Primogeniture Totally Explained

Primogeniture is the common law right of the first born son to inherit the entire estate, to the exclusion of younger siblings. It is the tradition of inheritance by the first-born of the entirety of a parent's wealth, estate or office; or in the absence of children, by collateral relatives, in order of seniority of the collateral line.

Definitions

Agnatic primogeniture

Agnatic primogeniture or patrilineal primogeniture is inheritance according to seniority of birth among the children of a monarch or head of family, with sons inheriting before brothers, and male-line descendants inheriting before collateral relatives in the male line, to the total exclusion of females and descendants through females. This system, also referred to as Salic primogeniture, altogether excludes females from dynastic succession (see Terra salica). In the 19th century, most of the European monarchies practiced this form of succession.

Agnatic-cognatic primogeniture

Agnatic-cognatic primogeniture allows female agnates (or their descendants) to inherit only if all eligible male agnates are extinct. The term semi-Salic succession is used in the same meaning. Usually, women don't succeed by application of the same kind of primogeniture as was in effect among males in the family. Rather, the female who is nearest in kinship to the last male monarch of the family inherits, even if another female agnate of the dynasty is senior by primogeniture. Among sisters (or their descendants), the elder are preferred to the younger. In reckoning propinquity, the law defines who among female relatives is "nearest" to the last male, and definition varied among monarchies where semi-Salic succession was prevalent. This is currently the law of Luxembourg. A variation on this form of primogeniture allows the sons of women to inherit, but not women themselves.

Cognatic primogeniture

Cognatic primogeniture (also known as male-preference primogeniture) allows a female to succeed if she's no living brothers and no deceased brothers left any surviving legitimate descendents. This was the most common primogeniture practiced in Western European feudalism, such as the Castilian Siete Partidas. In Europe, male-preferred primogeniture is currently practised in Denmark, Monaco, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Absolute primogeniture

Absolute, equal or lineal primogeniture is inheritance by the oldest surviving child without regard to gender. It is also known as (full) cognatic primogeniture today. This form of primogeniture wasn't practiced by any monarchy before 1980.

Sweden revised its constitution to adopt royal succession by absolute primogeniture in 1980, displacing King Carl XVI Gustaf's son, Carl Philip, in favor of his elder sister, Victoria, in the process. Several other monarchies have since followed suit: the Netherlands in 1983, Norway in 1990 and Belgium in 1991.
In July 2006, the Nepalese government proposed adopting equal primogeniture.(External Link)
In Japan, there have been debates over whether to adopt absolute primogeniture, as Princess Aiko is the only child of Crown Prince Naruhito. However, the birth of Prince Hisahito, a son of Prince Akishino (younger brother of Crown Prince Naruhito, and next in line to the Chrysanthemum Throne after Naruhito) has ended the debate.
In Spain, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's government intends to reform the Spanish Constitution of 1978 to adopt royal succession by absolute primogeniture.
The Danish parliament has recently unanimously voted in favour of a new royal succession law that would allow a first-born child to one day ascend the throne. Before entering into force the bill must also be voted through the next parliament, which should be elected in general elections to be held in less than four years, before finally being submitted to a referendum. At least 40 per cent of registered voters must be in favour of the law change for it to be adopted.(External Link) (External Link)

Matrilineal primogeniture

Matrilineal primogeniture (uterine primogeniture) is a form of succession where the eldest female child inherits the throne to the total exclusion of males. The order of succession to the position of the Rain Queen is an example in an African culture of matrilineal primogeniture: not only is dynastic descent reckoned through the female line, but only females are eligible to inherit.

Male inheritance through females

This particular system of inheritance applied to the thrones of the Picts of Northern Britain and the Etruscans of Italy. Although the ruler was always male, inheritance was matrilineal so a king would typically be succeeded by his daughter's husband or his sister's son.

