Elective Monarchy - Election in Hereditary Monarchies

Election in Hereditary Monarchies

In a hereditary monarchy, election may occasionally be used to fill a vacant throne. For example, the royal family may become extinct; depending on how precisely the succession to the throne is defined in law, several candidates with equally, or almost equally, strong claims could emerge, with an election being held to choose between them. This differs from a formally elective monarchy in that it is an extraordinary measure, and with the new monarch the succession again becomes hereditary.

Alternatively, the monarch may be deposed, as in a revolution. While sometimes a monarch may be forced to abdicate in favour of his or her heir, on other occasions the royal family as a whole has been rejected, the throne going to an elected candidate. Examples include:

• John of England, chosen by a council of nobles and royal advisors at the death of his brother, Richard I because the heir by strict primogeniture, Arthur of Brittany was a child at that time.
• Henry IV of England, chosen by Parliament to replace Richard II. Richard was childless, and the Earl of March, the next in line to the throne, was a young child at the time, so Parliament bypassed him in favour of Henry, who had led the revolt against Richard.
• Michael of Russia, chosen by a Zemsky Sobor (national assembly) after the extinction of the Rurikid dynasty and the end of the Time of Troubles. The resulting Romanov dynasty was an old boyar house with the close ties to the former royalty, and Michael's father, Feodor Romanov, was at the time a Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia under the monastic name of Filaret, in effect holding a position of interrex. Later, Patriarch Filaret, a skilled politician in his own right, became effectively a co-ruler and sometimes a regent for his weak and not very healthy son.
• William III and Mary II of England, chosen by Parliament to replace James II. While Mary was James' daughter, and William and Mary were succeeded by Mary's younger sister Anne, the male descendants of James II were explicitly bypassed in the orders of succession of the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
• John I, then Master of Aviz, was elected by the Council of the Kingdom King of Portugal on 6 April 1385 in the aftermath of 1383–1385 Crisis, his half-brother Ferdinand I had died without a male heir in October 1383, strenuous efforts were made to secure the throne for Princess Beatrice, Ferdinand's only daughter and Queen consort of Castile and León or her uncles Infante John, Duke of Valencia de Campos and Infante Denis, Lord of Cifuentes, but the Council elected the younger and yet illegitimate son of Peter I.
• Louis-Philippe of France, elected King during the July Revolution.