostly
century.Wilhelm career for ones, due
Gabler a successful to the
(fl. 1419?49), cleric: he
fifteen
benefices,
very
rich
constant
influence
his family," particularly

bishop of Trent.106 Since
of his father's connections

membership in cathedral
with
chapters
the king and with

was closed to those
the
of
illegitimate birth by the late fifteenth

careers of the them son in the owed church their had to settle appointment III von Zimmern,
century, most
as a or
noble bastards who
followed
for positions to their father became
of Gottfried
or a monk. priest Many parish to his for Hans, family; example, a at Messkirch and also chaplain
held a living in the gift of the Zimmern

sons receive hearing all of of the their counts incomes of Montfort as mere about but who parish
family atOberndorf.107
entered the carry church, on their six and
Of the nine bastard

"were content anyone made absent."108 usually as for to lives without was were
priests
anything these
special
individuals, other sons
them_Adequate careers and achievements who used most entered their
financial for the
provision
the family noble serve
Like studied estate
of noblemen many The
church, to
bastards their
law, not officials or
theology; legal
education example
families Hugo
advisers.
striking
is that of Johannes
(d. 1505), the son of Count Hugo

Bologna, frequently level, with of the the Rome, and Basel, the he became representing three illegitimate to prepare a career
XIII
the in cases
of Montfort.
legal before adviser
After
to the
studying
counts At were
atVienna,
a humbler provided one in
of Montfort,
family sons of Johann them for
Werner
the Reichstag.109 II von Zimmern careers; he failed this
educations them church. Sons who were
ecclesiastical clerk when
training
enabled a
to follow
as a town
to obtain
position
neither
held
fiefs only
and small Spiess
offices
nor
received that would a typical
typically bachelor
bequeathed in a noble style
annuities describes
education university even not support around the year
of
life.
bequest
1500 as a capital sum of 400 to 500 gulden, which would

20 to 25 gulden a year.110 Some illegitimate sons who
yield a pension of only

these small pensions
received
105Schmugge, Kirche, Kinder, Karrieren, 239. 106The other canon, the Greek-born Vincenz von Montfort (fl. 1420-80), made his career in Italy In his old age, he made as a scholar and medical assistance from his German kinsmen. doctor without who granted him the right to use the title "comes zu contact with the counts of Montfort-Tettnang, an illegitimate member of coat of arms. This was the only case in which and the Montfort Montfort" the family was allowed to style himself "Count of Montfort." Burmeister, "Illegitime Adelsspr?sslinge," 104,107-8,113. 107Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 1:416. 114. 108Burmeister, "Illegitime Adelsspr?sslinge," 112-13. For other examples, see Schmugge, Kirche, 109Burmeister, "Illegitime Adelsspr?sslinge," Kinder, Karrieren, 240; Spiess, Familie und Verwandtschaft, 384. counts of Nassau bequeathed Even the wealthy pen 110Spiess, Familie und Verwandtschaft, 386-87. sons in the fifteenth century; one of these became sions of only 15 gulden a year to several illegitimate a Heckenreuter or highway robber.
Hurwich
725
probably entered two
became military
retainers service sons of
to other at the the courts
noblemen of more of Montfort
in their distant who
neighborhood, princes. entered Burmeister the
while
others
mentions of Austria,
illegitimate
counts
service
... were sons shoved off into the military... and generalizes that"[m]any illegitimate were cost to without the thus However, for, any great they provided family."111 most sons in the Montfort and Zimmern who remained of the illegitimate families careers. out of the six Zimmern not did follow Three bastards military laymen were as were sons of the counts is six known of whose occupation burghers, a baker sons of the counts was in of the illegitimate Montfort. of Montfort One
Feldkirch.112
Far about "defect" nunnery barons less information sons. is available It has birth been was a about argued considered illegitimate that among sufficient for her.113 few daughters western reason of noblemen European to send German daughters in elites, a girl counts into and than the a
illegitimate of
illegitimate of
instead seem
arranging to have placed
marriage
However,
relatively
illegitimate
convents.
Although
nuns, no
"several daughters" of the bachelor Gottfried

other cases of Chronik. in the illegitimate 114 Spiess fourteenth family daughters finds and from only entering one case
III von Zimmern

convents among fifteen
became
in of finds
are mentioned families also
the Zimmerische counts only one and barons
fifteenth
centuries;
Burmeister
case
in the Montfort
the mid-fourteenth
to the mid-sixteenth
century.115 Illegitimate smaller father's dowries status. daughters than Spiess their finds of Southwest legitimate counts German half and sisters barons counts and had and barons to marry received far below usually much their gave
that
in the Mainz
region
dowries
of 100 to 600 gulden