Historical examples

A case of agnatic primogeniture is exemplified in the French royal milieu, where the Salic law (attributed to the Salian Franks) forbade any inheritance of a crown through the female line. This rule was adopted to solve the dispute over the legitimate successor of Charles IV of France (Edward III of England or Philip VI of France). Conflict between the Salic law and the male-preferred system was also the genesis of Carlism in Spain.
   The 1837 divergence of the crowns of Hanover and Great Britain upon the death of William IV of the United Kingdom resulted in the succession of his eldest surviving brother Ernest I to Hanover, while the United Kingdom was inherited by his niece, Queen Victoria, was due to the operation of semi-Salic law in Hanover and to male-preference primogeniture in the British Empire. In 1890, the divergence of the thrones of Luxembourg and the Netherlands, both ruled by semi-Salic law, was caused by the fact that the Luxembourg line of succession went back more generations than the Dutch one. The Luxembourg succession was ruled by the provisions of the Nassau House Treaty of 1783. Where the succession is concerned, Luxembourg is the successor state to the Principality of (Orange-) Nassau-Dietz. The Dutch succession only went back to King William I (1815-1840). Therefore Luxembourg still had agnatic heirs from another branch of the House of Nassau left to succeed, while in the Netherlands the male line starting with William I was depleted.
   Since the Middle Ages, the so-called quasi-Salic was the prevalent principle applicable to the inheritance of land: inheritance was allowed through the female line. Females themselves didn't inherit, but their male issue could. For example, a grandfather without sons was succeeded by his grandson, the son of his daughter, although the daughter still lived. Likewise, an uncle without children of his own was succeeded by his nephew, a son of his living sister.
   This actually fulfills the Salic condition of "no land comes to a woman, but the land comes to the male sex".
   Common in feudal Europe was land inheritance based on a form of primogeniture: A lord was succeeded by his eldest son but, failing sons, either by daughters or sons of daughters. In most medieval Western European feudal fiefs, females (such as daughters and sisters) were allowed to succeed, brothers failing. But usually the husband of the heiress became the real lord, assuming his wife's title with the suffix jure uxoris.
   In more complex medieval cases, the sometimes conflicting principles of proximity of blood and primogeniture competed, and outcomes were at times unpredictable. Proximity meant that an heir closer in degree of kinship to the lord in question was given precedence although that heir wasn't necessarily the heir by primogeniture.

The Burgundian succession in 1361 was resolved in favor of John, son of a younger daughter, on basis of blood proximity, being a nearer cousin of the dead duke than Charles, grandson of the elder daughter. Proximity sometimes favored younger lines (directly contrary to the outcome from applying primogeniture), since it was more probable that from a younger line, a member of an earlier generation was still alive compared with the descendants of the elder line.

In dispute over the Scottish succession, 1290-91, the Bruce family pleaded tanistry and proximity of blood, whereas Balliol argued his claim based on primogeniture. The arbiter, Edward I of England, decided in favor of primogeniture. But later, the Independence Wars reverted the situation in favor of the Bruce, due to political exigency.

The Earldom of Gloucester (in the beginning of 14th century) went to full sisters of the dead earl, not to his half-sisters, though they were elder, having been born of the father's first marriage, while the earl himself was from second marriage. Full siblings were considered higher in proximity than half-siblings. However, primogeniture increasingly won legal cases over proximity in later centuries.
   Later, when lands were strictly divided among noble families and tended to remain fixed, agnatic primogeniture (practically the same as Salic Law) became usual: succession going to the eldest son of the monarch; if the monarch had no sons, the throne would pass to the nearest male relative in the male line.
   Some countries however accepted female rulers early on, so that if the monarch had no sons, the throne would pass to the eldest daughter. For example, Queen Mary I succeeded to the throne after the death of her father, King Henry VIII.
   In England, primogeniture was mandatory for inheritance of land. Until the Statute of Wills was passed in 1540, a will could control only the inheritance of personal property. Real estate (land) passed to the eldest male descendant by operation of law. The statute added a provision that a landowner could "devise" land by the use of a new device called a "testament". The rule of primogeniture in England wasn't changed until the Administration of Estates Act in 1925.
   In law, the rule of inheritance whereby land descends to the oldest son. Under the feudal system of medieval Europe, primogeniture generally governed the inheritance of land held in military tenure (see knight). The effect of this rule was to keep the father’s land for the support of the son who rendered the required military service. When feudalism declined and the payment of a tax was substituted for military service, the need for primogeniture disappeared. In England, consequently, there was enacted the Statute of Wills (1540), which permitted the oldest son to be entirely cut off from inheriting, and in the 17th cent. military tenure was abolished; primogeniture is, nevertheless, still customary in England. In the United States primogeniture never became widely established.

