In one of the Soldiers of Fortune stories a couple needs a papal dispensation in order to marry. This is because they’re too closely related to marry in the normal course of things. There were rules about consanguinity which were fairly closely observed by monarchs and the nobility, who would not want anyone to question the validity of a marriage and, by implication, the legitimacy of any heirs. These rules were probably more or less ignored by everyone else.
A papal dispensation is permission from the pope for someone to do something contrary to canon law. Its best-known use relates to marriage, where it can permit a marriage which would not otherwise be allowed or dissolve a marriage.
Probably the most famous papal dispensation was one that wasn’t granted. Henry VIII requested one to enable him to put aside his wife, Katherine of Aragon, and marry Anne Boleyn. Since he had already requested, and received, one in order to marry Katherine, he was on a bit of a losing wicket from the start. Henry had needed a dispensation to marry Katherine because she was his brother’s widow, which meant that their marriage would be incestuous. Katherine said that her marriage to Prince Arthur had not been consummated and the pope allowed Henry and Katherine to marry.
There were prohibitions against marriages considered incestuous and the rules of consanguinity also covered people who were only related by marriage. Hence, if Katherine’s marriage to Arthur had been ruled valid, Katherine and Henry would have been related to the first degree, that is, they would have been considered brother and sister.
The prohibited degrees of consanguinity varied throughout the Middle Ages. Before 1215, when the Fourth Lateran Council clarified the issue, marriage between sixth cousins was prohibited. Who is your sixth cousin? It’s someone who shares a great-great-great-great-great-grandparent with you, or someone who was married to someone who shared a great-great-great-great-great-grandparent with you. You can see how it might be difficult to know who your sixth cousin was. If you lived in a small village, you could almost guarantee that you were related to everyone else more closely than that.
In 1215 the Fourth Lateran Council decreed that the fourth degree of consanguinity was the closest at which a marriage could be permitted. This meant that marriage between a couple who shared a great-grandparent was not permitted. Brother and sister are related in the first degree, first cousins in the second, second cousins in the third and so on. An infringement of this rule was considered incest.
If you were a noble, however, you might be able to persuade the pope that your close relationship to your intended wife was not such an impediment. Edward of Woodstock, the Black Prince, needed a papal dispensation to marry Joan of Kent. His great-grandfather, Edward I, was her grandfather, which meant that they were first cousins once removed. They married secretly some weeks before the dispensation was requested in the hope of forcing the pope’s hand. The pope gave his permission and Joan’s third marriage reinforced her reputation of marital irregularity.
I’ve just watched The Tudors series for the tenth time (I love Jonathan Rhys-Myers!!) and always wonder what would have happened in this country if the Pope had allowed Henry VIII to break from Queen Katherine and marry Anne.
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Things might have gone the same way. Anne didn’t give him a son either and the rest of the wives were, I think (I’m not sure), Protestant or had Protestant leanings. Mary might not have become queen, though. It is an interesting speculation.
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It certainly is.
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What a fascinating post. The first thought that struck me was that it must have been extraordinarily difficult to find anyone who wasn’t a sixth cousin in England pre-1215! Then I realised I’d forgotten the effect plague in the 14th C had on population numbers, and my original estimate was probably way too low. Even so, it would still have been tricky, so I’m sure most people wouldn’t have worried about it.
You’ve also explained “cousins” so well. A week or so ago a friend asked me if his father’s cousin was his second cousin. I said: No, first cousin once removed. So what, he asked, is a second cousin? To which I glibly replied: There’s a rule for that, which I’ve forgotten. Now you’ve reminded me – count the greats, then minus one.
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I’m sure most people wouldn’t even have been aware that they weren’t supposed to marry their sixth cousins. I don’t even know all the people who share great-grandparents with me.
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Neither do I, and I live in a country with a population of around 4.5 million where it seems like there’s only one or two degrees of separation between anybody. On a few occasions I’ve met by chance people who turned out to be relatives. I must have met other unknown relatives over the years, but nothing came up in conversation to show a connection.
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Fortunately, rules about consanguinity are a bit more relaxed these days.
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In a small village, pretty much everybody would be your sixth cousin. Okay, I exaggerate, but only slightly. And I’m not sure the nobles were a much larger gene pool.
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No, I don’t think they were, but at least they knew who their cousins were.
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My god, its amazing we are all still here when you consider many would not have travelled beyond their own villlages…and we think its difficult dating these days…actually now I imagining a sort of Dating Game show of the middle ages…that would be fun!There might be a cartoon on the way!
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In your dating game do people have to bring copies of their family tree going back ten generations? I can picture couples counting on their fingers trying to work out if they have a common ancestor and then realising that there’s a gap, because great-great-great-great-great-granddad John was illegitimate and no one knows who the father was.
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I would imagine the rules were ignored often, as it might not have been easy to get the Pope’s attention. Unless you were royalty. Thanks for the lesson.
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I suspect not many people in villages across Europe knew about it or cared. Kings and nobles had to care. They could get the pope’s attention easily enough, but the Avignon popes tended not to agree to requests from English kings. Edward of Woodstock was lucky that his pope was less of a puppet of the king of France than some of the others.
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