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History vocabulary · Empires, States and Rulers

Succession

Meaning in history, with examples

/səkˈseʃn/nounCommon term

In history, succession means: The process by which a new ruler takes the place of the previous one, and the rules or customs that decide who has the right to the throne.

In Turkish: tahta geçiş, veraset, halefiyet

How it is used

Historians discuss the line of succession, succession disputes and crises, and wars such as the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714). The verb is succeed: Süleyman succeeded his father in 1520. The new ruler is the successor.

Example sentences

  1. In the seventeenth century, Ottoman succession shifted from father-to-son to the eldest male of the dynasty.

  2. The king's death without an heir caused a succession crisis.

Common collocations

  • line of succession
  • succession crisis
  • war of succession
  • succession dispute
  • rules of succession
  • dynastyA series of rulers who come from the same family and pass power from one generation to the next, or the period during which such a family rules.
  • reignThe period during which a king, queen, emperor or sultan rules; as a verb, to rule as a monarch.
  • monarchyA system of government in which a king, queen, emperor or other hereditary ruler is head of state, or a country governed in this way.
  • abdicateTo give up the throne or another position of supreme power formally, either by choice or under pressure.

More terms: Empires, States and Rulers

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