(or even families.116 able less than A
to illegitimate daughters
a tenth) of the amount daughters the lower few illegitimate of
in the fifteenth
given with nobility. to
century,
to a tenth equal ters in the same 800 gulden were
legitimate daugh to dowries of 400 However, two
to marry
members
114-15. ^Burmeister, "Illegitime Adelsspr?sslinge" von Zimmern, 112Hans Schilling, the son ofWernerVIII resided at Bregenz and served as an estate II.He helped his Zimmern official to Johann Werner kin plead their case before the emperor for the restoration of their estates, but it is not known whether he had any formal legal training; Zimmerische son of Johann Werner Chronik, ed. Barack, 2:41, 151-52, 163. Hans Christoph, II, became town clerk at Hornberg in the church; his brother Philip Christoph married after failing to find a position the Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 4:93. Six of the twenty-four ille daughter of a burgher of Rottweil; 115. gitimate sons of the counts of Montfort were burghers; Burmeister, "Illegitime Adelsspr?sslinge," and Anthony Molho, "The Dowry Fund and 113E.g., Shahar, Fourth Estate, 41; Julius Kirschner the Marriage Market in Early Quattrocento Modern History 50, no. 3 (1978): 424 Florence," Journal of a statistical study of women 25. However, in the dowry fund of Florence enrolled is inconclusive. to Kirschner and Molho, ibid., 426, illegitimate daughters were more likely than legitimate According daughters to enter convents in the first half of the fifteenth century; but over the entire duration of the the percentage of illegitimate daughters who married dowry fund (1425?1525) (78 percent) was iden tical to that of legitimate daughters; seeMolho, Marriage Alliances, 211, 306. 114Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 1:416. 115Spiess, Familie und Verwandtschaft, 389; Burmeister, 116Spiess, Familie und Verwandtschaft, 365, 380. "Illegitime Adelsspr?sslinge," 114.
726
XXXIV/3
(2003)
women and
who a woman The
received who
about received of
100 only
gulden a house
apiece and
married vineyard
men-at-arms married a
(Reitknechte),
marriages the examples was
illegitimate given by
daughters Spiess.The
in the Zimmerische largest dowry
burgher.117 are Chronik in the
consis chron
tent with
mentioned
icle is that of 800 gulden

Zollern, was was mother, bara gulden who forced by given for equivalent an exceptional to those case,
for Anna,
her guardian by many the dowry
the daughter
to marry knights was and paid
of Christoph
one urban of his clerks. patricians.
Friedrich
Anna's However, from case
von
this her
dowry
out More
of her
inheritance is the who who
the Augsburg (Berbelin), as her
patrician
the daughter portion.
Rehlinger.118 of Johann Werner "Reuterhans,"
Anna
typical
of Bar 200 as her
II von
Zimmern,
received served
She married
aman-at-arms
father's bailiff at Seedorf.119 One

Zimmern suit to of the married emperor Lorenz to M?nzer, restore
of the illegitimate daughters of Gottfried

who the represented her father and his Thus kin confiscated used to bind Zimmern retainers lands.120 more to serve some service: who
III von
in their the mar
riages ests of
illegitimate
the family, managers.
daughters as just illegitimate However,
were
firmly
to the
inter
sons were chronicle not
employed also records
the family of
interests illegiti Leonora Zim
as estate mate
the were
marriages for example,
daughters
to men who
who
in their and Anna
father's Zollerer,
Werdenberger, merle, the son
married
a furrier,
married
Jakob
of Junker
Heinrich. in Germany Burmeister's and barons of study of the
Conclusion: The counts region, nities pean evidence of the Zimmerische and the Spiess's
Bastards' Chronik, research
Position
of Montfort supports for noble elites, and
with together on the counts
the Mainz
Reformation.The be social factors,
and Sprandel: the opportu put forward by Schmugge theory were more in Germany in other Euro bastards limited than those were the mid-fifteenth before the century, they declining by long as to seem not so much or causes to be factors religious political the German especially of German nobles. concept should of a not "golden definition of nobility and the increasing
lineage To princely provincial legal
consciousness be sure,
the
age
of noble
bastards" the position
applies of
mainly
to of the
courts, nobles
and we in other
overromanticize in the late was illegitimate noble as heirs.
the bastards
countries
fifteenth inferior
century. to that
Nevertheless, in other continental noblemen Italy and
position
of noble In contrast
bastards
in Germany the
aristocracies. were ria, not
to France, their
children status; At best,
of German to
presumed were almost they
to inherit never
father's
in contrast some
Ibe bas
legitimated
German
noble
tards had the opportunity
to achieve the social rank one level below
that of their
117Spiess, Familie und Verwandtschaft, 382, 385, 388-89. 118Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 2:467. 119'Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 2:413-14. 120]Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, 1:416, 2:41.
Hurwich
727
father.
However,
only
a few
actually
achieved
noble
status,
and
those
who
did
so
were
sons were noble
likely to be the offspring of fathers who

