History Main / HeirClubForMen

** With the post-American occupation constitution, the rules were made even stricter in order to limit the size of the imperial family and prevent cadet branches from establishing claims to the throne. A princess must renounce all her titles upon marrying a commoner, and her sons are barred from the succession. As a result, the imperial family is shrinking, and every princess that leaves increases the burden of royal duties on the aging men who remain.

* The belief that only men could rule played a pivotal role in the downfall of UsefulNotes/TheEmpireOfBrazil: UsefulNotes/PedroII lost both of his sons when they were toddlers, and while his daughter Princess Isabel was both intelligent and eligible to take the throne, he and his advisors didn't believe a woman was fit for the task of ruling Brazil. With no male heir, Pedro took no steps toward ensuring his throne would outlast him.

* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' gives us the matriarchal Hapans. But Ta'a Chume, the Hapan queen, never had a daughter, so her daughter-in-law, from the primitive and also matriarchal Dathomiri, becomes the new queen. But mostly she doesn't want Jedi to rule her kingdom. Three guesses what religion her granddaughter joins.

* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' gives us the matriarchal Hapans. But Ta'a Chume, the Hapan queen, never had a daughter, so her daughter-in-law, from the primitive and also matriarchal Dathomiri, becomes the new queen. But mostly she doesn't want Jedi to rule her kingdom. Three guesses what religion her granddaughter joins.

* In ''Literature/TriumphOfATsar'', one of the reasons Tsar Alexei II marries so young -- barely twenty-one -- is because he knows that his hemophilia means he needs an heir sooner rather than later, and only men can inherit. Fortunately, his wife Princess Ileana of Romania conceives ''very'' quickly and [[spoiler:their first child is a son, Konstantin, who is followed by twins Dmitri and Rostislav]]. By the time their daughter Anastasia is born, Alexei and Ileana [[spoiler:can relax in the knowledge that the succession is more than secure]].

* In Silla, one of the ancient Three Kingdoms of Korea, this became a problem when King Jinpyeong ended up being the last living man of the ruling Sacred Bone (''Seonggol'') class. Because he had no sons, he had the choice of either completely changing the caste system to let non-Sacred Bone men take the throne or allowing one of his daughters to inherit. He chose the latter and his eldest daughter, UsefulNotes/{{Seondeok}}, became queen. Because neither she nor her heir (her cousin Jindeok) had children, the Sacred Bone class was done away with after their reigns and the next rulers were from the second highest class, the True Bone (''Jingol'').

* In Korea, a father who's had multiple daughters in a row is referred to as being "rich" as a way of gently needling him for continuing to try for a son without due consideration of the financial burden of supporting the children he already has. Bonus points if the man does have a son who's much younger than his eldest sister.

* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': The murders in "The Sword of Guillaume" ultimately stem from a bizarre attempt to secure an heir for her son, who is a brain-damaged, quadriplegic confined to a wheelchair following an accident. The plan involved arranging a marriage and then extracting sperm to impregnate the wife.

* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', it's indicated that [[ParentsAsPeople Magni]] was disappointed because his only child Moira was not a male heir. As a result, Moira became quite bitter and eventually fell in love with the Dark Iron Dwarves' emperor, before returning to Ironforge to claim her throne after her father [[TakenForGranite turned into diamond]] in a ritual gone wrong.

** [[https://www.deviantart.com/fanloverstarsnew/gallery/83178662/history-of-mewni-continuation-of-jgss0109-history History of Mewni]] by [=FanLoverStarsNew=]: When Starwynne the Astronomer's daughter Ceres died, she was left in the unenviable position of naming her only other heir-her son Kupier-as heir to the throne. This caused outrage among her nobles. However, Kupier, who didn't want the throne anyway, had secretly been corresponding with Starwynne's estranged sister Aquata, and offered her the throne, which she accepted, making her the first queen of two kingdoms (she was currently regent for her son Rigel).

