A posteriori

PRIFODL: TBA (620)

PRIMARY SOURCE: Literary scholars distinguish between primary sources, secondary sources, and educational resources. Students should also. To understand the difference, click here.

PRIMATE: See discussion under Chain of Being.

PRIMOGENITURE: The late medieval custom of allowing the first born legitimate male child to inherit all of his father's properties, estates, wealth, and titles upon the father's death. Primogeniture was a key issue in determining succession to the royal throne, and it plays an important part in Edmund's villainy in King Lear, in King Henry V's claim to the French throne in Henry V, and in many other Shakespearean plays. In medieval times, primogeniture lead to huge social problems since Western Europe was producing large numbers of second born militarily trained knights who had no means of making a livelihood. Since the firstborn son inherited everything, the only legitimate option for the other sons was becoming celibate and then joining the church hierarchy as clerics or entering monasteries. Since this was not always a preferable option for hot-blooded young men, many involved themselves in coups to gain the family estate, took up lives of brigandage, or became mercenaries and wandered from one war to another seeking their fortunes. When Pope Urban II called the first crusade to reclaim Jerusalem, the church saw that part of the solution to this problem was to provide a legitimate arena of warfare for these dispossessed knights. The opposite custom of dividing inheritance is known as