Iure uxoris

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Iure uxoris is a Latin term that can be translated as "from the right of the wife". It is usually used to denote a (nobility) title held by a man whose wife has this title in her own right (for example due to an inheritance).

The husband of an heiress became the owner of his wife's goods and titles iure uxoris . In the Middle Ages, this was also the case for ruling queens and princesses, and the monarch's husband became monarch himself. In some cases he remained king after the death of his wife, and sometimes he left the kingdom to his descendants from other marriages (example: the Lithuanian Grand Duke Władysław II Jagiełło , who became King of Poland as the husband of Queen Jadwiga ). In the case of divorce, the husband initially remained monarch while the wife lost her status (example: Maria of Boulogne and Matthew of Alsace , who were divorced in 1170).

In Portugal a husband could be a king iure uxoris as soon as he was the father of the heir. Queen Maria I already had children from her uncle and husband when she ascended the throne, so he was named Peter III. became king at that moment. When Queen Maria II married her second husband, Ferdinand von Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha , in 1836 , he only became iure-uxoris -monarch when the following year the first child was born: from now on he ruled as Ferdinand II together with his wife . Queen Maria's first husband Auguste de Beauharnais, however, was never a iure-uxoris monarch, as he died before the birth of an heir.

The title of iure uxoris king should not be confused with the prince consort , who is only the queen's husband, but not co-regent.

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