Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

mantle children

Hist. Children born out of wedlock and later legitimized when their parents married, by standing under a cloak with the parents during the marriage ceremony. "Our law has no need to distinguish between various sorts of illegitimate children. A child is either a legitimate child or a bastard In the sharp controversy over this principle the champion of what we may call the high-church party alleged that old English custom was in accord with the law of the church as defined by Alexander III. Probably there was some truth in this assertion. It is not unlikely that old custom, though it would not have held that the marriage in itself had any retroactive effect, allowed the parents on the occasion of their marriage to legitimate the already existing offspring of their union. The children were placed under the cloak which was spread over their parents during the marriage ceremony, and became 'mantle children.' We hear of this practice in Germany and France and Normandy; but we have here rather an act of adoption than a true legitimation ... and it would not have fully satisfied the church." 2 Frederick Pollock & Frederic W. Maitland, The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward 1397-98 (2d ed. 1899).