A family affair: Mothers, mothers in law and other relatives and their behaviour towards royal fertility

I Procreation

Royal fertility was a matter of state, but also a dynastic and family affair. In a moment in time in which all three categories were intrinsically linked, the different members of royal families frequently talked about topics related to fertility both in person and in their letters. Especially mothers, mothers in laws, grandmothers and even sisters, godmothers, and aunts, using their own experience, gave recommendations related to menstruations, tactics to become pregnant, advice about what they should do during their pregnancies to protect their health and the babies, and which procedures they considered the safest to have a successful delivery. Many royal mothers and mothers in law supervised closely the pregnancies and childbirths of their daughters, daughters in law and granddaughters, even sending them objects like relics and remedies, or acting as mediators in the election of midwives, long before the actual labour began. Sometimes, these women tried to impose their own vision about how their female relatives should act during their pregnancies and labour, even when their advice clashed with the traditions and desire of the mother and the most important members of their court. But we also must take into account the political considerations related to pregnancies, miscarriages and childbirth, as the bodies of royal women were never private, but a public, political and dynastic sphere, where each part of the process had public repercussions of which royal women were perfectly aware. 

Finally, although this sphere was mostly feminine, men were not completely absent, especially when there were no female relatives that could fulfil these roles for a princess in question. That’s why fathers, fathers in law, husbands and even grandfathers were also closely linked, through recommendations, planning and advice, to the discussions and talks about royal women’s fertility during the Early Modern period. [Rocío Martínez]