Why is legitimacy important?
A. Producing legitimate offspring was a concern not only for royalty but for members of all levels of society: craftsmen wanted sons to carry on the family business, yeomen farmers to hand down their farms and livestock, gentry families to pass on the family manor and lands. The idea of family and descent was much stronger in this period than it is now. The ‘right of primogeniture’ was the right of the first born son in the family to inherit the family lands. It was important that the lands were kept together rather than split because it meant greater wealth for the holder of the family’s inheritance. The proprietor was seen as a ‘guardian’ of the family fortune until it passed to the next heir. If the family was wealthy enough like some of the nobility, they would also be able to provide lands for younger sons to establish their own families, or cadet branches. Most families could not afford to do this. Thus younger sons frequently went into the church, royal administration or (later)
