List of heirs to the French throne

The following is a list of the heirs to the throne of the Kingdom of France, that is, those who were legally next in line to assume the throne upon the death of the King.

From 987 to 1792, all heirs to the French throne were male-line descendants of Hugh Capet.

The crown of France under the earliest Capetian monarchs was elective, not hereditary. There was no mechanism for automatic succession unless an heir was crowned as associate king, ready to step up as primary king when the previous king died. This procedure was very similar to the method by which the Germans elected a King of the Romans during the lifetime of the German monarch. The early Capetians generally made sure their sons were crowned as associate kings with them, with such success that the inheritance of the eldest son and heir to the kingship came to be accepted as a matter of right. Louis VI of France was the first king to take the throne without having been crowned in his father's time; however, his right to take the throne was initially contested.

After the ascension of Philip II of France, the throne became de jure as well as de facto hereditary, so that on the death of the king, the legal heir became king immediately, and could exercise authority without coronation. The throne passed to the closest male heir.

Heirs who actually succeeded are shown in bold type. From 1350 on, the heir apparent to the French throne was styled Dauphin. Heirs so styled are accompanied on the table below by an image of the Dauphin's coat of arms. The title was abandoned in 1791 in favor of the style Prince Royal, less than a year before the abolition of the monarchy.

On March 21, 1420, the government of Charles VI was obliged to sign the Treaty of Troyes, which provided a legal framework for the transfer of power to Henry V, King of England, who had invaded and occupied northern France, including Paris. Under the treaty, Henry, who was to marry Charles' daughter Catherine, was named as "Heir of France" and the Dauphin Charles was disinherited. The treaty was not recognized by those factions which were still at war with England, and only had legal force in English-occupied territory and, more briefly, in the Burgundian lands (1420-1435) and in Brittany.

In southern France, the treaty of Troyes was never regarded as valid, and Charles VII was considered to have become king upon his father's death. Given his repudiation by his father, however, his status remained uncertain until his coronation at Reims on 17 July 1429. In the following two decades Charles VII regained control of most of France; the English were finally expelled from Guienne on 19 October 1453, retaining only the port of Calais.

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