La légitimation des bâtards de Raymond-Roger de Comminges et Jeanne d’Espagne (1447). Eglise, royauté et réhabilitation des enfants issus d’une union incestueuse au XVe siècle

The legitimation of the bastard children of Raymond-Roger de Comminges and Jeanne d’Espagne (1447). Church, royalty and the rehabilitation of the children of an incestuous union in the XVth century This study sets out to provide a detailed analysis of the letters of legitimisation granted by the royal chancellery of Charles VII to the five children of the union of Raymond-Roger de Comminges and Jeanne d’Espagne (1447). This marriage was a voidable act due to transgression of the interdictions on consanguinity set out in canon law. This case permits one to address the possibility of rehabilitation of the children carrying the double stigma of incest and illegitimacy. In the event, Raymond-Roger de Comminges chose to address the royal jurisdiction, even when retrospective régularisation of the marriage would have been possible by obtaining a matrimonial dispensation from the apostolic Penitentiary. The common competence of the two administrations -royal and pontifical- in this matter seems to constitute a point of crystallisation of the debates on the limits of the temporal and spiritual spheres. The letters of legitimisation usually set out legal reasoning based upon a principle, informed by secular values, of compensation for the blemish of illegitimacy. An argument of circumstances adapted to the case of Raymond-Roger de Comminges brings to bear the notion of incest. It strives to put into practice a principle of mitigating the fault through the incorporation of language and of elements of interpretation which derive from canon law.