Heir presumptive: Difference between revisions

An '''heir presumptive''' ({{abbr|{{sc|fem:}}|feminine form}} '''heiress presumptive''') is the person entitled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of a person with a better claim to the position in question.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://definitions.uslegal.com/h/heir-presumptive/ |title=Heir Presumptive Law & Legal Definition |publisher=USLegal.com |access-date=2012-11-07}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://dictionary.reverso.net/english-definition/presumptive%20nominee |title=Heir presumptive |publisher=Reverso.net |access-date=2012-11-07}}</ref> This is in contrast to an [[heir apparent]], whose claim on the position cannot be displaced in this manner.

##being descended from the monarch through a [[Morganatic marriage|morganatic]] line]] or

The subsequent birth of a legitimate child to the monarch may displace the former heir presumptive by creating an heir apparent or a more eligible heir presumptive. It is not assumed that the monarch and his or her consort are incapable of producing further children; on the day before Queen [[Elizabeth II]] ascended the throne, her father [[George VI]] was gravely ill and her mother was 51 years old, but Elizabeth was still the heir presumptive rather than the heir apparent. An heir presumptive's position may not even be secure after they ascend their throne, as a [[Posthumous birth|posthumous child]] of the previous monarch could have a superseding claim. Following the death of [[William IV]] in 1837, he was succeeded by his niece [[Queen Victoria]], whose accession proclamation noted her accession was only permanent so long as a child of William was not born in the following months to his widow, [[Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen|Adelaide]], even though Adelaide was 44 years old and had last been pregnant 17 years earlier.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-10-02 |title=The primogeniture paradox: the posthumous heir |url=https://royalcentral.co.uk/features/the-primogeniture-paradox-the-posthumous-heir-54339/ |access-date=2022-05-28 |website=Royal Central |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Page 1581 {{!}} Issue 19509, 20 June 1837 {{!}} London Gazette {{!}} The Gazette |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/19509/page/1581 |access-date=2023-07-14 |website=www.thegazette.co.uk}}</ref> Such a situation occurred in [[Spain]] in 1885, when King [[Alfonso XII]] died and left behind a widow who was three months pregnant. His five-year-old daughter and heir presumptive, [[María de las Mercedes, Princess of Asturias|María de las Mercedes]], was not declared queen because she would be displaced if a son was born, and instead there was a six-month [[interregnum]] until the birth of her brother [[Alfonso XIII]], who assumed the throne as king immediately upon birth. Had the pregnancy been lost or resulted in another daughter, Mercedes would have become queen regnant and been retroactively recognized as such during the interregnum.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-09-05 |title=Can an unborn baby really inherit the British Crown (and what's that got to do with Game of Thrones?) |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2017/09/can-unborn-baby-really-inherit-british-crown-and-whats-got-do-game-thrones |access-date=2022-05-29 |website=New Statesman |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Packard |first=Jerrold M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i7QDd-YoQ7gC&pg=PT432 |title=Victoria's Daughters |date=1999-12-23 |publisher=St. Martin's Publishing Group |isbn=978-1-4299-6490-6 |language=en}}</ref>