Primogeniture

Timeline

1. c. 900–1200The Frankish Kingdom and its successor states · Western EuropeWith the breakup of the Carolingian Empire and the spread of feudalism, the European feudal kingdoms gradually replaced earlier partible inheritance customs (gavelkind) with the principle of primogeniture to prevent fiefs from being weakened by division. The systematic adoption of this principle in the English feudal system after the Norman Conquest (1066) is especially representative.
2. 1451–1460England and France · Western EuropeAfter the Hundred Years' War ended in 1453, the struggle between the English Houses of Lancaster and York over the legitimacy of succession to the throne (the prelude to the Wars of the Roses, breaking out in 1555) profoundly demonstrated the core significance of primogeniture rules for the stability of royal power. The French royal house likewise excluded female succession through the Salic Law, reinforcing the priority of the eldest male heir.
3. c. 1789–2013European countries · EuropeThe French Revolution abolished the nobility's primogeniture privileges, and Napoleon's Code established the principle of equal inheritance among children. Monarchies such as Britain retained royal primogeniture; in 2013 Britain passed an amendment to the Succession to the Crown Act, changing absolute male primogeniture to absolute primogeniture of the eldest heir, marking a major transformation of traditional primogeniture.