History Main / SiblingsShareTheThrone

* In ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'', the 4 Pevensie siblings are crowned Kings and Queens of Narnia at the end of ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe''. We briefly get to see them working together in this capacity in ''Literature/TheHorseAndHisBoy''. First-born Peter gets the title of "High King." Lampshaded in the film adaptation of ''Prince Caspian'':

* ''[[Literature/KushielsLegacy Kushiel's Dart]]'': The throne of the Dalriada people is held jointly by twins Eamonn and Grainne, which poses some difficulty for Phedré's diplomatic mission as she has to get ''both'' of them to agree to help her and Eamonn is a lot more cautious than his sister.

* In ''ComicBooks/{{Castelmaure}}'' of the four surviving children of the king, the conjoined twins are the ones who eventually rule over the kingdom.

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* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': In the backstory (detailed in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' and the Appnedixes), the brothers Isildur and Anarion founded the kingdom of Gondor together and ruled it as equals. Once reunited with their father Elendil who had founded the kingdom of Arnor they recognized him as their liege but stayed kings. After the War of the Last Alliance, Anarion and Elendil were dead so Isildur decided his descendants would be kings of Arnor and Anarion's those of Gondor. This mostly settled any legacy issues until Gondor ended up without a king and Arnor was destroyed leading the heir of Isildur (Arvedui) to try to claim the crown of Gondor and be rebuked as Gondor (eventually) settled on having a Steward instead of a king until the events of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemWarriors'': This is the solution to the SuccessionCrisis. The twins Rowan and Lianna, neither whom initially wants the throne, undergo CharacterDevelopment and decide to jointly rule Aytolis.

* ''WesternANimation/LoonaticsUnleashed'': The Loonatics learn that Zadavia came to Acmetropolis as a refugee from planet Freleng, where she once held the throne along with her brother, Optimatus. Optimatus, however, developed a bent for conquest, and became an ArcVillain in the series. In the finale, [[spoiler:Optimatus is betrayed by one of his accomplices, and decides to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong. Zadavia and Optimatus reconcile and return to Freleng together.]]

** Half-brothers Constantine III and Heraklonas reigned as co-emperors after their father's death, for four months before Constantine died of tuberculosis and a rumor that Heraklonas' mother poisoned him got him deposed.

* In ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'', the 4 Pevensie siblings are crowned Kings and Queens of Narnia at the end of ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe''. We briefly get to see them working together in this capacity in ''Literature/TheHorseAndHisBoy''. First born Peter gets the title of "High King." Lampshaded in the film adaptation of ''Prince Caspian'':

* In ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'', the 4 Pevensie siblings are crowned Kings and Queens of Narnia at the end of ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe''. We briefly get to see them working together in this capacity in ''Literature/TheHorseAndHisBoy''. First born Peter gets the title of "High King."

* ''Literature/GideonTheNinth'': The position of {{Necromancer}} Heir to the Third House is held jointly by the Tridentarius twin sisters at their insistence, as is their [[TheChampion Cavalier]], contrary to tradition. It's a ploy by [[spoiler:the twins to hide that the {{Red Oni|BlueOni}} older sister is actually a MuggleBornOfMages.]]

* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': In the backstory (detailed in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' and the Appnedixes), the brothers Isildur and Anarion founded the kingdom of Gondor together and ruled it as equals. Once reunited with their father Elendil who had founded the kingdom of Arnor they recognized him as their liege but stayed kings. After the War of the Last Alliance, Anarion and Elendil were dead so Isildur decided his descendants would be kings of Arnor and Anarion's those of Gondor. This mostly settled any legacy issues until Gondor ended up without a king and Arnor was destroyed leading the heir of Isildur (Arvedui) to try to claim the crownof Gondor and be rebuked as Gondor (eventually) settled on having a Steward instead of a king until the events of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': There are two in-universe historical figures named Gendel and Gorne who were brothers that shared the title of King-Beyond-the-Wall. Succession was not a concern because their people, the free folk, reject primogeniture and [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority just follow the strongest warriors]]. They led a failed invasion into the North, only to be stopped by the King in the North and his son. It's known for certain that Gorne was killed in battle, but the northmen and the free folk disagree on whether Gendel was killed as well, with the free folk believing he managed to escape.

** Septimius Severus intended his sons Caracalla (already co-emperor) and Geta to be co-rulers after his death, however, this backfired horribly as [[CainAndAbel the two hated each other]] and even considered splitting the empire in half. Their mother attempted to get the two to reconcile, only for Caracalla to [[SiblingMurder have his brother assassinated in front of her]], UnPerson Geta and rule as sole emperor until his own assassination.

* In Myth/ClassicalMythology, Zeus and Hera are siblings ''and'' the RulingCouple of the gods.

* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': In the backstory (detailed in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' and the Appnedixes), the brothers Isildur and Anarion founded the kingdom of Gondor together and ruled it as equals. Once reunited with their father Elendil who had founded the kingdom of Arnor they recognized him as their liege but stayed kings. After the War of the Last Alliance, Anarion and Elendil were dead so Isildur decided his descendants would be kings of Arnor and Anarion's those of Gondor. This mostly settled any legacy issues until Gondor ended up without a king and Arnor was detroyed leading the heir of Isildur (Arvedui) to try to claim the crownof Gondor and be rebuked as Gondor (eventually) settled on having a Steward instead of a king until the events of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''.

