In 1827 King Anton followed his older brother Anton, in 1854 King Johann followed his brother King Friedrich August III.an in 1902 King Eorg succeeded his brother Albert
When was the last time a second son succeeded to throne as sovereign, in each of the various European dynasties? Of course, one should be careful in qualifying the position of *second son* in a family, for reasons that infant and childhood mortality rates have traditionally been very high throughout history. So to be practical, I'm restricting discussion only to royals who survived at least early childhood -- meaning the first 10 years of life. If, say, a prince was technically born as the third son to his parents, but one of his older brothers was stillborn, then he basically counts as a second son.
UK: King George VI
Norway: none since the house of Glücksburg came to the throne (King Haakon VII doesn't count, despite being born a second son, for reasons that the particular point of focus here is the Norwegian throne to which he got elected -- not Danish, which he never occupied)
Denmark: none since the house of Glücksburg came to the throne (it would have been Prince Knud, but for the 1953 constitutional amendment that changed the succession law)
Sweden: none since the house of Bernadotte came to the throne (King Oscar II was born as the third son of King Oscar I, with both older brothers surviving to adulthood)
The Netherlands: none since the house of Orange came to the throne
Belgium: King Albert II
Spain: King Carlos IV (his own second son and namesake attempted to claim the throne, thereby igniting the Carlist wars in the country, but never succeeded)
Luxembourg: none since the house of Nassau-Weilburg came to the throne
Liechtenstein: Prince Franz I
Monaco: can anybody fill me in on this?
What about the non-reigning houses? I believe that in Portugal, it was King Luis I; in Russia, it was Czar Alexander III.
I'm less clear about German and Italian houses -- excepting the Wittelsbachs of Bavaria, where that distinction would be King Otto.
Austria is tricky, because the Habsburgs were originally Holy Roman emperors (elected), and the dynasty branched out -- just like the Bourbons.
Is all this correct? Can anybody fill me in on the dynasties of Germany and Italy?
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