Jure uxoris is a
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
term that means "by right of his wife". It is commonly used to refer to a title held by a man whose wife holds it in her own right.
The husband of an heiress became the possessor of her lands and titles
jure uxoris, "by right of [his] wife". In the Middle Ages, this was invariably true even for
queens regnantA queen regnant is a qualifying reference to a female monarch possessing and exercising all of the monarchical powers of a ruler, in contrast to a "queen consort", who is the wife of a male reigning as monarch and who is without any official powers of state.In Ancient Egypt, Pacific cultures, and...
and princesses regnant. Accordingly, the husband of the reigning female monarch became monarch.
Jure uxoris is a
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
term that means "by right of his wife". It is commonly used to refer to a title held by a man whose wife holds it in her own right.
The husband of an heiress became the possessor of her lands and titles
jure uxoris, "by right of [his] wife". In the Middle Ages, this was invariably true even for
queens regnantA queen regnant is a qualifying reference to a female monarch possessing and exercising all of the monarchical powers of a ruler, in contrast to a "queen consort", who is the wife of a male reigning as monarch and who is without any official powers of state.In Ancient Egypt, Pacific cultures, and...
and princesses regnant. Accordingly, the husband of the reigning female monarch became monarch. In some cases, the king thus ascended, remained king even after the death of the wife, and in some cases left the kingdom to their own heirs who were not issue of the wife in question (cf.
Władysław II Jagiełło of PolandJogaila, later ' , was Grand Duke of Lithuania and later King of Poland. He ruled in Lithuania from 1377, at first with his uncle, Kęstutis. In 1386, he converted to Christianity, was baptized as Władysław, married the young Queen Jadwiga of Poland, inducted into the Order of the Dragon and was...
, who ascended as husband of
Queen JadwigaJadwiga was a monarch of Poland from 1384 to her death. Her official title was 'king' rather than 'queen', reflecting that she was a sovereign in her own right and not merely a royal consort. She was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou and the daughter of King Louis I of Hungary and Elisabeth...
). In the event of a divorce between a reigning female monarch and her husband, the husband would remain the monarch and the wife would lose her status. One example of this is when
Marie of BoulogneMarie of Boulogne was the Countess of Boulogne from 1159 to 1170.Marie was born to King Stephen of England and his wife Matilda I, Countess of Boulogne. At an early age, she was apparently placed in a convent, but she became her childless brother William's heir in 1159...
and Matthew I of Boulogne were divorced in 1170. Marie ceased to be Countess, while Matthew I continued to reign until 1173.
In later times, the woman remained the monarch, but the husband had some power. For example,
Maria Theresa of Austria
was queen regnant of
HungaryHungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
and
BohemiaBohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands, currently the Czech Republic...
, but her husband
Francisalign=right | Francis I was Holy Roman Emperor and Grand Duke of Tuscany, though his wife effectively executed the real power of those positions...
was king consort.
In Portugal, there was a specific condition for a male consort to become a king
jure uxoris: fathering a royal heir. Queen
Maria IMaria I was Queen of Portugal and the Algarves from 1777 until her death. Known as Maria the Pious, Maria the Mad, she was the first undisputed Queen regnant of Portugal...
already had children by her husband when she became Queen, so he became King
Peter III of PortugalPedro III or Peter III became King of the Kingdom of Portugal and Algarves by the accession of his wife and niece Queen Maria I in 1777, and co-reigned alongside her until his death....
at the moment of his wife's accession.
In 1836, Queen
Maria IIMaria II da Glória was Queen of Portugal from 1826 to 1853. She was the second Queen regnant of Portugal and the Algarves, and the 29th or 30th Portuguese monarch.-Life:...
married her second husband,
Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-GothaFerdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , named Prince Ferdinand Augustus Francis Anthony of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Koháry, was King of Portugal and co-ruler with Maria II of Portugal from their marriage in 1836 to her death in 1853. In keeping with Portuguese law, only after the birth of his son in 1837 was...
. Ferdinand became monarch
jure uxoris the next year (in 1837), as soon as their first child was born, and he reigned as Ferdinand II, together with his wife. Queen Maria's first husband, Auguste of Beauharnais, was not monarch
jure uxoris, because he died before he could father an heir.
Jure uxoris monarchs are not to be confused with
kings consortKing consort is a position given in some monarchies to the husband of a queen regnant. Nowadays, it is a symbolic title only, the sole constitutional function of the holder being similar to a queen consort, namely to produce an heir to the throne....
, who were merely consorts of their wives, not co-rulers.