How to keep things together after the death of the head of the family. A monarchy maintained itself by keeping power within the family. This required careful control over who would succeed the king at the time of his death. The laws of primogeniture--the eldest male heir of a monarch having the exclusive right to rule--was the most widely used system for passing the family power. If a king died childless, (depending upon how a country's laws defined the options), usually the king's brother, the next eldest, became king. Later, however, the next eldest to the king, male or female, became monarch. Look at the chart below. Far left on the chart is the oldest child, far right is the youngest child. This will demonstrate the difficulties and ongoing problems of the continuation of the monarchy and the dynasty or family rule.

1. If the king dies, who is his heir, according to the laws of primogeniture?

2. If the person in Answer 1 dies, who becomes monarch?

3. If the person from answer 2 dies, who becomes monarch?

4. If the person from answer 3 dies, who becomes monarch?

5. If son A had no children, who would become monarch?

6. If there were no laws of primogeniture, who would become monarch upon the death of the king?