Primogeniture Quotes

Marriage has been a way of attempting to ensure the replication of power and wealth from one generation of another, passing it down from men to men.

The United States was founded on a revolution that abolished the monarchy, aristocracy, titles and primogeniture. Britain may be able in the future to become a more equal and open society while retaining all of these things. But this has yet to be proved.

When fiefs inspired military service, it is easily discerned why females could not inherit them; but the reason is at an end.

The crown is not my right and pleases me not. Lady Mary is the heir.

…primogeniture was founded upon the most absurd of all suppositions, the supposition that every successive generation of men have not an equal right to the earth, and to all that it possesses; but that the property of the present generation should be restrained and regulated according to the fancy of those who died perhaps five hundred years ago.

The admission of one man, either hereditarily or for life only, into the place of chief of a country, is an evidence of the infirmity of man. Nature has set up no difference between a king and other men; a king, therefore, is purely the creation of our own hands.

I repeat for the umpteenth time, without making apologies: My children have had more than their fair share of presidency under their father. There cannot be any hereditary transfer of power.

Anglo-Saxon kings often used to favour their sister's son to their own - for at least you could guarantee there was your own blood in your sister's son!

High status males had multiple wives or additional mating opportunities in the ancestral environment.

If any of my earls, barons or other vassals die, their heirs shall not be obligated to redeem their land …., but they shall be put in possession of it on paying a just and reasonable relief.

For nearly as long as civilization has existed, patriarchy - enforced through the rights of the firstborn son - has been the organizing principle, with few exceptions.

We read too much Shakespeare at school, and view our parliamentary politics as dynastic drama, in which an impatient crown prince frets at his long subordination and begins to scheme for the throne he knows he merits, was promised and has earned.

The First World War, and especially the latest one, largely swept away what was left in Europe of feudalism and of feudal landlords, especially in Poland, Hungary, and the South East generally.

The first farmer was the first man, and all historic nobility rests on possession and use of land.

In those days, when you got boxed, that was it. A lot of old people were there because somebody wanted the farm. It was about property. People are treated like property.

the twelve or fifteen millions in the British Empire, who, while they possess no electoral rights, are yet persuaded they are freemen, and who are mystified into the notion that they are not political bondmen, by that great juggle of the ' English Constitution ' a thing of monopolies, and Church-craft, and sinecures, armorial hocus-pocus, primogeniture, and pageantry!

For a very long time, and among a large number of peoples, political power has belonged to the owners of the land

I was the third son, and the family tradition was my dad always favored the oldest child.

For the welfare of the state, the one of my sons to whom God grants the Sultanate may lawfully put his brothers to death.

Hey, Mr. Cunningham. How's your entailment gettin' along?

The idea of the split personality is as old as Genesis. For a start, Eve was manufactured from Adam's rib. Then there's Cain and Abel, twins at war. They were followed by Esau and Jacob, likewise divisible into hairy and smooth types.

The centuries-old habit of privileging the male heir arose because monarchs were supposed to lead their country in battle, and only men were thought strong enough to do so.

If you look back 600 years ago, royals' sole goal was to keep their wealth within the family.

According to Celtic law, all sons equally divided the inheritance and principalities of their father.

Britain has had some very strong and successful queens throughout history, but, since the Act of Succession in 1701, they have only been eligible to take the throne if they had no brothers. If there was a boy in the family, no matter where he came in the order of birth, he leapfrogged his sisters to take the title.