Family discipline and matrimonial strategies: The House of Aveiro in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

Abstract

The aim of this article is to study the Dukes of Coimbra, Aveiro and Torres Novas children birth, generation of illegitimate children and infant mortality rates during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and to analyze the destiny of every individual who has reached adulthood, comparing the values from the ones who have gone for celibacy and those who have married. Regarding the non-married it will be made an overview from religious houses where they have joined while from those who have married it will be discussed their matrimonial strategies, analyzing the origin of their husbands and wives and the marriage contracts of the firstborns.