WI : Twins born as heirs to a royal family

Yorel

Recently, I discovered that Twins had just been born to Luis Alfonso de Borbon, current legitimist pretender to the Throne of France as Louis XX. Before the birth of those twins, he only had a daughter... Considering Salic Law is the rule in France, it made me wonder how they are going to deal with this unique case : Twins as heirs of the crown.

Then another question crossed my mind : what if it had happened to a monarchy earlier than nowadays? What if Twins had been born as the eldest children of a King or an Emperor, making them heirs to the crown?

Could we see an Iron Mask scenario? One of the twins becoming King while the birth of the other is kept as a secret?
Or would they both co-rule the Kingdom? If so, what would be the consequences of this?

All I see is a big mess in successoral laws...
On a side note, I don't ask for Triplets, Quadruplets, etc... as the situation would roughly be the same, but messier.
 
Last edited:

Emperor-of-New-Zealand

I guess it depends on what country. A lot of kings/emperors in the old days were known to split their empires among their children, thus decimating said empire (I'm thinking Poland-Lithuania, if I'm right?).
 

Anja

Somewhere at TV I heard that if they were of the same sex the 2nd born would be the 1st in line, because they believed he were the first one conceived.
 

Boto von Ageduch

Exactly. If you need a firstborn, then you get one - if only by minutes.

Most royal parents would also know the Biblical story about Isaak's twin sons ...
 
RaptorX

RaptorX

There can't be co-ruling!
There would be war because one would dissagree with the other on several issues!

Plus why would anyone share power in those times?
 

PoorBoy

RaptorX said:
There can't be co-ruling!
There would be war because one would dissagree with the other on several issues!

Plus why would anyone share power in those times?
Click to expand...

Why not? Sparta had two kings as co-rulers for most of its history, and though it's not a monarchy, the Roman Republic had two consuls as heads of state until Caesar came in and hijacked the whole thing.
 

Mikestone8

RaptorX said:
There can't be co-ruling!
There would be war because one would dissagree with the other on several issues!

Plus why would anyone share power in those times?
Click to expand...


Norway had several joint kingships during the Viking Age, and made them work surprisingly well.
 
Grey Wolf

Grey Wolf

The one who popped out first would get the crown, the one who was a bit more sluggish would get ... whatever

Primogeniture is about order of birth, so order of conception is irrelevant - imagine two brothers get their wives pregnant, one has a son at 8 1/2 months,, one at 9 1/4 but the one born at 8 1/2 months was conceived 2 weeks later...he would still be born a week before the other one

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Top