In
inheritance
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, Title (property), titles, debts, entitlements, Privilege (law), privileges, rights, and Law of obligations, obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ ...
, a hereditary successor is a person who inherits an
indivisible title or office after the death of the previous title holder. The hereditary line of succession may be limited to
heirs of the body
In English law, heirs of the body is the principle that certain types of property pass to a descendant of the original holder, recipient or grantee according to a fixed order of kinship. Upon the death of the grantee, a designated inheritance such ...
, or may pass also to
collateral lines, in case of extinction of heirs of the body, depending on the succession rules. These concepts are in use in English inheritance law.
Main concepts for hereditary succession are usually either ''heir male'' or ''heir general'' – see further
primogeniture
Primogeniture ( ) is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn legitimate child to inherit the parent's entire or main estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some children, any illegitimate child or any collateral relativ ...
(agnatic, cognatic, and also equal). "Heir male" is a genealogical term which specifically means "senior male by masculine primogeniture in the legitimate descent of an individual"
Certain types of
property
Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...
pass to a descendant or relative of the original holder, recipient or
grantee
A grant, in law, is a transfer of property, generally from a person or other entity giving the property (the grantor) to a person or entity receiving the property (the grantee).
Historically, a grant was a transfer by deed of that which could not ...
according to a fixed order of
kinship
In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...
. Upon the death of the grantee, a designated
inheritance
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, Title (property), titles, debts, entitlements, Privilege (law), privileges, rights, and Law of obligations, obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ ...
such as a
peerage
A peerage is a legal system historically comprising various hereditary titles (and sometimes non-hereditary titles) in a number of countries, and composed of assorted noble ranks.
Peerages include:
Australia
* Australian peers
Belgium
* Belgi ...
, or a
monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The political legitimacy and authority of the monarch may vary from restricted and largely symbolic (constitutional monarchy) ...
,
passes automatically to that living,
legitimate, non-
adoptive
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...
relative of the grantee who is most senior in descent, regardless of the relative age; and thereafter continues to pass to subsequent successors of the grantee, according to the same formula, upon the death of each subsequent heir. Each person who inherits according to this formula is considered an heir at law of the grantee and the inheritance may not pass to someone who is not a natural, lawful descendant or relative of the grantee.
Collateral
kin __NOTOC__
Kin usually refers to kinship and family.
Kin or KIN may also refer to:
Culture and religion
*Otherkin, people who identify as not entirely human
*Kinism, a white supremacist religious movement
* Kinh, the majority ethnic group of V ...
, who share some or all of the grantee's ancestry, but do not directly descend from the grantee, may inherit if there is no limitation to heirs of the body.
There are other kinds of formulae for inheritance, if the heritage can be divided:
heirs portioners and
partible inheritance
Partible inheritance is a system of inheritance in which property is apportioned among heirs. It contrasts in particular with primogeniture, which was common in feudal society and requires that the whole or most of the inheritance passes to the el ...
.
There are also other types of
order of succession
An order of succession or right of succession is the line of individuals necessitated to hold a high office when it becomes vacated such as head of state or an honour such as a title of nobility.[Line of succession to the Belgian throne
There are sixteen people in the line of succession to the Belgian throne.
The monarch is considered to have acceded to the throne upon her/his taking of the oath as required by article 91 of the constitution.
Eligibility
Since 1991, Belgium p ...]
*
Succession to the British throne
Succession to the British throne is determined by descent, gender, legitimacy and religion. Under common law, the Crown is inherited by a sovereign's children or by a childless sovereign's nearest collateral line. The Bill of Rights 1689 an ...
*
Line of succession to the Danish throne
The Danish Act of Succession, adopted on 5 June 1953, restricts the throne to those descended from Christian X and his wife, Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, through approved marriages. Succession is by a change in the law in 2009 governed by ...
*
Line of succession to the Dutch throne
Since 1983, the crown of the Netherlands passes according to absolute primogeniture. From 1814 until 1887, a monarch could only be succeeded by their closest female relative if there were no eligible male relatives. Male-preference cognatic pri ...
*
Line of succession to the Luxembourger throne
Since 2011, the crown of Luxembourg descends according to absolute primogeniture among Grand Duke Henri's descendants and according to agnatic primogeniture among other dynasts.
Line of succession
* ''Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, Gr ...
*
Line of succession to the Norwegian throne
The line of succession to the Norwegian throne consists of people entitled to become head of state of Norway.
The succession is currently governed by Article 6 of the Constitution, altered most recently in 1990 to introduce absolute primogenitu ...
*
Succession to the Saudi Arabian throne
The order of succession to the Saudi Arabian throne is determined by, and within, the House of Saud. Every King of Saudi Arabia, upon his death, has been succeeded by the crown prince, with a new crown prince then being appointed according to a ...
*
Line of succession to the Spanish throne
Succession to the Spanish throne follows male-preference cognatic primogeniture. A dynast who marries against the express prohibition of the monarch and the Cortes Generales, the legislative chamber of Spain, is excluded from the succession. Up ...
*
Line of succession to the Swedish throne
The line of succession to the Swedish throne is determined by the Act of Succession ( sv, Successionsordningen), originally approved jointly by the Riksdag of the Estates assembled in Örebro and King Charles XIII in 1810.
In 1979, the Riksdag i ...
See also
*
Designation of successor by reigning ruler
*
Elective monarchy
An elective monarchy is a monarchy ruled by an elected monarch, in contrast to a hereditary monarchy in which the office is automatically passed down as a family inheritance. The manner of election, the nature of candidate qualifications, and the ...
*
Imperial election
The election of a Holy Roman Emperor was generally a two-stage process whereby, from at least the 13th century, the King of the Romans was elected by a small body of the greatest princes of the Empire, the prince-electors. This was then followed ...
in the Holy Roman Empire
References
{{reflist
Inheritance
Legal terminology
Hereditary monarchy