Definitely most of lordship and lord paramount follow agnatic primogeniture succession law but does the iron throne follow that? Sorry but I don't the dance of the dragons lore except the fact that there was a king viserys who wanted a son but got a daughter instead of son and his sister-wife died at childbirth with his son I think,
he named rhaenrya as his heir to the iron throne but he married to queen Alicent and they both had a kid, and then viserys died,
there was a war between daughter of viserys I think rhaenrya and Aegon 2, I think and don't know who lost but I think viserys tried to change succession law from agnatic primogeniture to absolute primogeniture but failed hence there was a civil war, and after I don't know did his succession law remained same after his death
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The law doesn’t appear to be written down or set in stone which was the problem in the first place. King Jahaerys the wise, who was king before Viserys, did not have a son to succeed him either, so he got the lords together and let them vote on the matter. They chose a male relative over the king’s daughter. That should have set enough legal precedent that King Viserys shouldn’t have tried to keep Rhaenyra as his heir once he had true-born sons. It was very self-indulgent of him and one of the reasons he was considered a weak king. While Westeros is an absolute monarchy it’s pretty unwise for any king to go against the wishes of the majority of their nobility.
Why didn't they make a law in the first place, are they stupid
In this case......,yes
Actually I stand corrected. I’m literally watching House of the Dragon episode 8 right now and Vaemond Velaryon just said “you break law and centuries of tradition to install your daughter on the iron throne”.
So apparently there is a law, written or otherwise which from context could only be absolute primogeniture.
That’s what I thought as well, in real life precedence settles some court cases so I would assume like you mentioned in your comment that iron throne should have followed absolute primogeniture
It's a little more complicated: the succession after The Good King came down to a strict vote and it was basically a 5 to 4 split on the Great Council.
It's a precedence but not law if that makes sense.
The Targaryan kings never had a constitution, the law was what the monarch said was law, and if the Maesters thought they had built up a body of law over the centuries... the maesters knew who could melt whose tower if a dispute over a point of law escalated. Hence, the official legalization of incest among Targaryans.
But when it came to deciding that particular succession, I think Aegon was picked to rule more because Rhaenyra was unpopular, than because of any law.
It depends on the king and the acceptance of the 7 kingdoms, but in terms of HOTD it's absolute.
There is no question that Rhaenyra was the heir and it was just taken from her against those wishes which goes back to the point that the 7 kingdoms have a say as well.
I still don't understand how cersei got the throne after her kids died, she was just married into it.
I think Littlefinger had a quote where he said power resides where people think there is power. Cersei was able to capitalize on that and take the throne
In the show, she just took it and no one was really around to argue.
In the books, Robert was chosen because he had the closest Targaryen ancestor and fought on the right sude if the rebellion. If everyone believed his kids to be illegitimate, it would go to Stannis, then Renly. (Not Stannis daughter as a precedent had been set that men could inherit the throne but women couldnt, see HOTD). If those 3 are dead, they would have to figure it out. They may just try to marry someone to Stannis' daughter and get a kid out of the deal. Or they may go to the next family with Targaryen blood.
Fun fact, after the Baratheon's, the next family with the closest relatives are....the Lannisters! Tywin is dead in the books, so it would fall to Jaime. As a member of the Kingsguard, can't inherit. So it would be Tyrion, unless Westeros accepted that Cersei's kids were Jaime's. Then Joffrey (dead), Tommen. Then all the other lannisters running around (cause there's a lot).
None of this matters if the high lords don't agree though. Can't see Dorne, the North, half the riverlands, half the Stormlands, or the Vale carrying about any of that. Dragons won their approval.
Thanks for the explanation! I didn't know.
It's absolute; in practice greedy males have made it agnatic. However, if a woman gets in AND rules well, it will be absolute once more. If she's really smart she'll have it enshrined in written law. Presumably that happened with Nymeria in Dorne.
The Iron Throne is inherited by the eldest child of the ruling monarch, regardless of gender. This is not strictly agnatic primogeniture, which would only pass the throne to the eldest male heir. Nor is it strictly absolute primogeniture, which would pass the throne to the eldest child regardless of gender, but would not necessarily prioritize the eldest male heir. The show's creators have implemented a system that combines elements of both primogeniture and cognatic primogeniture (which considers all descendants of a common ancestor, regardless of gender). When King Robert Baratheon dies, his eldest son Joffrey Baratheon (you little cunt) inherits the throne, despite being a younger sibling. After Joffrey's reign ended, Stannis Baratheon, Joffrey's uncle and next in line according to agnatic primogeniture, becomes the new king. Another example is Jon Snow. He's the illegitimate son of Ned Stark and a potential heir according to cognatic primogeniture, is considered a potential heir by Daenerys Targaryen.