Compare RulingCouple, wherein the King and Queen are married, but wield equal power.

* White London in ''Literature/ShadesOfMagic'' is ruled by twin siblings Astrid and Athos Dane. They got the throne not by right of primogeniture, but by killing the previous king.

* This is the premise of ''Series/PairOfKings'': The twins Brady and Boomer both discover they're the heir to the throne of an island called Kinkow, and they share the throne together. (This is because no one but their mother knows which brother was born first, and she never told anyone before passing.) When Brady eventually decided to move back home to Chicago, Boomer meets his triplet, Boz, who ended up on a different island. From then on, it's Boomer and Boz who share the throne instead.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': King Noleski Surtova of Brevoy is a bachelor with no children, and consequently, his sister Natala has a considerable amount of political influence -- she's Brevoy's queen in all but name. Noleski has, however, begun to obsess over marrying, which Natala is less than happy about, as her brother finding an official queen could easily cost her her current power.

* This was the solution to the SuccessionCrisis in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemWarriors'': Rowan and Lianna, neither whom wanted the throne initially, undergo CharacterDevelopment and decide to jointly rule Aytolis.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/CareBears1980s'', Cheer Bear and Treat Heart play radically different sisters and princesses who are sent on TheQuest by their father (played by Braveheart) to see who eventually gets to be queen. Since they end up working together and getting the MineralMacguffin together, they come back telling their father, "Since we make such a good team, we'll ''both'' rule!" Their father's perfectly fine with that, making you wonder [[CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot why he didn't just do that in the first place]].

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'': During the gameplay, it is revealed that Edgar and Sabin were meant to be this according to their father's dying wish, but later got separated after their fateful coin toss.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'': According to legend, Unova was founded and ruled by twin brothers with their legendary dragon Pokemon. However, they ended up having a fallout over truth and ideals, which resulted in the dragon [[LiteralSplitPersonality splitting into three beings]] due to the division: Reshiram personifying truth, Zekrom personifying ideals, and what was left becoming the husk-like Kyurem.

* UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire:
** Marcus Aurelius was co-emperor with his adoptive brother Lucius Verus until the latter died of either food poisoning or smallpox.

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* Coregency happened exactly once in the history of UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia: After the death of Tsar Feodor III, his brother Ivan V and half-brother [[UsefulNotes/PeterTheGreat Peter]] were both crowned "autocrats of Russia," though because neither was of age to rule yet, Ivan's older sister Sofia claimed regency in the meantime. The whole two Tsars thing only happened as a compromise to avoid a civil war of succession because Ivan was sickly and unable to rule, whereas Peter, while the next in line, was vehemently opposed by Sofia. To his credit, even after removing Sofia from power, Peter continued to honor the arrangement, deferring formal seniority to Ivan until the latter's death of natural causes almost two decades later. It has also been speculated by historians that this coregency was what paved the way for Peter's massive reforms: since there was already a Tsar in Moscow (Ivan), the other Tsar was free to travel Western Europe (and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Embassy_of_Peter_the_Great boy, did Peter ever]]) and to learn how things were done in other countries first-hand without worrying too much about the situation at home.

You might think this would lead to plots where the ruling siblings have to learn to work together, share responsibility, put the welfare of their citizens over personal grudges and insecurities... except, in an interesting pattern, the occurrence of this set-up is almost always an {{Ending Trope|s}}... It's used more as a way for writers to reward a BrotherSisterTeam equally at the end rather than show us how such a power structure would work.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': There are two in-universe historical figures named Gendel and Gorne who were brothers that shared the title of King-Beyond-the-Wall. Succession was not a concern because their people, the free folk, reject primogeniture and [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority just follow the strongest warriors]]. They led a failed invasion into the North only to be stopped the King in the North and his son. It's known for certain that Gorne was killed in battle, but the northmen and the free folk disagree on whether Gendel was killed as well, with the free folk believing he managed to escape.

* ''Series/PairOfKings'': The twins Brady and Boomer both discover they're the heir to the throne of an island called Kinkow, and they share the throne together. When Brady eventually decided to move back home to Chicago, Boomer meets his triplet, Boz, who ended up on a different island. From then on, it's Boomer and Boz who share the throne instead.

* Myth/ClassicalMythology: Zeus and Hera are siblings and the RulingCouple of the gods.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': King Noleski Surtova of Brevoy is a bachelor with no children, and consequently his sister Natala has a considerable amount of political influence -- she's Brevoy's queen in all but name. Noleski has however begun to obsess over marrying, which Natala is less than happy about as her brother finding an official queen could easily cost her her current power.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': The sisters Celestia and Luna rule Equestria as equal princesses. Although Celestia begins the series as Equestria's sole authority, due to Luna having become evil (in large part due to bitter jealousy over how their subjects seemed to love Celestia better), trying to stage a coup and [[SealedEvilInACan being sealed in the moon for a thousand years]], Celestia readily welcomes her sister back at the end of the show's pilot episode and the two thereafter share rule and responsibility -- the show's later seasons episodes show them having paired thrones in their castle's throne room, for instance. Their reconciliation is not without its hitches, and a few episodes are dedicated to exploring lingering tensions between the royal sisters.

* UsefulNotes/AttilaTheHun and his brother Bleda were co-rulers of the Hunnic Empire until Bleda's death, which some historians say was Attila's doing.