Succession laws

Succession laws in hereditary monarchy are used for determining who will be the next heir to the throne of a kingdom, principality, etc. Non-primogenitural succession is another group of possibilities, however somewhat rarer today (as of 2005), but regarding primogeniture, there are three succession laws that are the most widespread in the world: primogeniture following the Salic Law, the mixed primogeniture and the cognatic primogeniture. This article presents an introduction to these three major systems of primogenitural hereditary succession.

Salic Law

The Salic Law, aka agnatic succession was based on legal fiction invoking a misunderstood rule from the property and inheritance laws of Salian Franks in the early Middle Ages. However, the somewhat rigid letter of that law was loosened in time of the Merovingian King Chilperic I of the Franks, allowing females to inherit in certain cases. The system excluding females and issue of females from the succession was one of the causes of the Hundred Years' War because it barred King Edward III of England to be heir of the French throne, leading to a war between both kingdoms. Today, it is used in Japan.

Related Topics:
Agnatic succession - Salian Franks - Middle Ages - Chilperic I - Hundred Years' War - Edward III

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Salic succession excludes females to be heirs of the throne and to pass hereditary rights to their children. An historical example: in 1328, King Charles IV of France died and one possible heir (if not obeying the "Salic law", which was not in use at that time in feudal successions) to the throne was his sister Isabella's son Edward III of England. Isabella had married King Edward II and gave birth to Edward III, heir of the English throne. To avoid an English king ruling France, principles later labelled with the name "Salic Law" were applied and barred Edward III from becoming the king of France. Philip VI of Valois, head of a collateral male line of the Capetian dynasty, was crowned king of France.

Related Topics:
1328 - Charles IV - Edward III of England - Edward II - Philip VI - Capetian

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The following image is a graphical (ficticious) example:

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In the image, the oldest child is the one most to the left and the youngest, the one most to the right. Knowing that no woman nor woman's children can be heirs, the succession line is:

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• Charles II (Magdalena's line is invalid although she is the eldest child)
• Rudolf
• Alfons I (When a succession line, in this case the Charles II's, is extinct, we go up one level and try another possible line. The only one that may be used is Alfons I's line, because Augusta is a woman.)
• Alfred I

Thus, there are only four legitimate heirs out of the ten persons in this example. Because all daughters and their children (in this case Charles III and Charles IV) are excluded, purely Salic successions have difficulty remaining in existence. An example of this is in Japan's throne today, where Crown Prince Naruhito only has one daughter to date and thus no child that can inherit the throne under current law.

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