*** In male-preference primogeniture, there is one rare circumstance where a female would become heir apparent: if the monarch's oldest son died and had only fathered daughters, the oldest of those daughters would become the heir and could not be displaced. A version of this is actually how Queen Victoria came to the throne - all of her father's older brothers had died without living legitimate children.[[note]]George IV's only daughter suffered DeathByChildbirth along with her baby; Prince Frederick had no children; William IV had several living ''il''legitimate children, but his only legitimate daughters both died as infants. Victoria was technically ''heir presumptive'' during William's reign, because there was always the possibility he could father a child who would displace her. In fact, Victoria's accession proclamation noted her claim to the throne was only secure when it could be assured William's widow (who was 44 and had frequently miscarried) wasn't pregnant.[[/note]] Her father had also died when she was a baby, leaving her as his only child, and she inherited the throne in his place, ahead of his younger siblings and their children (including two male cousins[[note]]One of whom inherited the throne of Hanover--which applied the Salic Law--and the other's granddaughter married George V [[/note]]).

*** In male-preference primogeniture, there is one rare circumstance where a female would become heir apparent: if the monarch's oldest son died and had only fathered daughters, the oldest of those daughters would become the heir and could not be displaced. A version of this is actually how Queen Victoria came to the throne - all of her father's older brothers had died without living legitimate children.[[note]]George IV's only daughter suffered DeathByChildbirth along with her baby; Prince Frederick had no children; William IV had several living ''il''legitimate children, but his only legitimate daughters both died as infants. Victoria was technically ''heir presumptive'' during William's reign, because there was always the possibility he could father a child who would displace her. In fact, Victoria's accession proclamation noted her claim to the throne was only secure when it could be assured William's widow (who was 44 and had frequently miscarried) wasn't pregnant.[[/note]] Her father had also died when she was a baby, leaving her as his only child, and she inherited the throne in his place, ahead of his younger siblings and their children (including several male cousins).

*** In male-preference primogeniture, there is one rare circumstance where a female would become heir apparent: if the monarch's oldest son died and had only fathered daughters, the oldest of those daughters would become the heir and could not be displaced. A version of this is actually how Queen Victoria came to the throne - all of her father's older brothers had died without living legitimate children.[[note]]George IV's only daughter suffered DeathByChildbirth along with her baby; Prince Frederick had no children; William IV had several living ''il''legitimate children, but his only legitimate daughters both died as infants. Victoria was technically ''heir presumptive'' during William's reign, because there was always the possibility he could father a child who would displace her. In fact, Victoria's accession proclamation noted her claim to the throne was only secure when it could be assured William's widow (who was 44 and had frequently miscarried) wasn't pregnant.[[/note]] Her father had also died when she was a baby, leaving her as his only child, and she inherited the throne in his place, ahead of his younger siblings and their children.

* As of 2011, UsefulNotes/TheCommonwealthOfNations has begun the process of changing to equal primogeniture[[note]]and also removing the bar on those who had married Catholics to succession to the throne; however, the requirement that the monarch be a Protestant has not been removed, as he or she will continue to be the Supreme Governor of the Church of England[[/note]] and the Prime Ministers of the Commonwealth Realms have all agreed in principle to the modification. However, as the Commonwealth monarchy is governed by separate but identical laws in all the Commonwealth Realms, the change requires parliamentary approval in all Realms save UsefulNotes/NewZealand and Papua New Guinea. Canada and Australia create further problems: the Canadian provinces and Australian states are legally distinct monarchies organized in voluntary national confederations, so it will require the approval of all ten [[UsefulNotes/CanadianPolitics provincial parliaments]] and all six [[UsefulNotes/AustralianPolitics state parliaments]], not just their national parliaments. Some feared that Quebec might hold up the process as a means of getting long-desired concessions from Ottawa, particularly as the sovereigntist Parti Quebecois was in power during negotiations, but the main hurdle in Canada was actually court challenges over arcane points of constitutional law (and Canadian constitutional law can be ''incredibly'' arcane--it makes American constitutional law seem downright straightforward),[[note]]As of March 2015, these challenges were still ongoing[[/note]] while the jurisdiction that delayed passing the legislation the longest was Western Australia, where a senior WA MLA has basically admitted that their reason for the delay was "erm, we forgot".

