Legitimization

Acknowledged bastards can be legitimized, receiving the rights and social status of trueborn offspring by royal decree.
==History==
===Game of Thrones: Season 1===
The infamous Great Bastards, legitimized bastard children of King Aegon IV Targaryen, are mentioned in The Lineages and Histories of the Great Houses of the Seven Kingdoms."A Golden Crown"
===Game of Thrones: Season 3===
Catelyn tells Talisa that when her husband's bastard, Jon Snow, became ill as an infant, she prayed to the Seven to let him live, and in return promised to love him and ask her husband to legitimize him. Jon recovered, but Catelyn did not stay true to either of her vows."Dark Wings, Dark Words"
===Game of Thrones: Season 4===
As a reward for Roose Bolton's role in the Red Wedding, his bastard son Ramsay Snow is legitimized by the crown, but Roose does not present the decree to Ramsay until he succeeds in liberating Moat Cailin from the Ironborn. This makes him an official Bolton and Roose's heir, with the right to inherit his lands and titles when he dies. Ramsay is grateful for this, and promises to uphold his father's name and traditions."The Mountain and the Viper"
===Game of Thrones: Season 5===
Stannis offers to legitimize Jon as "Jon Stark" and make him Lord of Winterfell, in return for pledging his allegiance to him and helping him retake the North from the Boltons. Jon confides to Sam that this was the first thing he ever wanted, often wishing that his father would ask Robert Baratheon to legitimize him (though he never did out of respect for Catelyn), but decides to politely decline Stannis's offer. As Jon explains to Sam, he feels that even if Stannis formally released him from his vow to the Night's Watch, the vow is meant to be taken for life, so he wouldn't make a very good Lord of Winterfell: any future oaths he made as Lord of Winterfell would be doubted and distrusted, if he was even willing to renege on his vow to the Night's Watch."The House of Black and White"
Although Ramsay Bolton has been legitimized as a true Bolton, his status as his father's heir is placed in question when Walda Bolton, Ramsay's stepmother, becomes pregnant with Roose's child, whom Maester Wolkan says will be a boy. Sansa herself brings this up while antagonizing Ramsay, telling him to his face that while he may have been legitimized, he is still a bastard-born son who was legitimized by a bastard king and who will likely be pushed behind his trueborn half-brother in the line of succession."The Gift"
===Game of Thrones: Season 8===
After the Battle of Winterfell, Daenerys decides to legitimize Gendry, the last surviving son of Robert and a bastard, as the lord of House Baratheon, and grants him his new House's ancestral seat of Storm's End."The Last of the Starks"
==Known legitimized bastards==
thumb|House Blackfyre was founded by the legitimized bastard Daemon I Blackfyre
*Lord {Orys Baratheon} was born the bastard son of Lord Targaryen of Dragonstone, and thus half-brother of Aegon the Conqueror and his sisters. After taking Storm's End during Aegon's Conquest, he received the full social status and rights of a noble lord, becoming Lord Baratheon.
*Ser {Daemon I Blackfyre}, formerly Waters, bastard son of King Aegon IV Targaryen and Daena Targaryen. Legitimized by his father on the latter's deathbed. Founded the cadet branch House Blackfyre and led a rebellion against his half-brother King Daeron II Targaryen. Killed in the Battle of Redgrass Field.
*Ser {Aegor Rivers}, bastard son of King Aegon IV Targaryen. Legitimized by his father on the latter's deathbed. Took his half-brother Daemon's side in the Blackfyre Rebellion. Founder of the Golden Company. Died in exile in Essos.
*{Brynden Rivers}, bastard son of King Aegon IV Targaryen. Legitimized by his father on the latter's deathbed. Took his half-brother Daeron's side in the Blackfyre Rebellion. Believed to be a sorcerer. Killed his half-brother Daemon in the Battle of Redgrass Field. Served as Hand of the King, Master of Whisperers and later Lord Commander of the Night's Watch."
*{Shiera Seastar}, bastard daughter of King Aegon IV Targaryen. Legitimized by her father on his deathbed. Famous seductress and rumored sorceress. Lover of her half-brother Brynden, but was also beloved by her other half-brother Aegor, causing a bitter hatred between them.
*Lord {Ramsay Bolton}, formerly Snow, bastard son of Roose Bolton, Lord of the Dreadfort and Warden of the North, by a miller's wife. Legitimized by King Tommen Baratheon after liberating Moat Cailin from the Ironborn. Married Princess Sansa Stark in order to claim Winterfell. Killed his father, stepmother, and newborn half-brother in order to secure his position. Served as head of House Bolton, Lord of the Dreadfort, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North. Executed following the Battle of the Bastards.
