Bastard (Family Law)

Legitimacy, in traditional Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, illegitimacy (or bastardy) has been the status of a child born outside marriage, such a child being known as a bastard, a love child, or illegitimate, when such a child has been differentiated from other children.

In Scots law, the terms natural son and natural daughter bear the same implications. The prefix "Fitz-", added to a surname (e.g., FitzRoy), sometimes denoted that the child's parents were not married at the time of birth.

Depending on local legislation, legitimacy can affect a child's rights of inheritance to the putative father's estate and the child's right to bear the father's surname or hereditary title. Illegitimacy has also had consequences for the mother's and child's right to support from the putative father.

The importance of legitimacy has decreased considerably in Western countries with the increasing economic independence of women, the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, the fall of totalitarian regimes, and the declining influence of Christian churches on family life. Births outside marriage represent the majority in many countries of Western Europe and in many former European colonies. In many Western-derived cultures, stigma based on parents' marital status, and use of the word "bastard", are now considered offensive.

Famous Examples Of A Illegitimate (Bastard) Child[edit]

• Adam FitzRoy (c. 1303/1307 - 1322), illegitimate son of Edward II (1284 - 1327)
• Ferdinand I of Naples (1424 - 1494), illegitimate son of Alfonso V of Aragon (1396 - 1458)
• Possibly Thomas Stucley (c. 1520 – 4 August 1578), alleged illegitimate child of Henry VIII (1491 - 1547)
• Catherine Carey (c. 1524 – 15 January 1569), illegitimate child of Henry VIII (1491 - 1547)