Illegitimacy in medieval Germany?

Mikael · Post by **Mikael** » Fri Mar 19, 2004 6:33 am

Do any of our name gurus know?

What terms were used for acknowledged bastards in Germany during the Middle Ages?
Bastard? Batarde? Something completely different?
With or without surname, with or without von, v. or von der?

And would these illegitimate cadet branches used some variation of the original coat-of-arms?

Caithlinn · Post by **Caithlinn** » Fri Mar 19, 2004 7:29 am

Hi,

I'm not really familiar with the subject, but I can help on the "name" side. A bastard in German is (funnily...) a Bastard (plural Bastarde) or Bankert, if you want to be a bit more insulting....

However, I have access to "The Sixteenth Century Journal" which features an article about the subject written by Judith Hurwich: Bastards in the German nobility in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries : evidence of the "Zimmerische Chronik". (Vol.34, No.3, 2003)

I can post/scan/fax it to you if you like.

Caithlinn

Mikael · Post by **Mikael** » Tue Mar 23, 2004 5:18 am

Thank you for your reply.

I googled with bastard and Deutschland and gathered as much, I just had no idea how old the usage term would have been.

I would be interested in the article too, if you can get it in some electronic format without too much trouble to yourself. (For I think it is also possible for me to track it through interlibrary loans, if I really want it.)

Mikael, probably going to adopt Bastard von Rantzau as sobriquet