*** It was this issue that started a period in English history known as The Anarchy, when Henry I named his lone surviving legitimate child, Matilda, his heir. It was a bit more complicated, in that not only were the Anglo-Norman barons wary of having a woman on the throne, but her husband was from Anjou, Normandy's rival. A faction of barons helped Stephen, Count of Blois, onto the throne; significantly, Stephen's claim was through his mother, the sainted Adela of Normandy (William I the Conqueror's youngest daughter and the only one who married and had children), showing that the issue wasn’t inheritance through the female line but rather a combination of a suspicion that women could not wield power effectively in the rough-and-tumble world of 12th-century France[[note]]The Norman lords weren’t worried about England, which between the Anglo-Saxon heritage of centralised royal power--[[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWessex pre-Conquest England]] had been the most centralised and capable royal state in Western Christendom by a country mile, competing only with Byzantium and the Caliphate of Córdoba on that front in all Europe--and William I's diligent efforts to ensure that all landholding derived from him was a pretty peaceful place. They were thus more worried about Matilda becoming Duchess of Normandy than they were about her becoming Queen of England.[[/note]] and a fear that Normandy would be subjected to Anjou. This plunged England into 19 years of civil war until a resolution was reached where Stephen's own sons would be bypassed for succession in favor of Matilda's son, the future [[UsefulNotes/HenryTheSecond Henry II]], founder of UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfPlantagenet. (This proved to be a bit of a mixed bag for the Anglo-Norman lords: on one hand Henry was extraordinarily competent and gave them the kind of peace and stability that could make them richer than their wildest dreams. He also more or less told the Anglo-Norman lords to have at Wales and Ireland, which several families did with gusto and thereby became richer still. And his marriage to UsefulNotes/EleanorOfAquitaine gave them easy access to the really good wine from Bordeaux and the wider Gironde--to this day the [[UsefulNotes/NationalDrinks favoured wine of]] [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff the British upper crust]]. On the other, he opened the doors of England to lords from Anjou, and also now had to defend Anjou as well as Normandy from the raids and schemes of the Capetian Kings of France in Paris. While this might not have been a huge issue if Normandy and Anjou were contiguous, in reality they were separated by hundreds of miles, meaning resources were stretched thin.)

*** It was this issue that started a period in English history known as The Anarchy, when Henry I named his lone surviving legitimate child, Matilda, his heir. It was a bit more complicated, in that not only were the Anglo-Norman barons wary of having a woman on the throne, but her husband was from Anjou, Normandy's rival. A faction of barons helped Stephen, Count of Blois, onto the throne; significantly, Stephen's claim was through his mother, the sainted Adela of Normandy (William I the Conqueror's youngest daughter and the only one who married and had children), showing that the issue wasn’t inheritance through the female line but rather a combination of a suspicion that women could not wield power effectively in the rough-and-tumble world of 12th-century France[[note]]The Norman lords weren’t worried about England, which between the Anglo-Saxon heritage of centralised royal power--[[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWessex pre-Conquest England]] had been the most centralised and capable royal state in Western Christendom by a country mile, competing only with Byzantium and the Caliphate of Córdoba on that front in all Europe--and William I's diligent efforts to ensure that all landholding derived from him was a pretty peaceful place. They were thus more worried about Matilda becoming Duchess of Normandy than they were about her becoming Queen of England.[[/note]] and a fear that Normandy would be subjected to Anjou. This plunged England into 19 years of civil war until a resolution was reached where Stephen's own sons would be bypassed for succession in favor of Matilda's son, the future [[UsefulNotes/HenryTheSecond Henry II]], founder of UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfPlantagenet. (This proved to be a bit of a mixed bag for the Anglo-Norman lords: on one hand Henry was extraordinarily competent and gave them the kind of peace and stability that could make them richer than their wildest dreams. He also more or less told the Anglo-Norman lords to have at Wales and Ireland, which several families did with gusto and thereby became richer still. And his marriage to UsefulNotes/EleanorOfAquitaine gave then easy access to the really good wine from Bordeaux and the wider Gironde--to this day the [[UsefulNotes/NationalDrinks favoured wine of]] [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff the British upper crust]]. On the other, he opened the doors of England to lords from Anjou, and also now had to defend Anjou as well as Normandy from the raids and schemes of the Capetian Kings of France in Paris. While this might not have been a huge issue if Normandy and Anjou were contiguous, in reality they were separated by hundreds of miles, meaning resources were stretched thin.)

