I'm doing some research about the post-Roman Germanic kingdoms in Western Europe, with focus on the Carolingian period. From what I've found, there were:
A) Salic Patrimony ("Gavelkind", for fellow CK2 players), by which the real estate is divided among the male sons, apparently in equal shares, and, in the case of rulership, with equal titles. It seems that it was the most common method, at least among the Franks, but also practiced by the Kingdom of Asturias (from whence Castille, Galicia and Leon were born).
B) Elective, by which the whole rulership is given to a single person chosen by a group of nobles. Besides the obvious (and complicated) example of the HRE, it seems that in the Lombard Kingdom of Italy election was the traditional method, and not many Kings managed to have their sons elected. I'm not sure about other Germanic monarchies such as Bavaria, Thuringian and pre-Carolingian Saxony.
C) Primogeniture, from what I recall, it was recognized at least among the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (Alfred the Great's ascension to power instead of his nephew Aethelwold was apparently considered excepcional).
So my basic questions are:
1. Do we have any notion of when (in which century) elective and "gavelkind" systems gradually phased out to give place to male-preference primogeniture? My guess is roughly by the 11th century, but am not so sure about this figure.
2. Did these types of transition to primogeniture by the monarchs met resistance (let's forget a bit about the HRE, for its system goes well beyond my purpose) from the nobility, or were the nobles (at least on Duke rank) also interested in it?
3. Did the eventual collapse of the Carolingian Empire - the "kingdom partition" policies among the eligible heirs being one of the main factors in its decline - led to the conscious adoption of primogeniture in Western European kingdoms after the 10th century?
A) Salic Patrimony ("Gavelkind", for fellow CK2 players), by which the real estate is divided among the male sons, apparently in equal shares, and, in the case of rulership, with equal titles. It seems that it was the most common method, at least among the Franks, but also practiced by the Kingdom of Asturias (from whence Castille, Galicia and Leon were born).
B) Elective, by which the whole rulership is given to a single person chosen by a group of nobles. Besides the obvious (and complicated) example of the HRE, it seems that in the Lombard Kingdom of Italy election was the traditional method, and not many Kings managed to have their sons elected. I'm not sure about other Germanic monarchies such as Bavaria, Thuringian and pre-Carolingian Saxony.
C) Primogeniture, from what I recall, it was recognized at least among the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (Alfred the Great's ascension to power instead of his nephew Aethelwold was apparently considered excepcional).
So my basic questions are:
1. Do we have any notion of when (in which century) elective and "gavelkind" systems gradually phased out to give place to male-preference primogeniture? My guess is roughly by the 11th century, but am not so sure about this figure.
2. Did these types of transition to primogeniture by the monarchs met resistance (let's forget a bit about the HRE, for its system goes well beyond my purpose) from the nobility, or were the nobles (at least on Duke rank) also interested in it?
3. Did the eventual collapse of the Carolingian Empire - the "kingdom partition" policies among the eligible heirs being one of the main factors in its decline - led to the conscious adoption of primogeniture in Western European kingdoms after the 10th century?