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Roman law didn't recognise primogeniture, but in practice Romans favored the eldest son. [122] In Ancient Persia, succession to the family headship was determined by patrilineal primogeniture. [123] Among Celtic and Germanic peoples, the predominant custom during ancient times seems to have been to divide the land in equal parts for each of the ...
The primogeniture laws were repealed at the time of the American Revolution. Thomas Jefferson took the lead in repealing the law in Virginia, where nearly three-fourths of Tidewater land and perhaps a majority of western lands were entailed. [32] Canada had the same law but repealed it in 1851. [33]
The Zulus also practiced patrilineal primogeniture, allowing only minimal grants of land to younger sons. D.H. Reader writes in "Zulu Tribe in Transition: The Makhanya of southern Natal": "Within a given descent group, dominant or not in the sub-ward, the senior agnate will sometimes make known to his sons before he dies the land which he ...
The County of Anjou followed inheritance by agnatic seniority. When Henry II of England married Eleanor of Aquitaine, creating the Angevin Empire, this resulted in some question over what inheritance laws would affect their children, as Henry II's father was the count of Anjou, and he inherited England and Normandy through his mother.
In some feudal entities, proximity of blood was a generally accepted principle. For example, according to the "ancient custom" (French: ancienne coutume) in the Duchy of Burgundy, a grandson could not take precedence over a son or daughter, and it was not even clear whether the ruler's grandson could claim precedence over the ruler's brother.
This study was related to the U.S presidents when it was discovered that more than half were firstborn, the rest were middle and four were lastborn. After investigating the birth order of the U.S presidents, important leaders were also looked at and showed the same outcome; a large number of every type of leader was firstborn rather than last.
In regions of Europe where primogeniture was less widely practiced, peasant lands were subdivided and re-subdivided with each generation of heirs; Brenner writes that consequently: "This too naturally reduced the general level of peasant income, the surplus available for potential investment in agriculture, and the slim hope of agricultural ...
Agnatic-cognatic (or semi-Salic) succession, prevalent in much of Europe since ancient times, is the restriction of succession to those descended from or related to a past or current monarch exclusively through the male line of descent: descendants through females were ineligible to inherit unless no males of the patrilineage remained alive.