*** It was this issue that started a period in English history known as The Anarchy, when Henry I named his lone surviving legitimate child, Matilda, his heir. It was a bit more complicated, in that not only were the Anglo-Norman barons wary of having a woman on the throne, but her husband was from Anjou, Normandy's rival. A faction of barons helped Stephen, Count of Blois, onto the throne; significantly, Stephen's claim was through his mother, the sainted Adela of Normandy (William I the Conqueror's youngest daughter and the only one who married and had children), showing that the issue wasn’t inheritance through the female line but rather a combination of a suspicion that women could not wield power effectively in the rough-and-tumble world of 12th-century France[[note]]The Norman lords weren’t worried about England, which between the Anglo-Saxon heritage of centralised royal power--[[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWessex pre-Conquest England]] had been the most centralised and capable royal state in Western Christendom by a country mile, competing only with Byzantium and the Caliphate of Córdoba on that front in all Europe--and William I's diligent efforts to ensure that all landholding derived from him was a pretty peaceful place. They were thus more worried about Matilda becoming Duchess of Normandy than they were about her becoming Queen of England.[[/note]] and a fear that Normandy would be subjected to Anjou. This plunged England into 19 years of civil war until a resolution was reached where Stephen's own sons would be bypassed for succession in favor of Matilda's son, the future [[UsefulNotes/HenryTheSecond Henry II]], founder of UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfPlantagenet. (This proved to be a bit of a mixed bag for the Anglo-Norman lords: on one hand Henry was extraordinarily competent and gave them the kind of peace and stability that could make them richer than their wildest dreams. He also more or less told the Anglo-Norman lords to have at Wales and Ireland, which several families did with gusto and thereby became richer still. And his marriage to UsefulNotes/EleanorOfAquitaine gave then easy access to the really good wine from Bordeaux and the wider Gironde--to this day the [[UsefulNotes/NationalDrinks favoured wine of [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff the British upper crust]]. On the other, he opened the doors of England to lords from Anjou, and also now had to defend Anjou as well as Normandy from the raids and schemes of the Capetian Kings of France in Paris. While this might not have been a huge issue if Normandy and Anjou were contiguous, in reality they were separated by hundreds of miles, meaning resources were stretched thin.)

*** It was this issue that started a period in English history known as The Anarchy, when Henry I named his lone surviving legitimate child, Matilda, his heir. It was a bit more complicated, in that not only were the Anglo-Norman barons wary of having a woman on the throne, but her husband was from Anjou, Normandy's rival. A faction of barons helped Stephen, Count of Blois, onto the throne; significantly, Stephen's claim was through his mother, the sainted Adela of Normandy (William I the Conqueror's youngest daughter and the only one who married and had children), showing that the issue wasn’t inheritance through the female line but rather a combination of a suspicion that women could not wield power effectively in the rough-and-tumble world of 12th-century France[[note]]The Norman lords weren’t worried about England, which between the Anglo-Saxon heritage of centralised royal power--[[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWessex pre-Conquest England]] had been the most centralised and capable royal state in Western Christendom by a country mile, competing only with Byzantium and the Caliphate of Córdoba on that front in all Europe--and William I's diligent efforts to ensure that all landholding derived from him was a pretty peaceful place. They were thus more worried about Matilda becoming Duchess of Normandy than they were about her becoming Queen of England.[[/note]] and a fear that Normandy would be subjected to Anjou. This plunged England into 19 years of civil war until a resolution was reached where Stephen's own sons would be bypassed for succession in favor of Matilda's son, the future [[UsefulNotes/HenryTheSecond Henry II]], founder of UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfPlantagenet. (This proved to be a bit of a mixed bag for the Anglo-Norman lords: on one hand Henry was extraordinarily competent and gave them the kind of peace and stability that could make them richer than their wildest dreams. He also more or less told the Anglo-Norman lords to have at Wales and Ireland, which several families did with gusto and thereby became richer still. And his marriage to UsefulNotes/EleanorOfAquitaine
gave then easy access to the really good wine from Bordeaux and the wider Gironde--to this day the [[UsefulNotes/NationalDrinks favoured wine of]] [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff the British upper crust]]. On the other, he opened the doors of England to lords from Anjou, and also now had to defend Anjou as well as Normandy from the raids and schemes of the Capetian Kings of France in Paris. While this might not have been a huge issue if Normandy and Anjou were contiguous, in reality they were separated by hundreds of miles, meaning resources were stretched thin.)

