BASTARD, one begotten and born out of lawful wedlock, or born during wedlock where the husband was under the age of puberty, or where the husband had died at such a time that there was no possibility of his being the father, or where there was no possibility of access on the part of the husband on account of his absence from the country, or where the hus band labored under a disability due to some natural infirmity.
The Romans distinguished two kinds of nat ural children— nothi, the issue of concubinage, and spurii, the children of prostitutes; the former could inherit from the mother, and were entitled to support from the father; the latter had no claims whatever to support. Both were often raised to all the rights of legitimate children by affiliation. The Athenians treated all bastards with extreme rigor. By the laws of Solon, they were denied the rights of citizen ship, and a law of Pericles ordered the sale of 5,000 bastards as slaves. What rendered these regulations more severe was, that not only the issue of concubinage and adultery, but all children whose parents were not both Athe nians, were considered bastards at Athens. Thus Themistocles, whose mother was a native of Halicarnassus, was deemed a bastard. The law, as might be expected, was often set aside by the influence of powerful citizens. Pericles himself had it repealed in favor of his son by Aspasia, after he had lost his legitimate children by the plague. The condition of bastards has been different in various periods of modern history. Among the Goths and Franks, they were permitted to inherit from the father. Thiery, the natural son of Clovis, inherited a share of his father's conquests. William the Conqueror, natural son of Robert I, Duke of Normandy, and of Arlette, daughter of a furrier of Falaise, inherited his father's do minions. He called himself Willelmus, cog momenta Batardus. The celebrated Dunois styled himself, in his letters, the Bastard of Orleans. In Spain, bastards have always been capable of inheriting. The bastardy of Henry
of Transtamarc did not prevent his accession to the throne of Castile. In France, the con dition of bastards was formerly very different in the different provinces. Since the Revolu tion, it has been regulated in a uniform manner by the general law of the kingdom. The code civil thus fixes their rights: If the father or mother leave legitimate descendants, the bastard is entitled to one-third of the portion he would have inherited had he been a lawful child; if the father or mother die without descendants, but leave ascendants, or brothers or sisters, he is then entitled to one-half of such a portion; if the father or mother leave no ascendants or descendants, no brothers or sisters, he is en titled to three-quarters of such a portion; and if the father or mother leave no relations within the degrees of succession, he is entitled to the whole property. These regulations do not apply to the issue of an incestuous or adulterous con nection.
By the common law of England, a child born after marriage, soon, is legitimate, or at least he is presumed to be so; for one born in wedlock, and long enough after the marfiage to admit of the period of gestation, may still be proved illegitimate, under some circum stances, and this is the general rule in the United States. According to the common law, a bastard is not the heir of any one; and, on the other hand, his only heirs are his children born in wedlock, and their descendants. According to the Roman law, one born out of wedlock might be legitimated by subsequent marriage and acknowledgment of his parents. In 1236 the English prelates proposed the introduction of the Roman law, in this respect, into Eng land, to which the nobility made the celebrated reply, Nolumus kges Anglia Inutare (We are unwilling to change the laws of England). But that law exists in Scotland to-day, though not in England, Ireland or Wales. Consult Schouler, 'Treatise on the Law of Domestic Relations.' See ILLEGMMACY.