Hereditary title

Hereditary titles, in a general sense, are titles of nobility, positions or styles that are hereditary and thus tend or are bound to remain in particular families.

Though both monarchs and nobles usually inherit their titles, the mechanisms often differ, even in the same country. The British crown has been heritable by women since the medieval era (in the absence of brothers), while the vast majority of hereditary noble titles granted by British sovereigns are not heritable by daughters.

Often a hereditary title is inherited only by the legitimate, eldest son of the original grantee or that son's male heir according to masculine primogeniture. In some countries, titles descended to all children of the grantee equally, as well as to all of that grantee's remoter descendants, male and female, in the legitimate male line. Historically, females have much less frequently been granted noble titles and, still more rarely, hereditary titles. However it was not uncommon for a female to inherit a noble title if she survived all kinsmen descended patrilineally from the original grantee or, in England, if she survived just her own brothers and their male-line descendants. Rarely, a noble title descends to the eldest child regardless of gender (although by law this has become the prevalent form of titular inheritance among the Spanish nobility). A title may occasionally be shared and thus multiplied, in the case of a single title, or divided when the family bears multiple titles. In some traditions inheritance by adoption is an alternative to inheritance by biological kinship, as in the Hindu tradition to assure there is a male heir of the same caste. In the French nobility, often the children and other male-line descendants of a lawful noble titleholder self-assumed the same or a lower title of nobility; while not legal, such titles were generally tolerated at court during both the ancien regime and 19th century France as titres de courtoisie.

Coparcenary is where two or more people inherit a title equally between them as a result of which none can inherit until all but one have renounced their right to the inheritance. This could arise when a title passes through and vests in female heirs in the absence of a male heir. Before they could inherit, each of the female heirs would be an heir presumptive. After they inherited, since the title could not be held by two people simultaneously, two daughters (without a brother) who inherited in this way would do so as co-parceners. In these circumstances, the title would in fact be held in abeyance until one of them renounced for herself and her successors in favour of the other. In England and Wales, passage of a title in this fashion is effected under the rules laid down in the Law of Property Act 1925.

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