political succession

A key problem of all political orders is that of succession. “The king is dead; long live the king” was the answer, not always uncontested, of European hereditary monarchy to the question of who should rule after the death of the king. A second, closely related problem is in what manner and by whom a present ruler may be replaced or deprived of power. To this second question...

It is noteworthy that during the Middle Elamite period the old system of succession to, and distribution of, power appears to have broken down. Increasingly, son succeeded father, and less is heard of divided authority within a federated system. This probably reflects an effort to increase the central authority at Susa in order to conduct effective military campaigns abroad and to hold Elamite...

...(the compulsory marriage of a widow to her deceased husband’s brother). What is remarkable is how often the system did work; it was only in the Middle and Neo-Elamite periods that sons more often succeeded fathers to power.

Of equal interest in the Edict of Telipinus is his program of political reforms. Citing examples of the political evils that had resulted in the past from aristocratic disunity at the death of a monarch, he laid down a precise law of succession, specifying an exact order of precedence to be observed in the selection of a new ruler. He further prescribed that

the nobles must again...

After Peter became sole ruler (1696), he formulated a law of succession (Feb. 5 [Feb. 16, New Style], 1722), which gave the monarch the right to choose his successor. Peter himself (who was the first tsar to be named emperor) was unable to take advantage of this decree, however, and throughout the 18th century the succession remained vexed. Peter left the throne to his wife, Catherine I, who...

Once Vladimir had adopted Christianity in 988, his rule was supported by the propagation of Byzantine notions of imperial authority. The political traditions and conditions of Rus, however, required that the actual workings of the political system and some of its style be derived from other sources. The succession system, probably a vestige of the experience of the Rus khaganate in the upper...

In the beginning, succession to rulership was not necessarily connected with the sacral kingship; the sacral king also could be elected or, through a power struggle, also could receive a divine, magical, or supernatural anointment. If the firstborn son of the king was not stipulated to succeed him or if the king left no children, severe struggles for the succession often occurred, generally...