(no subject)

Died on this day in 1163 aged 26 William FitzEmpress(my toy,wikipedia). Son of the Empress Matilda (who fought Stephen over the crown of England, she was an Empress because she was married to the Holy Roman Emperor Henry V, who was not William's father that was her 2nd husband Geoffrey of Anjou). Interestingly he is mostly known as "FitzEmpress" meaning "son of the Empress" which I guess highlights Matilda's importance. William was supposed to marry the widow of his cousin, but failed to get papal permission, so didn't. Permission was needed because marriages created "affinity" which was as important as "consanguinity" in the laws about who you were allowed to marry; the distance to which cousin-marriage was permitted has varied a lot over time and in different countries, and the degree to which permission could be obtained by asking the Pope or other authority. Currently in England the law allows cousin marriage but still affinity can still matter (for instance you may not marry your step-child). "Oops I found out she is my cousin" was also a reason you could use to ask the Pope for an annulment. Possibly even if you already wrote to the Pope to ask for permission to marry her in the first place... this didn't work for Henry VIII (in this case Catherine being his sister-in-law, although also his 3rd cousin) but it did work for other people (who I am too lazy to find) who were presumably on better terms with the Pope. Since nobles tend to want to marry other nobles, and most of the nobility of Europe were cousins... the Pope had quite a lot of control over who married who (where people were in favour of doing what the Pope said). These days you are not allowed to petition parliament for permission to marry forbidden relations (well, obviously you *could* write to your MP, but I doubt it would work, even for very important and well connected people) but many fewer relations are forbidden.

Born on this day in 1699 to King Peter II of Portugal and Maria of Neuburg Francisca of Portugal(my toy,wikipedia). Her Aunt married Charles II, and, er, I can't think of anything interesting about her.