Medieval popes kept increasing the prohibited degrees so they could have more power over the inbred aristocracy. Clever!
I doubt medieval popes even understood what the hell was going on in England. I’ve been studying it for years and don’t understand what was going on.
“Medieval popes kept increasing the prohibited degrees so they could have more power over the inbred aristocracy. Clever!”
Really? You might want to read James A. Brundage, Law, Sex, and Christian Society in Medieval Europe (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), page 356. Brundage shows that the laws regarding consanguinity were greatly lessened after 1215. Fourth cousins and beyond could marry without needing a dispensation. For two centuries before that necessary dispensations were routinely granted because many in Europe naturally married those they knew in their own towns and villages and the members of the aristocracy were all inter-related to some degree. I have no idea if Charles Donahue, Jr. covers this in his book or not.
The prohibition against cousin marriages to the 3rd or 4th degree was not just a way to get power...Given the genetic problems in European aristocracy, it looks like they might have been right.
and the congenital malformation rate in Saudi Arabia and other countries where cousins can marry suggest this also.
but it does not have to be just cousins marrying cousins...any small population that intermarries has similar problems....example Askanazi Jews or the Amish...