*Lord Gendry Baratheon, bastard son of King Robert Baratheon. Legitimized by Queen Daenerys Targaryen after the Battle of Winterfell and named Lord of Storm's End.
==In the books==
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, bastards can receive a bill of legitimacy, allowing them to take their father's surname and formally join his House, or to take a new surname and found a new House (some bastards take new names altogether, like "Blackfyre", while others add a prefix to their bastard name, such as "Longwaters"). For example, House Baratheon was founded by Orys Baratheon, the legitimized bastard half-brother of Aegon the Conqueror.
However, while bastards stand outside the lines of succession and inheritance, there are still exceptions which have caused immense problems. King Aegon IV Targaryen legitimized three of his bastard sons and one of his bastard daughters on his deathbed. His eldest bastard son, Daemon I Blackfyre, later claimed the Iron Throne and led a bloody civil war known as the First Blackfyre Rebellion. His sons and descendants launched four more attempts to take the Iron Throne before their final claimant, Maelys the Monstrous, was slain by Ser Barristan Selmy during the War of the Ninepenny Kings. This is sometimes used as an example of what happens if a bastard is treated too well and given too much power and legitimacy. It should be noted that the social stigma is not automatically removed even after the formal legitimization is performed.
George R.R. Martin has stated that in-universe, legitimization happens so rarely that there is no set legal principle for where a legitimized bastard ranks in the line of succession: whether they should go after all of a lord's trueborn children, or whether they should be placed according to birth order. For example, if Eddard Stark ever had Jon Snow legitimized, there is no established rule for whether Jon would go behind or ahead of his younger but trueborn half-brothers Bran and Rickon. In the case of the First Blackfyre Rebellion this was a moot point, because Daemon Blackfyre was not only bastard-born, but simply younger than Daeron II Targaryen. Daemon's followers therefore had to promote the rumor that Daeron II was himself a bastard of his father's younger brother.
In the novels, Ramsay receives his decree of legitimacy signed by King Tommen Baratheon as a reward for the part his father played in the Red Wedding, as he was in need of an heir after the death of his trueborn son Domeric who apparently died of a stomach virus. Roose believes Ramsay to have poisoned Domeric out of jealousy of his status as their father's heir. He wins Ramsay's legitimacy despite this, as he believes that due to his age he will not live to see any children he might have with his new wife Walda live to adulthood, and suspects that Ramsay will kill them anyway. Ramsay is very sensitive to his origin, and reacts very violently if someone calls him "bastard" or "Snow", even without offensive intention.
The TV series actually has Walda Bolton announce that she is pregnant in Season 5. In the novels, no such announcement is made. The only reference to her pregnancy is in the last of Theon's chapters in "A Dance with Dragons", when he sees Roose entering the Great Hall at Winterfell accompanied by his plump and pregnant wife. Roose anticipates that there will be strife between Ramsay and any children he has with Walda. In Season 5, Roose uses Walda's pregnancy as a warning to Ramsay that he should shape up and restrain his behavior, because Roose now has a fallback option for an heir instead of him. Roose confides to Ramsay, however, that he sees much of his younger self in him (after recounting that he fathered Ramsay through the brutal rape of a commoner), and would much rather that Ramsay improve himself, without having to resort to disinheriting him. As Martin said, there is no established legal principle for what place a legitimized bastard takes in a line of succession, so Roose can name or unname Ramsay or Walda's child as the heir to House Bolton entirely at his own discretion.
Robb Stark had planned to legitimize Jon Snow and name him his heir until a son was born to him from Jeyne Westerling - given that he falsely believe that his other trueborn brothers were dead, Arya was probably dead, and Sansa was a prisoner of the Lannisters. He signed the decree in the presence of several lords as witnesses. However, it is unknown what became of the decree, as it is no longer mentioned in the books. It is speculated that Robb gave it to Maege Mormont and Galbart Glover, but their current location is unknown. So far Jon has not received the decree, and has no idea of its existence.
In the novels, Jon finds Stannis's offer to legitimize him very tempting, but explains that he is bound by his oath to the Watch. Melisandre tells him "R'hllor is the only true god. A vow sworn to a tree has no more power than one sworn to your shoes. Open your heart and let the light of the Lord come in. Burn these weirwoods, and accept Winterfell as a gift of the Lord of Light". Jon thinks it over, recalling how when he was very young, too young to understand what it meant to be a bastard, he used to dream that one day Winterfell might be his. Later, when he was older, he had been ashamed of those dreams. Now, in order to claim his father's castle, he must turn against his father's gods. The more Jon thinks about it, he grows to loathe the notion of destroying the weirwood of Winterfell. He looks at Ghost, whose white fur and red eyes remind him of a heart tree, and this is what makes him reject the legitimization offer.
==References==
Category:Culture and society
 
pt-br:Legitimização