Historical instances
Notable cases of the application of the maxim include the following monarchs:
John I, the short-lived, posthumous son of King Louis X, who inherited the throne of France in utero and, upon birth, he reigned for the five days of his post-natal life in 1316.
In 1439, king Albert II of Germany died and next year his son Ladislaus the Posthumous succeeded him in Bohemia and Austria. In 1444, he was proclaimed King in Hungary and Croatia after the interim King Vladislaus I Jagiellon died at the Battle of Varna. Germany went to Albert's second cousin, who became Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, due to its elective monarchy.
In 1650 and 1711, William II and John William Friso, Princes of Orange died before their sons and heirs William III and William IV were born.
When Victoria inherited the British throne in 1837, her proclamation of accession specified that she inherited it from her uncle "saving the rights of any issue of his late Majesty King William IV, which may be born of his late Majesty's consort, Queen Adelaide", because any such unborn progeny would have had a prior claim to the throne under primogeniture. They would have ipso facto displaced her as British monarch at birth.
In 1885, king Alfonso XII of Spain died and was provisionally succeeded by his daughter María de las Mercedes, Princess of Asturias until his wife's pregnancy turned out to be a boy, who became Alfonso XIII of Spain upon birth.
The Salic law, also called the Salian law, was the ancient Frankish civil law code compiled around AD 500 by the first Frankish King, Clovis. The written text is in Late Latin and contains some of the earliest known instances of Old Dutch. It remained the basis of Frankish law throughout the early Medieval period, and influenced future European legal systems. The best-known tenet of the old law is the principle of exclusion of women from inheritance of thrones, fiefs, and other property. The Salic laws were arbitrated by a committee appointed and empowered by the King of the Franks. Dozens of manuscripts dating from the sixth to eighth centuries and three emendations as late as the ninth century have survived.
Primogeniture is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn legitimate child to inherit the parent's entire or main estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some children, any illegitimate child or any collateral relative. In most contexts, it means the inheritance of the firstborn son ; it can also mean by the firstborn daughter, or firstborn child.
An heir apparent is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person. A person who is first in the current order of succession but could be displaced by the birth of a more eligible heir is known as heir presumptive.
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. This is in contrast to an heir apparent, whose claim on the position cannot be displaced in this manner.
Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg was Queen of Spain as the wife of King Alfonso XIII from their marriage on 31 May 1906 until 14 April 1931, when the Spanish Second Republic was proclaimed. A Hessian princess by birth, she was a member of the Battenberg family, a morganatic branch of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt. She was the youngest granddaughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Unlike other members of the Battenberg family, who were accorded the lower rank of Serene Highness, Victoria Eugenie was born with the rank of Highness due to a Royal Warrant issued in 1886 by Queen Victoria.
Succession to the British throne is determined by descent, sex, legitimacy, and religion. Under common law, the Crown is inherited by a sovereign's children or by a childless sovereign's nearest collateral line. The Bill of Rights 1689 and the Act of Settlement 1701 restrict succession to the throne to the legitimate Protestant descendants of Sophia of Hanover who are in "communion with the Church of England". Spouses of Catholics were disqualified from 1689 until the law was amended in 2015. Protestant descendants of those excluded for being Roman Catholics are eligible.
The Regency Acts are Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed at various times, to provide a regent in the event of the reigning monarch being incapacitated or a minor. Prior to 1937, Regency Acts were passed only when necessary to deal with a specific situation. In 1937, the Regency Act 1937 made general provision for a regent, and established the office of Counsellor of State, a number of whom would act on the monarch's behalf when the monarch was temporarily absent from the realm or experiencing an illness that did not amount to legal incapacity. This Act, as modified by the Regency Acts of 1943 and 1953, forms the main law relating to regency in the United Kingdom today.
The House of Capet ruled the Kingdom of France from 987 to 1328. It was the most senior line of the Capetian dynasty – itself a derivative dynasty from the Robertians and the Karlings.
Constanza Manuel of Villena, was a Castilian noblewoman who by her two marriages was Queen consort of Castile and León and Infanta of Portugal.
Agnatic seniority is a patrilineal principle of inheritance where the order of succession to the throne prefers the monarch's younger brother over the monarch's own sons. A monarch's children succeed only after the males of the elder generation have all been exhausted. Agnatic seniority excludes females of the dynasty and their descendants from the succession. Contrast agnatic primogeniture, where the king's sons stand higher in succession than his brothers.
Elizabeth of Luxembourg was queen consort of Hungary, queen consort of Germany and Bohemia.
The Law French phrase en ventre sa mere refers to a fetus in utero and is commonly used in Legal English.
Fetal rights are the moral rights or legal rights of the human fetus under natural and civil law. The term fetal rights came into wide usage after Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark case that legalized abortion at the federal level in the United States and was essentially overturned in 2022. The concept of fetal rights has evolved to include the issues of maternal substance use disorders, including alcohol use disorder and opioid use disorder. Most international human rights charters "clearly reject claims that human rights should attach from conception or any time before birth." While most international human rights instruments lack a universal inclusion of the fetus as a person for the purposes of human rights, the fetus is granted various rights in the constitutions and civil codes of some countries.
An order, line or right of succession is the line of individuals necessitated to hold a high office when it becomes vacated, such as head of state or an honour such as a title of nobility. This sequence may be regulated through descent or by statute.
The born alive rule is a common law legal principle that holds that various criminal laws, such as homicide and assault, apply only to a child that is "born alive". U.S. courts have overturned this rule, citing recent advances in science and medicine, and in several states feticide statutes have been explicitly framed or amended to include fetuses in utero. Abortion in Canada is still governed by the born alive rule, as courts continue to hold to its foundational principles. In 1996, the Law Lords confirmed that the rule applied in English law but that alternative charges existed in lieu, such as a charge of unlawful or negligent manslaughter instead of murder.
The precise style of French sovereigns varied over the years. Currently, there is no French sovereign; three distinct traditions exist, each claiming different forms of title.
The Regency Act 1830 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed to provide for the event that King William IV died while the next person in line to the throne was not yet aged 18. It provided for a regency until the new monarch reached the age of 18, and also would have enabled a posthumous child of King William IV to replace Queen Victoria on the throne. However, the Act never came into force, because William was not survived by a legitimate child, and Victoria became queen in 1837 a few weeks after turning 18.
A posthumous birth is the birth of a child after the death of a parent. A person born in these circumstances is called a posthumous child or a posthumously born person. Most instances of posthumous birth involve the birth of a child after the death of its father, but the term is also applied to infants delivered shortly after the death of the mother, usually by caesarean section.
The monarchy of the Netherlands is governed by the country's constitution, roughly a third of which explains the mechanics of succession, accession, and abdication; the roles and duties of the monarch; the formalities of communication between the States General of the Netherlands; and the monarch's role in creating laws.
The law of persons in South Africa regulates the birth, private-law status and the death of a natural person. It determines the requirements and qualifications for legal subjectivity in South Africa, and the rights and responsibilities that attach to it.
