Posthumous birth under suspicion

II Death before life

A noblewoman gives birth in a room in her mother’s house; just one door leads in and out of the room, and three candles are lit. While the midwives tend to the parturient with expert hands, witnesses wait inside the room and in the antechamber listening for the newborn’s first cry. The child’s father died seven months prior to this scene, just shortly after his wedding. It is the birth of a posthumous child, whose future depends on the family situation he is born into, and the carefully thought-out actions taken by his mother: Did she inform her husband about the pregnancy before his death? Did he include his future child in his will? How many months passed between his death and his child’s birth? How old is the widow? Is it a firstborn? Are there any important inheritance and noble titles at stake? The answers to these questions shaped how the widow was perceived by her in-laws and in the public eye. 

Early modern legal experts such as Alonso Carranza and Alonso Pérez de Lara have written pages and pages about the duration of gestation or evidence pointing to true or feigned pregnancies. A child could mean power and security for a widow, which is why it was feared that she could be tempted to secretly introduce a stranger’s child into the line of succession with the help of a bribed midwife. The place and company she kept during the birth could raise suspicions among those who feared their inheritance might fall into the hands of a false new heir. While the in-laws could take measures to protect or even impose their rights, also the widow could resort to official authorities, such as notaries, to document pregnancy and birth as a means of defense. Taking these precautionary actions, she could arm herself with written words against the muttered rumors of illegitimacy that threatened her future, as well as her son’s. [Alice Dulmovits]