 | Heir Apparent: Encyclopedia II - Heir Apparent - Heir Apparent's Status can be overturned by law
Heir Apparent - Heir Apparent's Status can be overturned by law
The status of the Heir Apparent is dependent on law.
Heir Apparent - Removal of males from superior role in succession
A legal change may deprive the person who was heir apparent of their status and grant it to another individual. For example, Prince Carl Philip of Sweden was heir apparent of Sweden immediately on his birth in 1979. However, one year later he was deprived of that status when a legal change decreed that the King Carl XVI Gustav's oldest child — not, as previously, oldest son — became heir apparent. This change upgraded Prince Carl Philip's older sister, Princess Victoria, from no position in line to the throne to heir apparent and first-in-line above him. Up to that change of law, Swedish succession was limited to males, failing which, the proper constitutional action would have been an election of the next monarch, as had happened, for example, in 1719, Ulrika Eleonora as queen; 1745, Adolphus Frederick as crown prince; 1810, Charles John as crown prince.
Heir Apparent - Replacement of another Royal Family member by Parliament
Prince James Francis Edward Stuart, the oldest son of King James II/James VII (of England and Scotland respectively) was deposed as King's legal heir apparent when parliament, after it declared that James had de facto abdicated, offered the throne not to the Catholic Prince James but to James's oldest daughter, the young prince's half-sister, the Protestant Mary and her husband, Prince William of Orange. When the exiled King James died in 1701, his Jacobite supporters proclaimed the exiled Prince James Francis Edward as King James III of England and James VIII of Scotland. However he never got to occupy the throne, nor did any of his descendants.
In 1809, King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden was deposed, and replaced by his aged uncle the duke Carl who became Charles XIII of Sweden. With that, Gustav IV's son, crown prince Gustav (later known as prince Gustav of Vasa) lost his position as heir apparent. The aged new king did not have surviving sons and prince Gustav was the only living male of the whole dynasty (besides his deposed father), but the prince never was regarded as heir of Charles XIII, although there were groups in riksdag and elsewhere in Sweden who desired to preserve him, and in ensuing constitutional elections supported his election as his great-uncle's successor. Instead, the government proceeded to have a new crown prince elected (which was the proper constitutional action, if no male heir was left in the dynasty), and the riksdag elected first August, prince of Augustenborg and then, after the death of the latter, the prince of Ponte Corvo (=marshal Jean Baptiste Bernadotte).
Heir Apparent - Breaching of legal qualifications to be Heir Apparent
In some jurisdictions, an heir apparent can lose his or her status should they breach certain constitutional rules.
A British Prince of Wales would lose his status as heir apparent if he
- became a Catholic, or
- married a Catholic
A Crown Princess of Sweden would lose her status if she
- married without the approval of the monarch
- married the heir to another throne, which is always contrary to Swedish law.
A Dutch Prince/Princess of Orange would lose his/her status if he/she
- married without approval of the parliament.
- should decide to renounce it.
Morganatic marriage is not usually a direct reason to lose succession rights (it depends on the laws of country), but marriage without the sovereign's consent usually is (however, as exception to the latter, in UK, a dynast does not himself lose succession right if contracting marriage against Royal Marriages Act; however the issue of such marriage is ineligible to succeed).
A completely different point regarding unequal marriages is that, quite often, the royal who is contracting such, more or less voluntarily, renounces the succession rights. Perhaps the most famous example was king Edward VIII.
Other related archives1701, 1908, Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Albert, Andrew, Anne, Anne Boleyn, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, Arthur, Prince of Wales, Baudouin, Baudouin of the Belgians, Belgium, Carl Philip of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustav, Catherine of Aragon, Catholic, Charles, Charles I of England, Charles X of France, Charles XIII of Sweden, Charles, Prince of Wales, Chrysanthemum Throne, Commonwealth Realms, Crown Prince, Crown Prince Luiz Filippe of Portugal, Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, Crown Princess Victoria, Denmark, Duchess of Windsor, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Windsor, Edward, Edward VIII, Elizabeth, Elizabeth II, Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Franz Josef of Austria, Frederick Lewis, Prince of Wales, George III, George VI, Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden, HIH Crown Prince Naruhito, HIH Reza Pahlavi, Vali Ahd, HRH Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, HRH Crown Princess Victoria, Duchess of Westrogothia, HRH Haakon Magnus, Crown Prince of Norway, HRH Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume of Luxembourg, HRH Prince Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark, HRH Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant, HRH Prince Willem-Alexander, prince of Orange, HRH The Infante Felipe, Prince of the Asturias, HRH The Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, HSH Prince Alois of Liechtenstein, Heir Presumptive, Henri, Comte de Chambord, Henry VII of England, Henry VIII of England, Iran, Isabel of Brazil, Jacobite, James Francis Edward Stuart, James II/James VII, James VI of Scotland, Jane Seymour, Japan, Kangxi, Liechtenstein, Louis-Philippe of the French, Luxembourg, Manuel II of Portugal, Marie-Adélaïde, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, Mary, Mary II, Monarchy, Morganatic marriage, Netherlands, Nicholas II of Russia, Norway, Portugal, Pretender, Prince Willem-Alexander, Prince William of Wales, Prince of Orange, Prince of Wales, Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands, Princess Charlotte, Duchess of Valentinois, Princess Elisabeth of Belgium, Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway, Princess Victoria, Protestant, Qing Dynasty, Queen Anne, Spain, Sultan, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Thailand, Tsarevich Alexei of Russia, United Kingdom, Victoria of the United Kingdom, William III, William IV, William of Orange, Yinreng, abdicated, agnatic seniority, annulled, heir presumptive, kingdom of Saudi Arabia, lose his status, morganatic marriage, order of succession, popular monarchy, primogeniture, prince Gustav of Vasa, prince of Ponte Corvo, queens regnant, son, throne, tricolour, twentieth century, twenty-first century
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Heir Apparent's Status can be overturned by law", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