*** It was this issue that started a period in English history known as The Anarchy, when Henry I named his lone surviving legitimate child, Matilda, his heir. It was a bit more complicated, in that not only were the Anglo-Norman barons wary of having a woman on the throne, but her husband was from Anjou, Normandy's rival. A faction of barons helped Stephen, Count of Blois, onto the throne; significantly, Stephen's claim was through his mother, the sainted Adela of Normandy (William I the Conqueror's youngest daughter and the only one who married and had children), showing that the issue wasn’t inheritance through the female line but rather a combination of a suspicion that women could not wield power effectively in the rough-and-tumble world of 12th-century France[[note]]The Norman lords weren’t worried about England, which between the Anglo-Saxon heritage of centralised royal power--[[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWessex pre-Conquest England]] had been the most centralised and capable royal state in Western Christendom by a country mile, competing only with Byzantium and the Caliphate of Córdoba on that front in all Europe--and William I's diligent efforts to ensure that all landholding derived from him was a pretty peaceful place. They were thus more worried about Matilda becoming Duchess of Normandy than they were about her becoming Queen of England.[[/note]] and a fear that Normandy would be subjected to Anjou. This plunged England into 19 years of civil war until a resolution was reached where Stephen's own sons would be bypassed for succession in favor of Matilda's son, the future [[UsefulNotes/HenryTheSecond Henry II]], founder of UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfPlantagenet. (This proved to be a bit of a mixed bag for the Anglo-Norman lords: on one hand Henry was extraordinarily competent and gave them the kind of peace and stability that could make them richer than their wildest dreams. He also more or less told the Anglo-Norman lords to have at Wales and Ireland, which several families did with gusto and thereby became richer still. On the other, he opened the doors of England to lords from Anjou, and also now had to defend Anjou as well as Normandy from the raids and schemes of the Capetian Kings of France in Paris. While this might not have been a huge issue if Normandy and Anjou were contiguous, in reality they were separated by hundreds of miles, meaning resources were stretched thin.)

*** It was this issue that started a period in English history known as The Anarchy, when Henry I named his lone surviving legitimate child, Matilda, his heir. It was a bit more complicated, in that not only were the Anglo-Norman barons wary of having a woman on the throne, but her husband was from Anjou, Normandy's rival. A faction of barons helped Stephen, Count of Blois, onto the throne; significantly, Stephen's claim was through his mother, the sainted Adela of Normandy (William I the Conqueror's youngest daughter and the only one who married and had children), showing that the issue wasn’t inheritance through the female line but rather a combination of a suspicion that women could not wield power effectively in the rough-and-tumble world of 12th-century France[[note]]The Norman lords weren’t worried about England, which between the Anglo-Saxon heritage of centralised royal power and William I's diligent efforts to ensure that all landholding derived from him was a pretty peaceful place. They were thus more worried about Matilda becoming Duchess of Normandy than they were about her becoming Queen of England.[[/note]] and a fear that Normandy would be subjected to Anjou. This plunged England into 19 years of civil war until a resolution was reached where Stephen's own sons would be bypassed for succession in favor of Matilda's son, the future [[UsefulNotes/HenryTheSecond Henry II]], founder of UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfPlantagenet. (This proved to be a bit of a mixed bag for the Anglo-Norman lords: on one hand Henry was extraordinarily competent and gave them the kind of peace and stability that could make them richer than their wildest dreams. He also more or less told the Anglo-Norman lords to have at Wales and Ireland, which several families did with gusto and thereby became richer still. On the other, he opened the doors of England to lords from Anjou, and also now had to defend Anjou as well as Normandy from the raids and schemes of the Capetian Kings of France in Paris. While this might not have been a huge issue if Normandy and Anjou were contiguous, in reality they were separated by hundreds of miles, meaning resources were stretched thin.)

