Avunculate marriage
Avunculate marriage, i.e. a union between an uncle and a niece or between an aunt and a nephew (third degree relations), fall under incest laws in some societies and are legal or even common in others.
While unions between third-degree relatives (first cousins, coefficient of relationship r=12.5%) are legal in most traditions, unions between second-degree relatives (uncle/niece, aunt/nephew, r=25%) are often, but not universally, considered incestuous. For example, avunculate marriages are illegal in the United States, and in England and Wales. They are legal in Brazil, Argentina and Austria.
Unions between first-degree relatives (parent-child, or siblings, r=50%) are nearly universally stigmatized.
Historically, there have been many avunculate marriages among the royal houses of Europe.
List of anvunculate marriages
- European royalty
- John V, Count of Armagnac and Isabelle d'Armagnac, dame des Quatre-Vallées, c. 1450, full siblings. Papal dispensation declared forged 1457[1]
- Amedeo I of Spain and his niece, Maria Letizia Bonaparte (second wife)
- Prince Augustus Ferdinand of Prussia and his niece Margravine Elisabeth Louise of Brandenburg-Schwedt
- Benedita, Dowager Princess of Brazil, and her nephew, José, Prince of Brazil
- Infante Carlos, Count of Molina, and his niece, Infanta Maria Francisca of Portugal, and later his niece, Maria Teresa of Portugal
- Roman Emperor Claudius and his fourth wife and niece, Agrippina the Younger
- Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria, and his niece, Anne Juliana Gonzaga
- Ferdinand VII of Spain and his niece Maria Isabel of Portugal, and later his niece Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies
- Francis IV, Duke of Modena, and his niece, Maria Beatrice of Savoy (titular queen of England and Scotland according to the Jacobite succession)
- Leonidas, King of Sparta and his half-niece, Gorgo[2]
- Philip II of Spain and his niece, Anna of Austria (fourth wife)
- Philip IV of Spain and his niece, Mariana of Austria (second wife)
- Non-European royalty
- King Kamehameha the Great of Hawaiʻi and his niece Queen Keopuolani
- other notable people
_-001.jpg)
- Porfirio Diaz Mori, president of Mexico (1876–80, 1884–1911), and his niece Delfina Ortega Diaz[citation needed]
- Klara Hitler, daughter of Johann Pölzl and Johanna Hiedler and Adolf Hitler's mother. Either her grandfather Johann Nepomuk Hiedler or his brother was likely her husband Alois Hitler's biological father. Moreover, Johann was her future husband's step-uncle. Even after they were married, Klara still called her husband "Uncle".[3][4]
- Adolf Hitler was rumored to have a romantic relationship with his niece, Geli Raubal
- Richard von Metternich (son of the famous Austrian Chancellor) and his niece, Pauline von Metternich.
- James Mayer de Rothschild, founder of the French branch of the Rothschild banking family, and his niece Betty Salomon von Rothschild.
- Henryk Sienkiewicz, Polish novelist, and his niece, Maria Babska.[5]
- Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet), and his niece, Marie Louise Mignot Denis.[6]
See also
[[Category:]]
- ^ Traditio 23. Canonical Implications of Richard III's Plan to Marry His Niece. Kelly, H.A. 1967 pp. 269-311. Les Cahiers de Saint Louis. Dupont, Jacques and Saillot, Jacques. 1987. Angers et Nantes, p. 755. (In French). Europäische Stammtafeln Neue Folge. Armagnac, Cte d' (Lomagne). Schwennicke, Detlev, editor. Volume III, Section 3, Table 571. (In German)
- ^ Sparta Revisited - Spartan Leodnidas I and Gorgo
- ^ The Hitler Family Tree
- ^ http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/33d/33dWImages/HitlerFamilyTreeMarcuse950pxw.png
- ^ They married in 1904. See the Polish Wikipedia article on "Henryk Sienkiewicz."
- ^ Durant, Will (1965). The Age of Voltaire: a History of Civilization in Western Europe from 1715 to 1756, with Special Emphasis on the Conflict between Religion and Philosophy. New York: Simon and Schuster. pp. 391–93.
{{cite book}}:|work=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help)
