The Bastard King: Illegitimacy and the Throne

King Joffrey

In the hit TV series Game of Thrones, doubts about Prince Joffrey's legitimacy led to political instability in Westeros.  Ned Stark is executed after discovering that Prince Joffrey and his siblings were not the children of King Robert Baratheon.  Instead, they were the products of Queen Cersei's affair with her brother Jaime Lannister.

Questions of Joffrey's legitimacy weakened his claim to the throne and destabilized his rule.  During his reign, his right to rule was challenged by his uncles Stannis and Renly.  Perhaps the reasons for Joffrey's cruelty stemmed from his insecurity over his legitimacy.  Historically, kings with weak claims to their thrones had dealt with their subjects and poltical rivals mercilessly.  For example, King Henry VII Tudor struggled to justify his right to rule England based on his ancestry, which was tinged by the possibilities of illegitimacy.  His father Jasper Tudor was the son of King Henry V's widow and the Welsh adventurer Owen Tudor and his mother Margaret Beaufort was descended from the Beauforts, the illegitimate offspring of John of Gaunt (see family tree below).  The Beauforts were legimitized when John of Gaunt married his mistress Catherine Syndford.  To stabilize his rule, King Henry VII killed members of the Plantagenet royal family who had stronger claims to the throne than his, and he imposed burdensome taxes on his subjects.    By eliminating his rivals and by generating revenue for himself, King Henry VII secured the English throne for his family.

King Henry VII, a possible inspiration for King Joffrey

The themes of illegitimacy and kingship as portrayed in Game of Thrones are loosely inspired by actual historical events.  Questions of a monarch's legitimacy can seriously disrupt the line of succession.  For example, during the War of the Roses, the Yorkist and Lancaster branches of the Plantagenet royal family fought for the English throne.  Some doubted that Edward Lancaster, the Prince of Wales, was the son of the mentally unstable King Henry VI, and circulating rumors indicated that the prince was the product of an affair between Queen Margaret of Anjou and the Duke of Somerset.  Like Prince Joffrey, Prince Edward had a reputation for being bloodthirsty in battle and for treating his wife Anne Neville cruelly.

Possible Inspiration for King Joffrey

Families arranged marriages in order to form political alliances and to increase the wealth and power of successive generations.  Since paternity was difficult to prove, women were expected to demonstrate faithfulness to their husbands, whereas men were allowed to have affairs outside of marriage.  Fears that illegimate children spawned by a wife could inherit the husband's property generated conflicts within royal families.   Although Prince Edward's legitmacy was questioned, it was never proven.  Were rumors surrounding Prince Edward's inheritance based on truth or were they politicially motivated?  Did bastards inherit the throne?

The recent genetic analyses of King Richard III's skeleton provides valuable insight on the legitimacies of the Plantagenet and Tudor royal families.  Scientists had discovered a false paternity incident due to female infidelity upon finding a mismatch in the Y-chromosome types between the Yorkist King Richard III and his Lancaster relatives.  This discovery re-ignited rumors that John of Gaunt, the ancestor of the Lancasters and Tudors, was illegitimate.  If that were the case, then all of the Lancaster kings (King Henry IV, King Henry V, and King Henry VI) as well as the Tudors had no right to inherit the English throne.  Altnernatively, King Richard III's grandfather Richard, the Earl of Cambridge, might have been the illegitimate son of Isabelle of Castille and her lover John Howard.  Perhaps this was the reason why Edmund, the Duke of York, left the Earl of Cambridge out of his will.  Although this break in the family tree would weaken the Yorkist claim to the English throne, the Yorkists are descended from two sons (Lionel, Duke of Clarence, and John of Gaunt) of King Edward III, the first Plantagenet king.  Thus, the break in the family tree can potentially do more to

jeopardize the Lancasters' and Tudors' claims to the throne than the those of the Yorkists.

 Note that the descendents of Richard, Earl of Cambridge could trace their lineage to Lionel, Duke of Clarence and Edmund,  Duke of York.  The Lancaster Kings were descended from John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster.  King Henry VII Tudor was descended from the Beauforts, the illegitimate descendents of John of Gaunt.  The Beauforts were legimized upon John of Gaunt's marriage to Catherine Swynford.  Owen Tudor, the father of Edmund Tudor, was married to Henry V's widow Catherine of France (not shown in family tree)

In addition to being descended from Lionel, Duke of Clarence, and Edmund Duke of York, the offspring of Richard, Duke of York, are also descended from John of Gaunt from their maternal side.  Interestingly, Anne Neville, Edward, Prince of Wales, and King Richard III are all descended from John of Gaunt.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30281333 
http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulrodgers/2014/12/03/dna-casts-doubt-on-richard-iiis-legitimacy/http://persephonemagazine.com/2013/09/the-real-game-of-thrones-joffrey-baratheon-v-edward-of-lancaster/