Oscar II became King of Sweden and Norway because his brother Carl XV died leaving no son to succeed him. (Okay, it might fall under the category Mother nature, because Carl XV had a son (Carl Oscar) who died of pneumonia at the age of 15 months.)
Election:
Henri de Valois, third son of Henri II of France and Catherine de Medici became king of Poland by election.
Carl of Denmark was elected king Haakon VII of Norway
Political revolt:
Alexander second son of Constantine I of Greece became king after his father and older brother the later George II were sent abroad.
conquest:
Napoleon I became emperor of the French after being first consul in spite of not being the oldest son, his older brother Joseph was in line of his succession though.
Renunciation:
Alexander I of Serbia/Yugoslavia succeeded because his older brother George was made to renounce his rights after he killed a servant.
Division:
In medieval times kings and lords often divided their realms under their surviving sons. Think of Charlemagne's son Louis the Pious who divided up his realm amongst three sons.
What are the ways in which this has happened in history? In today's world, unless one is the heir -- and a direct one at that -- one stands virtually no chance in the world of ever becoming a reigning monarch. We have seen how persons second in the British royal succession (e.g. Princess Margaret, Prince Andrew) have been displaced.
But in the past, the unexpected succession of younger sons was a common occurrence, in various ways --
1) Mother nature: poor medicine and high death rates -- affecting not just children and infants but also, adults. The man we know in history as King George V of Great Britain was born in the exact same position as Prince Harry: third in line to the throne, as the second son of the Prince of Wales -- yet succeeded.
2) Fighting succession wars: this is no time to chronicle the various instances of killing and usurping to acquire thrones.
3) Flukes: the prime example is the 1701 Act of Settlement, which settled the British crown upon the person of the Electress Sophia of Hanover and the heirs of her body (being Protestant), in the event that the daughters of King James VII/II and his nephew (William of Orange), between them, should fail to produce surviving issue. I believe that some 48 persons with better genealogical claims on the throne got displaced as a result.
Abdication would also count as a fluke factor -- that is, when a throne passed to a collateral line within the house (e.g. 1919 Luxembourg, 1936 UK). When a throne passes laterally (e.g. father to son), it doesn't really count as a fluke, since the reigning monarch is succeeded by by an heir apparent -- i.e. a dynast direct in line to the throne, who expects to eventually inherit it, anyway (e.g. 1848 Bavaria, 1918 Bulgaria, 2013 Belgium, 2014 Spain).
4) Branching out of the house: we have seen this happen with the Habsburgs, Coburgs, Bourbons, and Glücksburgs (among others). The various foreign thrones that these dynasties reigned over include Tuscany, Modena, Belgium, Bulgaria, Portugal, Spain, Parma, the Two Sicilies, Greece and Norway. It's not for no reason that King Christian IX of Denmark is called the "Father-in-law of Europe".
What are other ways in which younger sons have acquired thrones?
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