The act of giving the character of legitimate children to those who were not so born. Legitimation is a fiction of the law, whereby one born out of lawful wedlock is considered the offspring of the marriage between the parents. 24 La. Ann. 580. In Louisiana, the Civil Code, art. 217, enacts that "children born out of mar- riage, except those who are born of an in- cestuous or adulterous connection, may be legitimated by the subsequent marriage of their father and mother, whenever the latter have legally acknowledged them for their children, either before their marriage, or by the contract of marriage itself." The legitimation of natural children was permit- ted in none of the earlier German codes, except the Lombard, and was strongly opposed to the whole spirit of German family law, but that the father could, by symbolic forms, acknowledge his natural child and give him a place and protection within his household is proved from German and Scandi- navian sources. Among the Anglo-Saxons, a child born in unlawful marriage had no rights of inheri- tance, and it may be inferred that all other rights of kindred were denied to it except that of protection, even when acknowledged by the father. Essays, Ang-Sax. L. 126. In the conflict between the church and the law at the Merton parliament in regard to the question whether a hastard could be legitimized, the barons declared with one voice that they would not change the laws of England, and that nothing could make a bastard legitimate, although it was contended that the old English custom authorized legitimation by allowing the parents on the occasion of their marriage to place such children beneath the cloak under which they stood whilst the mar- riage ceremony was performed, the children there- by becoming "mantle children," but this practice the king's court of Henry II. had rejected and that of Henry III. refused to retreat from the precedent. 2 Poll. & Maitl. 395. In Maine, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michi- gan, Iowa. Minnesota, California, Oregon, Nevada, Washington, the Dakotas, Idaho, Montana, and New Mexico, marriage of the parents legitimatizes an illegitimate child. In Massachusetts, Vermont, Illinois, In- diana, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Mis- souri, Arkansas, Texas, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Arizona, in addition to the marriage of the parents the father must have ac- knowledged or recognized the child as his. In New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Louisiana, both parents must acknowledge, but in the last named state the acknow- ledgment is made either by an authentic act before marriage or by the contract of marriage, and an exception is made of those children born of an incestuous or adulterous connection. In California, Nevada, the Dakotas, and Idaho, a public acknowledgment by the father of an ille- gitimate child, receiving such child (with the consent of his wife, if married) into his family, and otherwise treating it as if it were legitimate, thereby renders it legit- imate for all purposes. Acknowledgment by either or both parents, or by the father with the consent of his wife, or by the mother with the consent of her husband, will legitimatize a child. In Michigan, if the father, by writing executed, acknowl- edged, and recorded like deeds of real estate, but with the judge of probate, ac- knowledge such child, he is legitimate for all purposes. In North Carolina, Tennes- see, Georgia, and New Mexico the putative father of a bastard has a process in court by which he may legitimatize the child. A question considerably discussed in Eng- land is where one who is domiciled in a country sustaining the doctrine legitimatio per subsequens matrimonium marries a woman who had before the marriage a child by him, the husband having been domiciled prior thereto in a country where the doctrine does not prevail. In one case the exact question arose where the husband domiciled in England went to France, and before changing his domicile cohabited with a French woman who had by him a daughter, and afterwards be- coming domiciled in France, he married the woman at the British Embassy in Eng- lish form, and later in French form with recognition of the child, but the latter was held not to be legitimate; 2 K. & J. 595; s. c. 25 L. J. Ch. 621. This case is the sub- ject of severe criticism in an article in 22 Law Mag. & Rev., 4th. 171, where the Eng- lish cases touching upon the subject are carefully reviewed, with the conclusion that "it is not rash to say that before the case last mentioned such authority as existed on the point was in favor of the legitimacy." See 7 Cl. & F. 817, 842; 11 Eq. 474; 17 Ch. Div. 266; 24 Ch. Div. 637; [1892] 3 Ch. 88; L. R. 1 H. L. Sc. 441. See BASTARD; DE- SCENT AND DISTRIBUTION; CHILD.