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From: Nathaniel Taylor< >
Subject: Re: Which Agatha? == and her sister, Anna?
Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2000 22:28:17 -0500


In article <>, "Todd A. Farmerie"
<> wrote:

> "Stewart, Peter" wrote:
> >
> > I haven't studied Iberian pedigrees, and take it you are referring to
> > solidly-evidenced unions here - in which case the practice in Toulouse may
> > well heve been influenced by what southwestern neighbours could get away
> > with, I suppose.
>
> Just off the top of my head, I can think of a dozen first cousin
> marriages, in the royal houses of Navarre and Leon, and the
> Counts of Aragon and Castile.
>
> >
> > In a posting of 5 December I wrote: "In 1309 Clement V gave a dispensation
> > for the union of Jaime, heir to the throne of Aragon, and Leonor of Castile
> > who were related in the second & third degrees through one connection and in
> > the third & fourth through another. Jeronimo Zurita comments on this in his
> > *Anales de la Corona de Aragn*. Apparently the pope stated that he did not
> > know of any instance where the Church had permitted a marriage in such close
> > degree before, and that he was allowing it in order to bring peace to the
> > two kingdoms. (Leonor's grandmother St Isabel, queen consort of Portugal,
> > was Jaime's paternal aunt.)"
> >
> > Was Clement wrong? Or did these earlier first-cousin marriages in Spain all
> > take place without clerical sanction?
>
> I rather doubt they asked permission, if that's what you mean.

The eleventh and twelfth centuries in Castile, Len & Navarre were times
when Papal writ ran low: the Spaniards were promoting their own apostolic
dignity (Santiago) as basis for a fairly independent church. At any rate,
these closely-related marriages were common (as Todd remarks, and despite
my earlier assertion of their rarity--I was thinking for North of the
Pyrenees); there is no evidence (that I can think of) that the Spanish
church worked to enforce any restrictive code of prohibited degrees of
consanguinity or affinity, as in the North.

Nat Taylor

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