page_title: Royal bastard
section_title: English kings
hierarchical_section_title: Royal bastard / England, Scotland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom / English kings
caption_attribution_description: portrait miniature
context_page_description: A royal bastard was a common term for the illegitimate child of a reigning monarch. These children were considered to be born outside of marriage - either because the monarch had an extra-marital affair; or because the legitimacy of the monarch's marriage had been called into question.
  Notable royal bastards include Henry FitzRoy, son of King Henry VIII of England, and the Duke of Monmouth, son of Charles II. The Anglo-Norman surname Fitzroy means son of a king and was used by various illegitimate royal offspring, and by others who claimed to be such. In medieval England a bastard's coat of arms was marked with a bend/baton sinister.
  Notable fictional instances include the legendary character Mordred, who was often portrayed as King Arthur's villainous illegitimate son. Some fictional portrayals of royal bastards were less negative, such the character of Philip the Bastard in Shakespeare's King John.
caption: Henry Fitzroy was the bastard of King Henry VIII by teenage mistress Elizabeth Blount.
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