A secundogeniture (from la, secundus "following, second," and "born") was a dependent territory given to a younger son of a princely house and his descendants, creating a
cadet branch. This was a special form of
inheritance in which the second and younger son received more possessions and prestige than the
apanage which was usual in principalities practising
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 ...
. It avoided the generational division of the estate to the extent that occurred under
gavelkind, and at the same time gave younger branches a stake in the stability of the house.
Creation
The creation of a secundogeniture was often regulated by a
house law. The younger sons would receive some territory, but much less than the older brother, and they would not be sovereign. Examples of such house laws would be
* the
House Treaty of Gera in Brandenburg
* the testament of
John George I of Saxony and the of 1657, in which John George I's sons regulated the details.
A secundogeniture is different from a
partition. A ''partition'' creates two (or more) separate, largely independent states. An example of a partition would be the division of
Hesse after the death of
Philip I of Hesse
Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse (13 November 1504 – 31 March 1567), nicknamed (in English: "the Magnanimous"), was a German nobleman and champion of the Protestant Reformation, notable for being one of the most important of the early Protesta ...
. Nevertheless, there have been intermediate cases between a secundogeniture and a proper partition.
Examples
*
Armenia in 63 AD
*
Brandenburg-Küstrin
*
Brandenburg-Schwedt
* Habsburg-Tuscany
*
Hesse-Homburg
*
Hesse-Rotenburg
*
Palatinate-Birkenfeld
The House of Palatinate-Birkenfeld (German: ''Pfalz-Birkenfeld''), later Palatinate-Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld, was the name of a collateral line of the Palatine Wittelsbachs. The Counts Palatine from this line initially ruled over only a relatively u ...
*
Palatinate-Sulzbach
*
Saxe-Merseburg
*
Saxe-Weissenfels
*
Saxe-Zeitz
*
Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg
* Württemberg-Mömpelgard
See also
*
Partitioned-off duke
Inheritance
Nobility
Fatherhood
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