Preference for males in primogeniture

The preference for males existing in most systems of primogeniture (and in other mechanisms of hereditary succession) comes mostly from the perceived nature of the tasks and role of the monarch: A monarch most usually was, first and foremost, a military protector.

It was very useful, or even requisite, that the monarch be a warrior, and a commander of military. And, also, war troops (consisting typically only of males) were perceived to approve only males as their commanders, or even warriors. The modern science of genetics has a few interesting if historically irrelevant things to say about succession. Because the human Y chromosome changes relatively slowly over time and is only passed along the direct male line, it may be used to trace paternal lineage. The human Y chromosome is unable to recombine with the X chromosome, except for small pieces of pseudoautosomal regions at the telomeres (which comprise about 5% of the chromosome's length). This means that a slightly greater proportion (approximately 24/47) of the genome is inherited from father to son than from parent to daughter (23/47, one half). Mitochondrial DNA is inherited almost exclusively through the female line, but contains so much less DNA than a chromosome that it doesn't greatly affect these numbers.

Arguments in favour of primogeniture

Primogeniture prevents the subdivision of estates and diminishes internal pressures to sell property (for example, if two children inherit a house and one can't afford to buy out the other's share). In Western Europe most younger sons of the nobility, having no prospect of inheriting land or property, were obliged to seek careers in the Church, the Armed Forces or in Government. Wills often included bequests to a monastic order who would take the disinherited.
Many of the Spanish Conquistadors were younger sons who had to make their fortune in war. In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, many younger sons of English aristocrats specifically chose to leave England for Virginia in the Colonies. Many of the early Virginians who were plantation owners were such younger sons who had left England fortuneless due to primogeniture laws. These Founding Fathers of the United States of America were nearly universally descended from the landed gentry of England, with many being descended from English Kings of the late 14th and early 15th Centuries, especially through the numerous offspring of Edward III of England. William Shakespeare's King Lear can be seen as an argument in favor of primogeniture, as the tragically flawed action of Lear divides his country into three amongst his daughters. The division of his land marks the beginning of the unraveling of everything else in the play.

Arguments against primogeniture

The fact that the eldest son "scooped the pool" often led to ill-feeling amongst younger sons (and of course daughters). Through marriage, estates inherited by primogeniture were combined and some nobles achieved wealth and power sufficient to pose a threat even to the crown itself. Finally, nobles tended to complain about and resist rules of primogeniture (though this opposition might indicate primogeniture among nobles was good for the king).
In Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville argues that the abolition of the laws of primogeniture and entail in the law of inheritance of private property (as opposed to inheritance of a monarchy) result in the more rapid division of land and thus force landed people to seek wealth outside of the family estate in order to maintain their previous standard of living, accelerating the death of the landed aristocracy and also quickening the shift to democracy.

Other methods of succession

� :Main article: Order of succession

There are several other ways to organize hereditary succession, which produce more or less different outcome than primogeniture. Some examples of widely used methods of alternative order of succession:

Agnatic seniority

Tanistry

Proximity of blood

Elective monarchy

Lottery

Rotation (Taking turns: seniority, tanistry, lottery and election are used and practical ways to organize rotation. Rotation may have aimed at some balance between branches of the House or the Clan.)

Partible inheritance, sharing (usually equal) among descendants

Gavelkind

Ultimogeniture

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