As I understand, this system of royal succession only evolved in England through *English common law* (a concept I admit to not being entirely familiar with) -- as opposed to being firmly instituted at the beginning as a law written on stone. I'm not sure how exactly it got instituted in Scotland; but I would imagine that a similar thing happened there, too (default and circumstance).
Elsewhere, in the Iberian peninsula, it got established early on by principle (known in Spain as the Castilian law) -- I believe codified as early as the 12th century.
But in neither of these places did male-preference primogeniture get instituted as a result of changing an existing law which had theretofore barred females from thrones, to one that permitted it.
Is it correct to state that the 1923 Dutch constitutional amendment and the 1953 Danish constitutional amendment were the only instances in European royal history which CHANGED inheritance laws from either Salic or semi-Salic TO male-preferred primogeniture?
The reason for my asking is that by the 1970's, times had changed so that the trend toward amending succession laws to allow females to inherit thrones had evolved to grant them equal right with males: fully cognatic primogeniture. Of course, in almost every case, there were some retroactive consequences and limited applications. Case in point: in Luxembourg, Princess Alexandra (fourth child and only daughter of the current sovereign) got inserted into the grand ducal succession (having been born with no rights to the throne) ahead of her younger brother, Prince Sebastian. But the sisters and their descendants, as well as niece even through his youngest brother, remain excluded.
Has there ever been any other instance in European royal history where a succession law got changed to male-preference, if it did not already exist as an ancient principle or one that evolved early on?
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