Heir Apparent

The term heir apparent is most often used to refer to someone who is first in the order of succession to a throne and who cannot lose this status by the birth of any other person. It is also used less formally to indicate someone who is an apparent successor to a non-royal position of power, e.g., a political or corporate leader.

Who becomes heir apparent?

The question of who becomes heir apparent is usually decided either by custom, convention, or by law. Monarchies traditionally gave male children (and their children) precedence on the order of succession ahead of female children, with the oldest male child becoming heir apparent. Hence in the United Kingdom, though she is Queen Elizabeth II's second oldest child, Princess Anne is the lowest ranking in the order of succession of the Queen's children, Princes Charles, Andrew, Edward; as well as being behind her brothers' children, male and female.

Related Topics:
Elizabeth II - Anne - Charles - Andrew - Edward

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By the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century a growing but still small number of monarchies have chosen to make the monarch's oldest child, irrespective of sex, the Heir Apparent.

Related Topics:
Twentieth century - Twenty-first century

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Position inherited through descent from the Heir Apparent

In primogeniture, the position of Heir Apparent does not descend to each of the monarch's children in turn, but through the direct, legal line from the initial heir apparent. So for example, were the current British heir apparent, Charles, Prince of Wales either to die before becoming monarch, or become legally debarred (in the British case by becoming or marrying a Catholic), his oldest son, Prince William of Wales, would become heir apparent.

Related Topics:
Primogeniture - Charles, Prince of Wales - Prince William of Wales

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This happens unless a legal change awards another figure (inside the order of succession or elsewhere) the position, as happened in the case of Prince James Francis Edward, heir to King James II (see above) or where the children of the Heir Apparent are for some reason legally debarred from being in the order of succession. The children of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, for example, were excluded from the order of succession to the thrones of Austria and Hungary because their parents had a morganatic marriage that effectively made the Archduke's wife and children his private family but not members of the Imperial Family.

Related Topics:
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria - Morganatic marriage

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Had the Duke of Windsor (formerly King Edward VIII) and Duchess of Windsor had any children, although they would have been the children of a former heir apparent and King of the United Kingdom they would have had no legal claim to the throne, Edward himself having renounced, with that right having thus shifted to Edward's younger brother "Bertie," who reigned as George VI, and his descendants.

Related Topics:
Duke of Windsor - Duchess of Windsor - George VI

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However, for example in monarchies using agnatic seniority, the position of Heir Apparent goes to each of the monarch's sons in turn (contrary to the primogeniture system explained above), and only after all of them, to the next generation. This order of succession seems to be in use in e.g kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In practice, most (even all) monarchies applying a sort of seniority succession, blend it with semi-electiveness (at least, the incumbent monarch confirms who will be the next heir), thus it is not at all totally certain from genealogy to whom the throne will go. (Due to matters of expediency , sometimes some of brothers are excluded in other than genealogical grounds.) In Saudi Arabia, the heir apparent of the current king Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is his brother Sultan, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.

Related Topics:
Agnatic seniority - Order of succession - Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - Abdullah of Saudi Arabia - Sultan, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia

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Several simultaneous heirs-apparent

It is possible to call someone an heir apparent, if that person is the heir apparent of an heir apparent, though this is not necessarily helpful, and not in wide use. (Contrary to some beliefs, heir presumptive is not the title of the heir apparent of the heir apparent.) For example, Prince William can already be said to be an heir apparent of the throne of United Kingdom, as there is no possibility that anyone's birth may displace William - he is eventually to become the monarch. If the term is used in that way, then there can be several concurrent heirs apparent.

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