of In general, Burmeister the counts of Montfort already bastards becoming receiving Burmeister exclusivity required a prerequisite for time, instead or a their ... proof and characterizes as "careers by of
had no legitimate
level,"121
sons.
to and illegitimate even these finds fewer than bastards Cathedral education invested "With declined churches, in the in
the opportunities at the middle
open
scarcer grants
the mid-fifteenth and offices
century. in the fifteenth opportunities among the
Spiess
castles
century for noble
the fourteenth. to greater chapters became
attributes lineage
the declining consciousness ancestry at on both
nobility. university increasingly
of noble for high legitimate office
sides. As nobles their
princely rather to
courts, than for
in education passage of
sons
bastards.122 steadily parish
the positions of cathedral
available canonries He
in quality: chaplaincies, teenth
there who
illegitimate were became only
children now only a bailiff or
place
in a monastery. in the sixteenth
century
became
century
a forester
the fif (Vogt) a clerk."123
The Zimmerische Chronik makes

sons met Junker with Heinrich disapproval to achieve century, efforts are by noble
it clear that generous provision for illegitimate

of the sixteenth not century. have The attempt remarkable Gott the Zim by idiosyn are his of might seemed and
the middle
status, which as a sons the morality
in the fifteenth fried Werner's mern irrational cratic, evil he lineage
is presented to have his as
tale of greed as nobles
ambition. of
accepted
and members a man outlook his wife views and
depicted
quixotic the to injures above By
fantasy
of
"unhinged" may be
affection clearly
for bastards. expects his
Although
chronicler's with
audience
sympathize the
that bastards children psycho to the patrimony the values must be of
that their existence by nature, as well as and financially, logically and to the prestige of the lineage. church and of lineage consciousness in their support, their proper but place:They they lineage. should were not be
legitimate they pose
all, that
a threat century,
the mid-sixteenth both agreed to
the
that noble
bastards and or
entitled allowed
acknowledgment to share the name
to basic noble
kept financial status of
the
father's
114-16. 121Burmeister, "Illegitime Adelsspr?sslinge," 122"After the lateMiddle Ages, careers [for bastards] became more difficult because suddenly the legitimate sons began to study. Education was no longer left to illegitimate or clerical sons"; Burmeister, 114. "Illegitime Adelsspr?sslinge," 105. 123Burmeister, "Illegitime Adelsspr?sslinge,"

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Bastards in the German Nobility in the Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries: Evidence of the "Zimmerische Chronik" Author(s):

Sixteenth Century Journal

Bastards in the Fifteenth Evidence

Nobility Sixteenth Centuries: and Early of the Zimmerische Chronik

Judith J. Hurwich School of the Holy Child, Rye, New York

the German especially sciousness of German nobles. the estimate be too

of bastards."2 of the German family chronicles "full of bastards" is the Zimmerische

Sixteenth Century Journal

the material other

in the family affairs

is autobiographical giving of insights illegitimate anecdotes into

members, and treatment also

extramarital chronicles.The ries from

behavior?including are rare in and must be

acquaintances these on of be stories the

regarded that the and of

extramarital taken as on a jurist

sexuality representative these but

all German who

nobleman layman. The article

from counts especially

chronicle barons the work

relationships and sixteenth

kingdoms. differed inheritance from prac

Customary to region region

tices of nobles often differed from those prescribed by the customary

status law family

customary and from

Nevertheless, scholars assert

early modern the attitudes

of nobility toward differences

of German nobles, and

and bastardy differed from those on based the differing "German"

nobility. The German

system of reckoning nobility "by quarters" required that both

/ Bastards in theGerman Nobility

Europe, brought the army,

illegitimate fathers' households,

of noblemen and accorded to

administration. seem circles

begotten tocrats' ... not Harsgor

of marriage In noble social the

According to have been here and

in the second half of the fifteenth

"A general if superficial a more recognized place of post-Tridentine social function

fifteenth-century countries, offices families, dynastic (a of

in those served that of

these holding fathers' extend of

the power sons and

the marriages and

illegitimate networks. Iberian of

daughters the and in

patron-client in the in the absence

Sixteenth Century Journal

These Harsgor dren

are based that "the to the with

the bastards social social or position

even chil fathers ... bas eco

of nobles Among much

ambiguity extent that one

the natural of than were their that always

decreased. tards were

the nobles less esteemed"

only than in the high