* ''Literature/WingsOfFire'' has a full inversion: only female dragons can inherit the throne. A mysterious assassin targeting female royal [=SeaWing=] eggs has resulted in uncountable numbers of princes, because the [=SeaWing=] royal couple keeps having children in hopes of a daughter who can inherit. There is never any consideration given to a male ruler; if the [=SeaWing=] queen dies without living daughters or sisters, her niece will take the throne.

--->'''Rhaenys:''' [[LampshadeHanging Men would sooner put the realm to the torch than see a woman ascend the Iron Throne.]]

** After both of King Jaehaerys Targaryen's sons pre-deceased him, a Great Council preferred his grandson Prince Viserys over his granddaughter Princess Rhaenys (Viserys's cousin) to succeed him on the Iron Throne simply for being male, even though the Rhaenys was the elder of the two and had the stronger claim as the only child of the late crown prince (as well as being better suited in temperament for the job of leadership), leading to her being nicknamed "The Queen Who Never Was". Although there was no violence between their supporters to contest the matter, and the cousins retained a friendly relationship despite Rhaenys being disappointed her claim was denied by the assembled lords. Her husband Lord Corlys Velaryon was more resentful about it.
** Viserys and his queen consort Aemma Arryn [[LawOfInverseFertility tried and failed multiple times to have a son]] (in part to keep Viserys's volatile and unpredictable younger brother Daemon from inheriting the throne), and when Aemma tragically [[DeathByChildbirth dies giving birth]] via TraumaticCSection to a son [[AllForNothing who only lives for a grand total of one day]], Viserys decides to name their daughter Rhaenyra his heir. As shown multiple times throughout the first season, from the nobles' constant skepticism to the peasants of King's Landing laughing at a play making fun of her, the realm is largely not open to the idea of being governed by a woman, and there's a more or less overt push by the realm's nobility for Viserys' son with his second wife Alicent Hightower, Aegon II, to become heir instead, but that doesn't prevent Rhaenyra from ambitioning to rule one day, and her father stands by the vow of having her succeed him. When Viserys eventually dies, a SuccessionCrisis kicks off that rapidly turns into an all-out CivilWar.

** ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Most noble families seen thus far practice male-preferential primogeniture: the eldest living son inherits, but a daughter can make do if there are no sons. However, according to Septa Mordane, the Iron Throne can only be inherited by males, though later episodes imply succession to the Iron Throne uses an extreme variation of male-preferential primogeniture where a female can inherit, but only if there are no eligible males at all (including uncles and cousins). As referenced in the series and portrayed in the prequel series ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'', about 150 years before the main events of the series, Princess Rhaenyra, daughter, oldest child, and named heir of King Viserys I, had her throne usurped by her half-brother and launched a brutal and bloody CivilWar known as "the Dance of Dragons" to take it back. It ultimately ended with [[spoiler: both dying and Rhaenyra's son eventually inheriting the throne and continuing on the royal line, so there's one king who inherited through the female line.]]
*** At the end of the sixth season, [[spoiler: Cersei takes the Iron Throne as the first-ever ruling queen despite having no hereditary claim whatsoever (or [[https://mashable.com/article/game-thrones-heir maybe she does?]]), mostly because there isn't an obvious heir after the death of her son, the king, and she had incinerated all of the nobility in the capital who might dispute her claim. Cersei's claim mostly stems from her being the last living member of the royal household as well as commanding the Lannister army occupying the city.]]

