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Since royal succession laws evolved to favor the lateral over the collateral, when it came to inheriting thrones, it's no surprise that oftentimes succession skipped a generation or two -- especially in the days before advanced medicine. In fact, the famous "Sun" King Louis XIV of France was predeceased by no fewer than THREE direct heirs -- eventually being succeeded by a great-grandson who was only a minor at the time (like himself, at the time of his own accession to the French throne).

And that successor, King Louis V, was himself predeceased by his own eldest son and heir-apparent -- with the throne passing to his namesake grandson, the ill-fated King Louis XVI.

Of course, there are other ways for succession to skip a generation: sometimes, an heir renounces his rights to the throne in favor of his sons. Cases in point: Archduke Franz Karl of Austria (1802-1878), brother and heir-presumptive to Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria; Prince Aloys of Liechtenstein (1869-1955), grandfather of the present sovereign.

In other cases, an heir predeceases a sovereign, and likely would not have succeeded to the throne, but for the abdication (whether forced or voluntary) of the said sovereign (e.g. King Maximilian II of Bavaria and King George VI of Great Britain). Such a scenario, of course, only raises the usual speculative question as to how long the sovereign would have survived, had he not abdicated -- whether the stress and burden of reigning might perhaps have shortened his life. Or how long the heir would have lived, had he not come to the throne unexpectedly or early, thereby being stressed and burdened with the duties of sovereignty.

Anyhow, bearing all this in mind, I thought of listing notable examples of royal princes who were sons and fathers of sovereigns, but never sovereigns themselves. I'm especially into the subject of kings and emperors; but I'd also be interested in hearing examples of sovereign grand dukes, dukes, and princes. I admit to being more familiar with European royal history within the last three centuries.

Here are the ones I personally can name, at the moment --

UK: Frederick, Prince of Wales (son of King George II of father of King George III); Edward, Duke of Kent (son of King George III and father of Queen Victoria). I know that earlier in royal England, there was an Edward ("Black Prince"); I'm sure there were other cases.

Sweden: Prince Gustaf Adolf (1906-1947), son of King Gustaf VI Adolf and father of the present King Carl XVI Gustaf

Belgium: Philippe, Count of Flanders (son of King Leopold I and father of King Albert II)

Spain: Juan, Count of Barcelona (son of King Alfonso XIII and father of King Juan Carlos)

France: Louis, Grand Dauphin (1661-1711), son of King Louis XIV and father of King Felipe V of Spain; Louis Dauphin (1729-1765), son of King Louis XV and father of King Louis XVI.

Austria: Archduke Franz Karl, son of Holy Roman Emperor Franz II (later Emperor Franz I of Austria) and father of two emperors (Franz II Joseph of Austria and Maximilian of Mexico)

Bavaria: Prince Regent Luitpold (son of King Ludwig I and father of King Ludwig III)

Can anyone fill me in on other examples, such as the other kingdoms of Germany? How about the empire of Russia -- that is, earlier centuries (I don't believe there have been cases in the last two centuries of grand dukes who were sons and fathers of czars, without being czars themselves)? I'm not sure about the kingdom of Sardinia, but to the best of my knowledge it didn't happen in the kingdom of Naples and the Two Sicilies. How about Portugal?

As for the smaller dynasties: I've already mentioned Liechtenstein; Monaco could count, too, but for the fact that I'm focusing on royal heirs, not heiresses (I know that Prince Charlotte was the daughter of Prince Louis II and mother of Prince Rainier III). I'm less familiar with the German duchies and grand duchies.

And like I said, I'm less familiar with earlier centuries, despite the fact that there undoubtedly have been plenty of examples.