Heir apparent

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An heir apparent or heiress apparent is a person who is first in line of succession
and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person. An heir
presumptive, by contrast, is someone who is first in line to inherit a title but
who can be displaced by the birth of a more eligible heir.

Today these terms most commonly describe heirs to hereditary titles, particularly
in monarchies. Most monarchies refer to the heir apparent of their thrones with the
descriptive term of crown prince but these heirs may also be also accorded with a
more specific substantive title, such as Prince of Orange in the Netherlands,
Prince of Asturias in Spain, or Prince of Wales in the United Kingdom and the other
Commonwealth realms. In France the title was le Dauphin, in Imperial Russia it was
Tsesarevich.[1]

The term is also used metaphorically to indicate an anointed successor to any

position of power, e.g., a political or corporate leader.

This article primarily describes the term heir apparent in a hereditary system
regulated by laws of primogenitureas opposed to cases where a monarch has a say in
naming the heir.

Contents [hide]
1 Heir apparent versus heir presumptive
1.1 Daughters in male-preference primogeniture
1.2 Women as heirs apparent
2 Displacement of heirs apparent
2.1 People who lost heir apparent status
2.2 Breaching legal qualification of heirs apparent
3 Heirs apparent who never inherited the throne
3.1 Heirs apparent who predeceased the monarch
3.2 Heirs apparent who were forced to abandon their claim
3.3 Heirs apparent of monarchs who themselves abdicated or were deposed
4 Heirs apparent as of 2017
5 See also
6 References
Heir apparent versus heir presumptive[edit]

Throngs before the Imperial Palace in Japan awaiting the appearance of the Crown
Prince Hirohito for the recent proclamation of his official recognition as the heir
apparent to the Japanese Imperial Throne New York Times, 1916.
In a hereditary system governed by some form of primogeniture, an heir apparent is
easily identifiable as the person whose position as first in the line of succession
is secure, regardless of future births. An heir presumptive, by contrast, can
always be bumped down in the succession by the birth of somebody more closely
related in a legal sense (according to that form of primogeniture) to the current
title-holder.

The clearest example occurs in the case of a title-holder with no children. If at

any time he or she were to produce children, they (the offspring of the title-
holder) rank ahead of whatever more distant relative (the title-holder's sibling,
perhaps, or a nephew or cousin) had been heir presumptive.

Many legal systems assume childbirth is always possible regardless of age or

health. In such circumstances a person may be, in a practical sense, the heir
apparent but still, legally speaking, heir presumptive. Indeed, when Queen Victoria
succeeded her uncle King William IV, the wording of the proclamation even gave as a
caveat

...saving the rights of any issue of his late Majesty King William IV, which may be
born of his late Majesty's consort.
This provided for the possibility that William's wife, Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen,
was pregnant at the moment of his death, since such a posthumous child, regardless
of its sex, would have displaced Victoria from the throne.[2] Adelaide was 44 at
the time, so pregnancy was possible even if unlikely.

Daughters in male-preference primogeniture[edit]

Daughters (and their lines) may inherit titles that descend according to male-
preference primogeniture, but only in default of sons (and their heirs). That is,
both female and male offspring have the right to a place somewhere in the order of
succession, but when it comes to what that place is, a female will rank behind her
brothers regardless of their ages or her age.

Thus, normally, even an only daughter will not be heir apparent, since at any time
a brother might be born who, though younger, would assume that position. Hence, she
is an heir presumptive. For example, Queen Elizabeth II was heir presumptive during
the reign of her father, King George VI, because at any stage up to his death,
George could have fathered a legitimate son.

Women as heirs apparent[edit]

In a system of absolute primogeniture that disregards gender, female heirs apparent
occur. Several European monarchies that have adopted such systems in the last few
decades furnish practical examples. Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Princess
Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands, and Princess Elisabeth of Belgium are
respectively the oldest children of Kings Carl XVI Gustaf, Willem-Alexander, and
Philippe and are their heirs apparent. Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway is heir
apparent to her father (who is heir apparent to the Norwegian throne), and Victoria
herself has a female heir apparent in her oldest child, Princess Estelle. Victoria
was not heir apparent from birth (in 1977), but gained the status in 1980 following
a change in the Swedish Act of Succession. Her younger brother Carl Philip (born
1979) was thus heir apparent for a few months (and is a rare example of an heir
apparent losing this status without a death occurring).