*** Stannis names his sickly daughter Shireen (his only child) as his heir. However, Stannis's lack of a son and the fact that he doesn't get on with his wife Selyse, who suffered numerous miscarriages and appears to be near the end of her childbearing years, the odds of a son being born are very slim. Book!Stannis is much less concerned with fathering a son (though he does mention it).
*** Aeron is the first to cast doubt on Yara's position as heir to the Salt Throne, giving her a blunt reminder that the Ironborn have never once elected a queen. The fact that he invoked that Yara should be elected when Balon was never elected is a further indication of his sexism. In the books, Aeron argued for an election because he disagreed with Balon's choice of Yara/Asha as his heir and also because of a genuine succession dispute between Theon, Victarion, and Euron, who had physically seized the throne upon Balon's death. The Kingsmoot hadn't been held for ''centuries'' before the Conquest, later Ironborn kings like the Hoares were hereditary monarchy. Aegon the Conqueror did allow the Ironborn to elect their new lord paramount and the Greyjoys became hereditary FeudalOverlord, and Balon certainly didn't submit himself to an election, so the kingsmoot is less a case of Ironborn custom and more an instance of MovingTheGoalposts to prevent a woman from making her claim. In the books, of course, he doesn't deny her right to a candidacy — he simply thinks no true Ironborn will vote for her. When she actually gets a sizable portion of the votes midway through the kingsmoot, he is stunned and has no fallback plan — then Euron shows up, just as in the show, where, despite Yara having the well-deserved UndyingLoyalty of her own men, the Ironborn vote for Euron even after he admits to killing Balon.
*** The one kingdom in Westeros that averts this is Dorne; Dornish law provides for absolute primogeniture, meaning that the oldest child inherits, regardless of gender.
** ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'': Viserys was preferred over his cousin Rhaenys to succeed their grandfather King Jaehaerys Targaryen on the Iron Throne simply for being male even though Rhaenys had the stronger claim as the only child of the late crown prince (as well as being better-qualified for the job of leadership), leading to her being referred to as "The Queen Who Never Was". Viserys and his queen consort Aemma [[LawOfInverseFertility tried and failed multiple times to have a son]] (in part to keep Viserys's volatile and unpredictable younger brother Daemon from inheriting the throne), and when Aemma tragically [[DeathByChildbirth dies giving birth]] via TraumaticCSection to a son [[AllForNothing that only lives for a grand total of one day]], he decides to name his daughter Rhaenyra his heir. As shown multiple times throughout the first season, from the nobles' constant skepticism to the peasants of King's Landing laughing at a play making fun of her, the realm is largely not open to the idea of being governed by a woman, and there's a more or less overt push by the realm's nobility for Viserys' son with his second wife Alicent, Aegon II, to become heir instead, but that doesn't prevent Rhaenyra from ambitioning to rule one day, and her father stands by the vow of having her succeed him. When Viserys eventually dies, a SuccessionCrisis kicks off that rapidly turns into an all-out CivilWar.

*** It was this issue that started a period in English history known as The Anarchy, when Henry I named his lone surviving legitimate child, Matilda, his heir. It was a bit more complicated, in that not only were the Anglo-Norman barons wary of having a woman on the throne, but her husband was from Anjou, Normandy's rival. A faction of barons helped Stephen, Count of Blois, onto the throne; significantly, Stephen's claim was through his mother, the sainted Adela of Normandy (William I the Conqueror's youngest daughter and the only one who married and had children), showing that the issue wasn’t inheritance through the female line but rather a combination of a suspicion that women could not wield power effectively in the rough-and-tumble world of 12th-century France[[note]]The Norman lords weren’t worried about England, which between the Anglo-Saxon heritage of centralised royal power and William I's diligent efforts to ensure that all landholding derived from him was a pretty peaceful place. They were thus more worried about Matilda becoming Duchess of Normandy than they were about her becoming Queen of England.[[/note]] and a fear that Normandy would be subjected to Anjou. This plunged England into 19 years of civil war until a resolution was reached where Stephen's own sons would be bypassed for succession in favor of Matilda's son, the future [[UsefulNotes/HenryTheSecond Henry II]], founder of UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfPlantagenet. (This proved to be a bit of a mixed bag for the Anglo-Norman lords: on one hand Henry was extraordinarily competent and gave them the kind of peace and stability that could make them richer than their wildest dreams; on the other, he opened the doors of England to lords from Anjou, and also now had to defend Anjou as well as Normandy from the raids and schemes of the Capetian Kings of France in Paris. While this might not have been a huge issue if Normandy and Anjou were contiguous, in reality they were separated by hundreds of miles, meaning resources were stretched thin.)