Dishonoured: The Fate of Infants Born out of Wedlock

Abstract

This paper investigates causes and consequences of the prejudice towards extramaritally born infants. The main rationale for such defamation seems to have been religious teachings. However, rather than a matter of sexual morals, “illegitimacy” became an economic issue when infants were maintained on taxpayers’ money. Under most civil laws, “bastards” could not inherit. In German-speaking states, they were excluded from the guilds, which deprived them of professional training. They found refuge in “dishonest” professions and life in poverty. In the Late Middle Ages, a third of the population was probably born extramaritally. From 1400 to 1600, the illegitimacy ratio dropped markedly, but from 1650 to 1850, it seems to have gradually risen from around 5 to 9% in most European states. French authorities did not search for the putative father but offered the mother the possibility to abandon her child in a foundling asylum. In 1990, the term “illegitimacy” was replaced by “born out of wedlock.” After an extramarital birth, the infant mortality rate was elevated by 40–50% above that of maritally born infants. After 1960, effective contraception changed sexual morals, but marital fell more than extramarital fertility. Paternity was no longer uncertain. The Catholic church’s influence decreased; and legal reforms protected the infant. Today, half of all infants in Europe are born out of wedlock; that is no longer a proxy for poverty.