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An heir presumptive is the person entitled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of a person with a better claim to the position in question. [1] [2] This is in contrast to an heir apparent, whose claim on the position cannot be displaced in this manner.
Depending on the rules of the monarchy, the heir presumptive might be the daughter of a monarch if males take preference over females and the monarch has no sons, or the senior member of a collateral line if the monarch is childless or the monarch's direct descendants cannot inherit either because
The subsequent birth of a legitimate child to the monarch may displace the former heir presumptive by creating an heir apparent or a more eligible heir presumptive. It is not assumed that the monarch and his or her consort are incapable of producing further children; on the day before Queen Elizabeth II ascended the throne, her father George VI was gravely ill and her mother was 51 years old, but Elizabeth was still the heir presumptive rather than the heir apparent. An heir presumptive's position may not even be secure after they ascend their throne, as a posthumous child of the previous monarch could have a superseding claim. Following the death of William IV in 1837, he was succeeded by his niece Queen Victoria, whose accession proclamation noted her accession was only permanent so long as a child of William was not born in the following months to his widow, Adelaide, even though Adelaide was 44 years old and had last been pregnant 17 years earlier. [3] [4] Such a situation occurred in Spain in 1885, when King Alfonso XII died and left behind a widow who was three months pregnant. His five-year-old daughter and heir presumptive, María de las Mercedes, was not declared queen because she would be displaced if a son was born, and instead there was a six-month interregnum until the birth of her brother Alfonso XIII, who assumed the throne as king immediately upon birth. Had the pregnancy been lost or resulted in another daughter, Mercedes would have become queen regnant and been retroactively recognized as such during the interregnum. [5] [6]
Heir presumptive, like heir apparent, is not a title or position per se. Rather, it is a general term for a person who holds a certain place in the order of succession. In some monarchies, the heir apparent bears, ipso facto , a specific title and rank (e.g., Denmark, Netherlands, United Kingdom), this also sometimes being the case for noble titleholders (e.g., Spain, United Kingdom), but the heir presumptive does not bear that title. In other monarchies (e.g., Monaco, Spain) the first in line to the throne bears a specific title (i.e., "Hereditary Prince/Princess of Monaco", "Prince/Princess of Asturias") by right, regardless of whether she or he is heir apparent or heir presumptive.
In the English and Welsh common law of inheritance, there is no seniority between sisters; where there is no son to inherit, any number of daughters share equally. Therefore, certain hereditary titles can have multiple simultaneous heirs presumptive. Since the title cannot be held by two people simultaneously, two daughters (without a brother) who inherit in this way would do so as co-parceners and before they inherit, both would be heirs presumptive. In these circumstances, the title would in fact be held in abeyance until one person represents the claim of both, or the claim is renounced by one or the other for herself and her heirs, or the abeyance is ended by the Crown. There are special procedures for handling doubtful or disputed cases.
|-↵!style="width:7em" |Pays↵!class="unsortable" style="width:1em" |Photo↵!style="width:7em" |Nom de l'héritier présomptif ↵!style="width:10em" |Titre↵!style="width:10.2em" |Date de naissance (âge)↵!style="width:10em" |Lien avec le monarque ↵|-↵| Japon ↵| ↵| Fumihito ↵|Prince héritier du Japon↵| 30 novembre 1965 (58 ans ) ↵|Frère cadet. Si l'empereur Naruhito avait un fils légitime, il deviendrait l'héritier présomptif. ↵|-↵| Thaïlande ↵| ↵| Dipangkorn Rasmijoti ↵|Prince de Thaïlande↵| 29 avril 2005 ( 19 ans) ↵|Fils cadet. Conformément à la loi de succession du palais de 1924 , le roi régnant a le pouvoir absolu de nommer tout homme royal comme héritier présomptif, et une fois annoncée publiquement, la « position de cet héritier est sûre et indiscutable ». ↵|-↵| Espagne ↵| ↵| Leonor ↵|Princesse des Asturies↵| 31 octobre 2005 ( 18 ans) ↵|Enfant aîné. Si le roi Felipe VI a un fils légitime, il deviendrait l'héritier présomptif. ↵|-↵| France ↵|[[Fichier:Lambart Jérôme cavan comte de Bretagne 2024.↵| Lambart ↵|Prince de pays cavan et de Bretagne ↵| 15 août 1973 ( 51 ans) ↵|Enfant aîné. Si le roi LAMBART CAVAN a un fils légitime d'héraldique, il deviendrait l'héritier présomptif.↵|}
The list is limited to heirs presumptive who did not succeed due to death, abolition of monarchies, or change in succession law.
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