Succession Challenge

A general challenge for you here.
Going by the attached lineage if Duke E2, heir to A, predeceases KingA3 how would A3 determine the succession of his titles (King A, Duke E, Count G)?
And how would the relative value and powers of A to G, their wives, and the Archbishops, vary it?

Current Succession Precedence
  • daughters can inherit counties
  • daughters can inherit duchies pending royal assent
  • daughters cannot inherit the kingdom but can transmit it to their sons pending royal assent or assent by the Council of Dukes
  • mothers can be regents for their comital/ducal/royal sons
  • husbands assume their wife's titles

Succession.PNG
 
My proposal is to marry f3 to HeirToC as soon as possible and declare him the heir to A and E. G will go to the D line.

It would, of course, serve D's interests better to marry f3 to HeirToD. If D is significantly more powerful/popular than C, this course of action could be more likely to avoid open conflict.

Another option would be to marry f3 to some other guy and make him heir to the throne. This is risky, depending on the personalities involved in the houses of C and D--either one could refuse to recognize the third claimant and make trouble. As squicky as it is, her uncle DukeB5 could be the best option politically--he's likely to be the last man of the old royal dynasty around in a few years, and if there's any doubt about the propriety of inheritance via f1, f2, or f3 (with a council composed largely of stakeholders responsible for assent, doubt shouldn't be hard to find) there's a great opening for him.

Another stratagem is to set the king to the task of having another son. Given his status as a grandfather already, this probably won't work, and if it does that could well put the kingdom into a minority regency.
 
Nice to see my thoughts are validated.
What role would you see the Archbishops having?
What if DukeB5 has a brother? Would it make more sense politically for B5 to marry him to f3?
Assuming all the named Dukes are roughly equal could we see a civil war?
 
What if DukeB5 has a brother? Would it make more sense politically for B5 to marry him to f3?

Only if B5 happens to be Habsburg as it would be marrying uncle to niece :D

That said ... from how i read the succession law you set up, the heir would either be a son of f3 (excepting that it goes deep before it goes wide, hence its from E2 if possible), if this can't be handled before the death of A3, then HeirToC seems to be the legal heir. Thus it might be in the interest of the King to get toC and F3 married and busy (so toC doesn't have that much of an interest in 'invalidating' f3's line with an accident), leaving toC to become King jure uxoris, with line of succession going through f3

as for if it could end out in a civil war and who the warring parties would be ... depends on if f3 marries toC or toD ... B5 doesn't really have a dog in that race since titles can be inherited through females, and would most likely back whoever f3 marries (unless he himselves have kids which are offered a good marriage deal with the 'opponents' heir), so it might end up being much ado for nothing with one duke against everyone else.

if f3 marries someone not otherwise in line, it might be more dicey, since C1 suddenly get a very good interest in assassinating her (and any sons) and it comes down to her being able to dodge them and make sure that B5 and D1 is loyal allies (since D1 doesn't have anything to gain by allying with C1, and if he revolts and D1 supports f3, his heir might become second in line, at which point f3 have worked out a good alliance where D2 is going to be the highest duke behind her husband and progeny)
 
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Only if B5 happens to be Habsburg as it would be marrying uncle to niece :D

That said ... from how i read the succession law you set up, the heir would either be a son of f3 (excepting that it goes deep before it goes wide, hence its from E2 if possible), if this can't be handled before the death of A3, then HeirToC seems to be the legal heir. Thus it might be in the interest of the King to get toC and F3 married and busy (so toC doesn't have that much of an interest in 'invalidating' f3's line with an accident), leaving toC to become King jure uxoris, with line of succession going through f3

as for if it could end out in a civil war and who the warring parties would be ... depends on if f3 marries toC or toD ... B5 doesn't really have a dog in that race since titles can be inherited through females, and would most likely back whoever f3 marries (unless he himselves have kids which are offered a good marriage deal with the 'opponents' heir), so it might end up being much ado for nothing with one duke against everyone else.

if f3 marries someone not otherwise in line, it might be more dicey, since C1 suddenly get a very good interest in assassinating her (and any sons) and it comes down to her being able to dodge them and make sure that B5 and D1 is loyal allies (since D1 doesn't have anything to gain by allying with C1, and if he revolts and D1 supports f3, his heir might become second in line, at which point f3 have worked out a good alliance where D2 is going to be the highest duke behind her husband and progeny)

Some good ideas. Would D1 still be as supportive if f1 is from the first marriage? Ie he could claim elder female line and thus set that as precedence.
I'm guessing depends on relative strenghts of C versus D and their clout with the King and the preeminent DukeB.

Could the Archbishops have any bearing on the case?
 
don't really see the archbishops having any major bearing on the case since they're so far removed from the skirmish, beyond what the other of same council ranking have, Archbishop B (Brother of B4) might lean towards supporting B4 in whatever he decides (in turn whomever f3 end up with), but Archbishop A would likely be apolitical beyond trying to keep it from ending up in war
 
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