Jure Uxoris

Jure uxoris is a Latin term that means "by right of his wife" or "in right of a wife". It is commonly used to refer to a title held by a man whose wife holds it in her own right. In other words, he acquired the title simply by being her husband.

The husband of an heiress became the possessor of her lands and titles jure uxoris, "by right of wife". In the Middle Ages, this was invariably true even for queens regnant and princesses regnant. Accordingly, the husband of the reigning female monarch became monarch. This was a very common situation in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, that existed during the Crusades, so many monarchs acceded to the throne after marrying the queen heir: Fulk, King of Jerusalem, Guy of Lusignan, Conrad of Montferrat, Henry II, Count of Champagne and Amalric II of Jerusalem.

On the other hand, during the crisis in the Kingdom of Hungary after the death in the fourteenth century of the King Louis I of Hungary, Sigismund of Luxembourg married Mary of Hungary, the daughter of the dead monarch, obtaining the crown through his wife. After the death of Sigismund the same occurred, the Duke Albert II of Habsburg married the King's daughter Elizabeth of Luxembourg, and through her he inherited the throne of Hungary.

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 Poland, who ascended as husband of King Jadwiga). In the event of a divorce between a reigning female monarch and her husband, the husband would remain the monarch and the wife could lose her status. One example of this is when Marie of Boulogne 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, when Queen Mary Tudor became married to King Philip or when their ancestors, Isabella and Ferdinand shared crowns, and thus too, when Maria Theresa was queen regnant of Hungary and Bohemia, but her husband Francis was Holy Roman Emperor. This, however, is an imperfect example as Francis was elected to the title (the Imperial title was legally an elected rather than inherited title, though it often remained in the same dynastic house for long periods) and women were barred from the imperial title.

In Britain, because women were excluded from the House of Lords until the present reign, certain offices could be exercised jure uxoris. For example, in 1780, when Lady Priscilla Bertie was allowed to inherit the title Baroness Willougby de Eresby which was abeyant between her and her sister, she was also recognised as the representative of the position of Lord Great Chamberlain, which was likewise abeyant; however, her husband Sir Peter Gwydyr acted on her behalf in that office instead.

In Portugal, there was a specific condition for a male consort to become a king jure uxoris: fathering a royal heir. Queen Maria I already had children by her husband when she became Queen, so he became King Peter III of Portugal at the moment of his wife's accession. In 1836, Queen Maria II married her second husband, Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. 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.

In Spain, the Royal Family has allowed husbands of princesses to become a "duke consort". The title is normally acquired through-marriage and will be lost in a divorce. Such as when Jaime de Marichalar divorced Infanta Elena; he also lost his title. The current Infanta Cristina, Duchess of Palma de Mallorca's husband is Duke consort of Palma de Mallorca.

Jure uxoris monarchs are not to be confused with kings consort, who were merely consorts of their wives, not co-rulers.