The Royal We

A discussion was underway at theroyalforums.com about "Incestuous Royal Marriages." This blog has noted such things before.
 
Kataryn started off the discussion YEARS ago...

Legally Catherine of Aragon was married incestually because she as widow of one brother married the other after the first hausband's death.

That's not considered incest in most definitions.

But that's just a formality. History has shown that Royal families did not hesitate to form very close bonds between them. While a marriage of cousin and cousin happened quite often, marriages between unles and nieces are rare - but they happened, too.

One example is the marriage of Antoinette Marie of Wuerttemberg to Ernst I. of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Marie's mother Antoinette of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was the sister of the groom.

Then there are the three uncle-niece marriages of the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs:

- Philipp II. married Anna of Austria, the daughter of his sister Marie.

- Archduke Charles II of Austria-Innerösterreich married Maria Anna of Bavaria, daughter of his sister Anna of Austria.

- Philipp IV. married Marianna of Austria, daughter of his sister Maria Anna.

As you can see, the last three uncle-niece-marriages happened in the House of Habsburg between 1550 and 1660 in the direct line leading to Philipp IV. of Spain and his wife Marianna of Austria. Their child is the sad, sick Don Carlos of Schillerian fame...

Not 100 years later, the House of Habsburg ended in the male line. But of course the marriage of Maria Theresia of Austria to Francis Stephan of Lorraine brought new blood into the family..

As I understand it, uncle-niece marriages are allowed in some places in deference to religious traditions.

The Pain in Spain Repeated Refrain

There's been much interest around the planet about the couple in Spain who've had their infant (temporarily, hopefully) taken away. We wrote about this previously here.


Here's a few examples of the coverage, and below that, we'll analyze opinion about this.

Will Grice has coverage at independent.co.uk.


Kate Storey has the coverage at cosmopolitan.com.

Here's coverage at motherhoodinstyle.net.

Rebecca Koerber has the coverage at huffingtonpost.com.au.

Sophie Tighe has the coverage at thesun.co.uk.

Now we get into the blatant opinions. Elizabeth Licata had coverage at mommyish.com under the headline "Incestuous Father-Daughter Couple Fights for Return of Their Baby, Which They Probably Should Not Get."

The heart wants what the heart wants, and when it comes to relationships there is a fine gray line between “legal” and “awful,” but this case of a couple from Spain who are fighting the courts for the return of their new baby is nowhere near that line, because the couple are a father and his teenage daughter, and everything about this case is positively stomach-churning in its horribleness.

That's not a reason. It begs the question.

The Pain in Spain

A situation out of Mallorca, Spain is getting international attention as there appears to be an unnecessary removing of a child from her mother.

The most important line in the article by Fiona Govan at thelocal.es is the opening line...

Incest is not against the law in Spain as long as it is carried out between consenting adults, but a father and daughter are appealing after a judge awarded temporary custody of their child to the state pending a full investigation.

Spain is one of the better countries in the world for consanguineous lovers, usually.

The 36-year-old man insists he is in a "unique and loving relationship" with his 18-year-old daughter Sara and that they should be allowed to keep his newborn baby girl - who is also his granddaughter.

The man, who has given his name as Cris, told the local newspaper Cronica Balear that his ex-wife (and mother of Sara) had reported him for abuse because she was jealous of the relationship.

That is not unusual, unfortunately. Friends and family of the consanguinamorous should have compassion instead of being rats.

Two Families, Two Countries and Why Equality is Needed

Cornelius, a frequent commenter here, linked to this recent coverage of persecuted couple Patrick Stuebing (or Stubing, depending) and Susan Karolewski. It is a Spanish website and it also covers a Spanish couple, Daniel and Rosa Moya. Thank you, Cornelius!

Today's society accepts - legally, at least - almost any type of relationship between adults, yet alarm bells ring where siblings are concerned. The cases of Patrick Stuebing and Susan Karolewski in Germany, and of Daniel and Rosa Moya in A Coruña, show that it is possible for two close relatives to fall in love and form a family just like anyone else. But the different way both couples were treated - obtaining legal papers in Spain, facing a criminal conviction in Germany - underscores the fact that criteria differ even within European Union countries. In any case, there is no denying that siblings who love each other, have sex and produce children, prove problematic both from social and legal standpoints.

The entire European Union needs to get with the 21st century and let all consenting adults have the relationships they want. What happened in the Stuebing case is terrible.