Heir Club for Men: Difference between revisions

Although most common in stories about royalty, this trope also includes the common people. This trope is about heirs, and it is not intended to cover cases where the parent(s) merely wish for a boy (or girl) because they would like one, but is only when they wish for one to continue the family name--when tradition demands it.

 

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* One of the major plot motivators in [[Jane Austen]]'s ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'' is the Bennetts' lack of a male heir.

* In [[CS Lewis (Creator)|CS Lewis]]' ''[[Till We Have Faces]]'', the king of Glome wants a male heir and gets three daughters. His anger about this is the source of much tension in his family and the court. In the end, his oldest daughter seizes, and holds, the throne after his death.

** His legal changes were largely subverted, as only two other queens claimed the throne in the next 16 generations. The odds of this happening by pure chance are ''extremely'' low, assuming male and female royal offspring were equally likely to be born and survive to inherit.

** The last king of Numenor, Ar-Pharazon, averted this by marrying his [[Kissing Cousins|cousin]] Miriel, the only child of the previous king, and usurped her throne. It's noted that he broke three Numenorean laws in doing so: he forced Miriel to marry him, marriage between [[Kissing Cousins|first cousins]] was forbidden, and the law stated that the eldest child of the previous ruler would ascend to the throne, and ''not'' her consort in the case of a woman.

* The cause of more than a few problems in [[Robin Hobb]]'s ''The Farseer''. Chivalry, the crown prince, caused a scandal when he married who he wanted instead of for politics, and then she turned out to be [[Law of Inverse Fertility|too infirm to carry a child to term]]. When word came that Chivalry had a bastard son, Fitz, he stepped down in favor of his brother, Verity. Verity eventually marries but {{spoiler|wrecks his health so much with using the magical Skill that he can't father children}}, so Verity {{spoiler|takes over Fitz's body to have sex with his wife in hopes of continuing the royal line, even if through a bastard}}, since the Skill is strongest in the royal bloodline and if lost there may die out altogether.

* A side plot in the ''[[Heralds of Valdemar|Last Herald-Mage]]'' trilogy by [[Mercedes Lackey]] is that {{spoiler|King Randale of Valdemar is sterile. To hide this fact, Vanyel sires a child on Randale's lifebonded mate (at her request).}}

** Emperor Gregor has no clear cut heir. Aral's mother was a princess, meaning that the Vorkosigans are closest to the throne in terms of strict biology, but one interpretation of Barrayaran law states that women cannot inherit, nor can they pass down inheritance rights to their sons. Should Gregor die, civil war would erupt over whether or not to honor the old laws of inheritance. So basically ''everyone'' in the empire is holding their breath, waiting for Gregor to make some legitimate imperial babies and side step the issue of inheritance entirely. (Achieved by ''Cryoburn''. Where Miles comments that his wife is useful for more things that producing their brood of children.)

* ''[[Honor Harrington (Literature)|Honor Harrington]]'' example: The Star Kingdom of Manticore has allowed primary succession by women ever since their second monarch, Elizabeth the First. The current queen is Elizabeth the Third. Grayson has recently tweaked the law to allow women to inherit (with a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|grandfather clause]] for current heirs), especially making sense due to the population being 75% female. The Andermani had a better solution: their first female Emperor, Gustav VII, dealt with rules forbidding female inheritance by [[She Is the King|declaring herself to be a man.]] It helped she took control of the Imperial Fleet before hand. "He" is considered one of the [[Crazy Awesome|best rulers of an empire]] whose rulers are [[Bunny Ears Lawyer|well known for their eccentricities]].

** Connie also mentioned to Ethan (after they had sex at Galasso's command) that she was "on the pill", indicating that she may be a bit more assertive than she lets on. She eventually gets sick of this and starts her own business, which appears to be more successful than Galasso's own.

* [[Gender Inverted Trope]] in ''[[Drow Tales]]'' due to a matriarchal society. Thanks to an injury from an enemy, Quain'tana has been unable to produce a suitable ''female'' heir for her clan despite having several daughters. The first hates her and mingles freely with the enemy, the second is possessed by a demon, and her adopted daughter was disowned after being tainted and generally considered a failure. She eventually resorts to {{spoiler|stealing her eldest daughter's first child}} to solve this.

 

 

* Parodied in [http://www.theonion.com/content/news/clinton_chastises_hillary_for this] Onion article.

* Absolutely [[Truth in Television]] throughout most of history, and in much of the world. You were an unfortunate queen if you couldn't bear a son -- if you were lucky, the king wouldn't set you aside. Otherwise, you'd end up divorced, beheaded, poisoned, locked up in a convent, etc. Princesses becoming queens regnant (ruling queens) had all sorts of problems. No one wanted a female ruler, because if she married her kingdom would, most likely, be combined with that of her husband. The Iberian kingdoms solved this problem by having their queens marry their close blood relatives, so the crown stayed inside the kingdom. Queen Maria I of Portugal married her UNCLE to avoid marrying a foreign prince. They had 3 surviving children, and their eldest son married in turn his aunt (Maria's sister). Mercifully, this marriage produced no children. A lot of kingdoms (notably France) refused to allow women to inherit the throne at all.

** The abovementioned French Salic Law that prohibits females from ruling France or inheriting noble titles in their own right dates from the 6th Century and directly caused, among other things, the Hundred Years War. On the other hand, it also prevented many English upstarts (since a lot of French princesses married English kings) from staking their claim.

* The [[Unfortunate Implications]] of China's One Child Policy is that, since families want male heirs, they've been having (or ''[[Offing the Offspring|keeping]]'') too many sons and not enough daughters, which means not enough wives to go around (which anyone could tell you is what happens when it's only acceptable to have sons!). Oops! The government eventually had to compromise by allowing girls to inherit their family name and giving families "incentives" (read: money) to have baby girls.

* The Netherlands avert this BIG-time. When Prince Willem gains the throne, he will be the first male monarch on the Dutch throne in over ''120 years''.

** This happened more by coincidence than anything else. Wilhelmina was the sole surviving child of William III, Juliana was a single child, and Beatrix has no male siblings.

** Likewise [[Maria Theresa]] (above) was proclaimed '''King''' of Hungary. Moriamur pro rege nostra Maria Theresa!

* It was this issue that started a period in English history known as The Anarchy, when Henry I named his lone surviving child, Matilda, his heir. It was a bit more complicated, in that not only were the Anglo-Norman barons wary of having a woman on the throne, but her husband was from Anjou, Normandy's rival. A faction of barons helped Stephen of Blois onto the throne, which plunged England into 19 years of civil war until a resolution was reached where Stephen's own sons would be bypassed for succession in favor of Matilda's son, the future Henry II, who was the founder of England's Plantagenet dynasty, which of course produced some of England's most famous kings, like Richard the Lionheart, Edward I 'Longshanks', and Edward III.

[[Category:Fairy Tale Tropes]]

[[Category:Heir Club For Men]]