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Depending on the rules of the monarchy, the heir presumptive might be the daughter of a monarch if [[primogeniture#Male-preference primogeniture|males take preference over females]] and the monarch has no sons, or the senior member of a collateral line if the monarch is childless or the monarch's direct descendants cannot inherit (either because they are daughters and [[primogeniture#Agnatic primogeniture|females are completely barred from inheriting]], because the monarch's children are [[legitimacy (family law)|illegitimate]], or because of some other legal disqualification, such as being descended from the monarch through a [[Morganatic marriage|morganatic line]] or the descendant's refusal or inability to adopt a religion the monarch is required to profess).
The subsequent birth of a legitimate child to the monarch may displace the former heir presumptive by creating an heir apparent or a more eligible heir presumptive. It is not assumed that the monarch and his or her consort are incapable of having further children; on the day before Queen [[Elizabeth II]] ascended the throne, her father [[George VI]] was gravely ill and her mother was 51 years old, but Elizabeth was still considered the heir presumptive rather than the heir apparent. An heir presumptive's position may not even be secure after they ascend their throne, as a [[Posthumous birth|posthumous child]] of the previous monarch could have a superseding claim. Following the death of [[William IV]] in 1837, he was succeeded by his niece [[Queen Victoria]], whose accession proclamation noted her accession was only permanent so long as a child of William was not born to his widow, [[Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen|Adelaide]], even though Adelaide was 44 years old and had last been pregnant 17 years earlier.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-10-02 |title=The primogeniture paradox: the posthumous heir |url=https://royalcentral.co.uk/features/the-primogeniture-paradox-the-posthumous-heir-54339/ |access-date=2022-05-28 |website=Royal Central |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Page 1581 {{!}} Issue 19509, 20 June 1837 {{!}} London Gazette {{!}} The Gazette |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/19509/page/1581 |access-date=2023-07-14 |website=www.thegazette.co.uk}}</ref> Such a situation occurred in [[Spain]] in 1885, when King [[Alfonso XII]] died and left behind a widow who was three months pregnant. His five-year-old daughter and heir presumptive, [[María de las Mercedes, Princess of Asturias|María de las Mercedes]], was not declared queen because she would be displaced if a son was born, and instead there was a six month [[interregnum]] until the birth of her brother [[Alfonso XIII]], who assumed the throne as king immediately upon birth. Had the pregnancy been lost or resulted in another daughter, Mercedes would have become queen regnant and been retroactively recognized as such during the interregnum.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-09-05 |title=Can an unborn baby really inherit the British Crown (and what's that got to do with Game of Thrones?) |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2017/09/can-unborn-baby-really-inherit-british-crown-and-whats-got-do-game-thrones |access-date=2022-05-29 |website=New Statesman |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Packard |first=Jerrold M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i7QDd-YoQ7gC&pg=PT432 |title=Victoria's Daughters |date=1999-12-23 |publisher=St. Martin's Publishing Group |isbn=978-1-4299-6490-6 |language=en}}</ref>
Heir presumptive, like heir apparent, is not a title or position ''per se''. Rather, it is a general term for a person who holds a certain place in the [[order of succession]]. In some monarchies, the heir apparent bears, ''[[ipso facto]]'', a specific title and rank (e.g., Denmark, Netherlands, United Kingdom), this also sometimes being the case for noble titleholders (e.g., Spain, United Kingdom), but the heir presumptive does not bear that title. In other monarchies (e.g., Monaco, Spain) the first in line to the throne bears a specific title (i.e., "Hereditary Prince/Princess of Monaco", "Prince/Princess of Asturias") by right, regardless of whether she or he is heir apparent or heir presumptive.
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