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Indeed, when Queen Victoria succeeded her uncle King William IV, the wording of the proclamation even gave as a caveat: In such circumstances a person may be, in a practical sense, the heir apparent but still, legally speaking, heir presumptive. Many legal systems assume childbirth is always possible regardless of age or health. If at any time the title bearer were to produce children, those children would rank ahead of any person who had formerly been heir presumptive. The clearest example occurs in the case of a childless bearer of a hereditary title that can only be inherited by one person. An heir presumptive, by contrast, can always be "bumped down" in the succession by the birth of somebody more closely related in a legal sense (according to that form of primogeniture) to the current title-holder. In a hereditary system governed by some form of primogeniture, an heir apparent is easily identifiable as the person whose position as first in the line of succession to a title or office is secure, regardless of future births. Throngs before the Imperial Palace in Japan awaiting the appearance of the Crown Prince Hirohito for the recent proclamation of his official recognition as the heir apparent to the Japanese Imperial Throne – New York Times, 1916. crowning the heir as a rex iunior, or through the monarch's will). This article primarily describes the term heir apparent in a hereditary system regulated by laws of primogeniture-it may be less applicable to cases where a monarch has a say in naming the heir (performed either while alive, e.g. The term is also used metaphorically to indicate an expected successor to any position of power, e.g.
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Most monarchies refer to the heir apparent of their thrones with the descriptive term of crown prince or crown princess, but they may also be accorded with a more specific substantive title: such as Prince of Orange in the Netherlands, Duke of Brabant in Belgium, Prince of Asturias in Spain (also granted to heirs presumptive), or Prince of Wales in the United Kingdom former titles include Dauphin in the Kingdom of France, and Tsesarevich in Imperial Russia. titles of nobility) or offices, especially when only inheritable by a single person. Today these terms most commonly describe heirs to hereditary titles (e.g. An heir presumptive, by contrast, is someone who is first in line to inherit a title but who can be displaced by the birth of a more eligible heir.