List of wars of succession in Europe

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To inherit Holland, Ada quickly married Louis before her father was buried, triggering the Loon War.[1]

This is a list of wars of succession in Europe.

Note: Wars of succession in transcontinental states are mentioned under the continents where their capital city was located. That means that wars of succession in the Byzantine Empire and Ottoman Empire are found here whenever their capital city was located at Constantinople/Kostantiniyye/Istanbul in East Thrace; for Ottoman wars of succession before 1453, see List of wars of succession § Medieval Asia. Names of wars that have been given names by historians are capitalised; the others, whose existence has been proven but not yet given a specific name, are provisionally written in lowercase letters (except for the first word, geographical and personal names).

Ancient Europe

Alexander's diadochi battled about his political legacy for 46 years.

Medieval Europe

6th–8th century

Fontenoy confirmed the partition of Francia between emperor Louis the Pious's three sons.

9th century

10th century

  • War of the Leonese succession (951–956), after the death of king Ramiro II of León[16]
  • (historicity contested) Olga's Revenge on the Drevlians (945–947), after the Kievan Rus' Drevlian vassals assassinated Igor of Kiev.[17] Initially, the Drevlian prince Mal offered to marry Igor's widow Olga of Kiev and thus succeed him, but Olga appointed herself as regent over her young son Svyatoslav, made war on the Drevlians and destroyed their realm. The historicity of the events as described in the main document on the conflict, the Primary Chronicle, is contested, and the war is described as 'legendary' with a mix of fact and fiction.
  • Gwynedd war of succession (950), after the death of king Hywel Dda of Gwynedd and Deheubarth
  • Feud of the Sviatoslavichi or Kievan Rus' Dynastic War (c. 972–980), after the death of king Sviatoslav I of Kiev[18]
  • War of the Hamaland succession (c. 973 – c. 996), after the death of count Wichman II of Hamaland, between sisters Adela of Hamaland and Liutgard of Elten (supported by Balderic, Count of Upladium)[19]
  • War of the Leonese succession (982–984), continuation of the last Leonese war of succession
  • Stephen–Koppány war, also known as 'Koppány's rebellion' or contemporaneously 'the war between the Germans and the Hungarians' (997–998), after the death Géza, Grand Prince of the Hungarians. Stephen (pagan birth name: Vajk) was Géza's oldest son and claimed the throne by primogeniture; his army was described as 'the Germans'. Koppány was the brother of Géza's widow Sarolt and claimed the throne by agnatic seniority; his army was described as 'the Hungarians'. Later Christian sources emphasise Stephen's Christianity as an argument for his legitimacy, claim that Koppány was a pagan and that agnatic seniority was a 'pagan' custom as opposed to the 'Christian' custom of primogeniture, and that therefore Koppány 'rebelled' against the legitimate Christian king Stephen, but the reliability and impartiality of these sources is disputed.

11th century

In 1066, William of Normandy managed to enforce his claim to the English throne.

12th century

The Sack of Kiev (1169) was part of the 1167–1169 Kievan succession crisis between rival princely clans[43]

13th century

14th century

15th century

Early modern Europe

16th century

The Jülich Succession became a European war, as the future religious balance of power depended on it.

17th century

Klushino 1610: Polish–Lithuanian hussars defeat Tsarist Russia and capture Moscow in the Time of Troubles and the Dimitriads.

18th century

During the War of the Spanish Succession, a European coalition tried to keep Spain out of French hands.
The War of the Austrian Succession grew out to an almost pan-European land war, spreading to colonies in the Americas and India.[101]

Modern Europe

19th century

The death of Frederick VII of Denmark was a cause of the Second Schleswig War (1864).
The Third Carlist War (1872–1876).

Timeline

  •   British Isles
  •   Scandinavia, Baltics & Eastern Europe
  •   Low Countries
  •   Central Europe (HRE)
  •   France & Italy
  •   Spain & Portugal
  •   Southeastern Europe

See also

Notes

  1. Initially, William of Normandy was called William "the Bastard" by his opponents because he was an illegitimate son (bastard) of Robert I, and therefore some Norman noblemen rejected him as successor. Later, he became known as William "the Conqueror" when he also managed to enforce his claim to the English throne with the 1066 Norman invasion of England. William's reign in Normandy itself was not unopposed until 1060, despite being largely secured since 1047.
  2. Roger II of Sicily was the son of Roger "Bosso" I of Sicily, William II of Apulia was the grandson of Robert Guiscard, and Robert II of Capua was the great-grandson of Fressenda and Robert I of Capua; thus, all three descended from three different children of Tancred of Hauteville.
  3. An 1870 issue of the Dutch periodical Onze Tijd ("Our Time") went as far as to name it the Tweede Spaansche Successieoorlog ("Second War of the Spanish Succession", as opposed to the "first" in 1701–1715), stating: "Although already in 1866 anyone who had been keeping a clear eye on the state of affairs should have considered a war between France and Prussia inevitable, one would likely have looked in every other place for the direct cause of that war before Spain. (...) So strange, that it is evident that finding it in the Spanish succession was the result of a monarch just looking for any kind of pretext to declare war."[104]

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Bibliography