droit du seigneur

The Merovingians

How rare is it to be related to the legendary Merovingian kings? Not all that uncommon. For many generations, the Merovingian kings and lords of Europe practiced what is sometimes called “droit du seigneur” or “jus primae noctis”, whereby the ruler of a realm would claim sexual access to any woman who was a commoner at any time, and particularly on a bride’s wedding night.

Historians have wondered if that chilling practice of oppression was ever actually a real thing that happened. It did, and it must have been demoralizing. It was especially associated with the Merovingians, who systematically raped their way into many, many family lines (many of which probably had tons of mystique of their own) over a long period of time. When kings and lords of old would institute it, they would often think of the Merovingians.

Considering that this happened for a long time during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and that each person has over 2,000 great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents (and note that I do not know how many greats it takes to go back all the way to the Middle Ages, but it’s more than that), the odds are reasonably substantial that anyone who has any European ancestry is quite possibly somehow related to this family of kings.

I wonder if this missing element of the Merovingian legacy adds to the shroud of mystery behind the idea of that bloodline, which is often associated with conspiracy theories and modern urban legends. Carolingians, from lines reputed to be related to Charlemagne (circa 747-814 A.D.), are another frequent subject of legends, as is the Davidic line, which is itself not all that uncommon to this day, considering that King Solomon ben David is said to have had something around 1,000 wives and concubines.

──── by Lync Dalton ────

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