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A royal bastard is a child of a reigning monarch born out of wedlock. The king might have a child with a mistress, or the legitimacy of a marriage might be questioned for reasons concerning succession.
Notable royal bastards include Robert, Earl of Gloucester, son of Henry I of England, Henry FitzRoy, son of Henry VIII of England, and the Duke of Monmouth, son of Charles II. The Anglo-Norman surname Fitzroy means son of a king and was used by various illegitimate royal offspring, and by others who claimed to be such. In medieval England a bastard's coat of arms was marked with a bend or baton sinister.[1]
Notable fictional examples include Mordred, the villainous illegitimate son of King Arthur. Some fictional portrayals of royal bastards are less negative, such as the character of Philip the Bastard in Shakespeare's King John.
- ^ Given-Wilson, Chris, and Alice Curteis, The Royal Bastards of Medieval England (1995), pp. 52, 48-49.