Concubinage Through the Ages: The Complex Roles and Historical Practices of Royal Consorts

Polygyny, that system where a man marries several wives, including having concubines — secondary wives who usually have no status about the first wife, was a common practice in many societies of the pre-modern period. These concubines thus had two functions that were to raise the social class of the man in the community as well as sexually satisfy him. Even though a majority of readers see it as something rife in ancient China where emperors housed thousands of concubines protected by eunuchs while the thought of sex was taboo, this form of women’s oppression was rampant in most ancient cultures. To explain, concubinage has been part of many advanced and developing civilizations such as Mesopotamian and Babylonian civilizations, biblical times, and Roman law when it came to social and familial relationships. Although concubinage has been practiced for many years but is now regarded as immoral in contemporary society, studying this practice is important in providing a better understanding in relation to past and present social relationships and hierarchy.

Some kings and other nobility in several pre-modern societies had concubines in aggregation with wives.
Concubines had two functions. Some methinks believed that a man’s ability to procreate brought him closer to a higher class.
Of course…