In 2015, pursuant to the 2011 Perth Agreement, the Commonwealth realms changed the
rules of succession to the 16 thrones of Elizabeth II to absolute primogeniture,
except for male heirs born before the Perth Agreement. The effects are not likely
to be felt for many years; the first two heirs at the time of the agreement
(Charles, Prince of Wales and his son Prince William, Duke of Cambridge) were
already eldest born children, and in 2013, William's first-born son Prince George
of Cambridge became the next apparent successor.

But even in legal systems that apply male-preference primogeniture, female heirs
apparent are by no means impossible if a male heir apparent dies leaving no sons
but at least one daughter, then the eldest daughter would replace her father as
heir apparent to whatever throne or title is concerned, but only when it has become
clear that the widow of the deceased is not pregnant. Then, as the representative
of her father's line she would assume a place ahead of any more distant relatives.
Such a situation has not to date occurred with the English or British throne;
several times an heir apparent has died, but each example has either been childless
or left a son or sons. However, there have been several female heirs apparent to
British peerages (e.g., Frances Ward, 6th Baroness Dudley, and Henrietta Wentworth,
6th Baroness Wentworth).

In one special case, however, England and Scotland had a female heir apparent. The
Revolution settlement that established William and Mary as joint monarchs in 1689
only gave the power to continue the succession through issue to Mary II, eldest
daughter of the previous king, James II. William, by contrast, was to reign for
life only, and his (hypothetical) children by a wife other than Mary would be
placed in his original place (as Mary's first cousin) in the line of succession
after Mary's younger sister Anne. Thus, although after Mary's death William
continued to reign, he had no power to beget direct heirs,[3] and Anne became the
heir apparent for the remainder of William's reign. She eventually succeeded him as
Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland.

Displacement of heirs apparent[edit]

The position of an heir apparent is normally unshakable it can be assumed they will
inherit. Sometimes, however, extraordinary eventssuch as the death or the
deposition of the parentintervene.

People who lost heir apparent status[edit]

Parliament deposed James Francis Edward Stuart, the infant son of King James II &
VII (of England and Scotland respectively) whom James II was raising as a Catholic,
as the King's legal heir apparentdeclaring that James had, de facto, abdicated
and offered the throne to James II's oldest daughter, the young prince's much older
Protestant half-sister, Mary (along with 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; but neither he nor his descendants were ever successful in their bids for
the throne.
Crown Prince Gustav (later known as Gustav, Prince of Vasa), son of Gustav IV Adolf
of Sweden, lost his place when his father was deposed and replaced by Gustav IV
Adolf's aged uncle, the Duke Carl, who became Charles XIII of Sweden in 1809. The
aged King Charles XIII did not have surviving sons, and Prince Gustav was the only
living male of the whole dynasty (besides his deposed father), but the prince was
never regarded as heir of Charles XIII, although there were factions in the Riksdag
and elsewhere in Sweden who desired to preserve him, and, in the subsequent
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 his death,
the Prince of Ponte Corvo (Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte).
Prince Carl Philip of Sweden, at his birth in 1979, was heir apparent to the throne
of Sweden. A year later a change in that country's succession laws instituted
absolute primogeniture, and Carl Philip was supplanted as heir apparent by his
elder sister Victoria.
Muqrin bin Abdulaziz became Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia in January 2015 upon the
death of his half-brother King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and the accession of
another half-brother, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, to the Saudi throne. In April
of that year, Salman removed Muqrin as Crown Prince, replacing him with their
nephew Muhammad bin Nayef. Muhammad bin Nayef himself was later replaced as Crown
Prince by the king's son Mohammad bin Salman.
Breaching legal qualification of heirs apparent[edit]
In some jurisdictions, an heir apparent can automatically lose that status by
breaching certain constitutional rules. Today, for example