civil law
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Carson on the Beaufort Legitimation
“Lancastrian”, 1397 charter, adultery, bigamy, bishop edmund stafford, Blanche of Lancaster, Boniface IX, Calendar of Papal Register, canon law, civil law, dispensations, Edward IV, Elizabeth Wydeville, excepta dignitate regali, Henry Cardinal Beaufort, Henry IV, Henry VII, illegitimacy, Joan “Beaufort”, John Earl of Somerset, John of Gaunt, Katherine de Roët, Lady Eleanor Talbot, Lancastrians, laws of inheritance, legitimisation, letters patent, Parliamentary Roll, Richard II, Thomas Duke of ExeterHere is Annette Carson‘s investigation into the legal background behind the legitimation of the four Beauforts, a case with obvious implications for 1483 and the succession but some differences as well. Indeed, to what extent did Henry IV, with four healthy sons and two fit daughters want his half-siblings to be among his heirs?
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John Fortescue (1385-1479) on the subject of illegitimate children inheriting or having rights of succession to their father’s estate or patrimony: “The civil [Roman] law [followed on the Continent] legitimates children born before matrimony as well as after, and causes them to succeed to the parental inheritance. But the law of England does not allow…