Salic law

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The Salic Law was a body of law codified to govern the Salian Franks in the early 5th century during the reign of Clovis I. It was the basis for the laws of Charlemagne, but by the 12th century, both the Frankish kings and their laws were no more.

However, one provision of the Salic Law continued to play a role in European politics throughout the Middle Ages and beyond. Concerning the inheritance of land, the Salic Law provided

But of Salic land no portion of the inheritance shall come to a woman: but the whole inheritance of the land shall come to the male sex.

As actually interpreted by the Salian Franks, the law simply prohibited women from inheriting Salic land. However, during the Hundred Years' War, French jurists resurrected the long-defunct Salic Law and re-interpreted it to forbid not only inheritance by a woman but inheritance through a female line in order to disqualify the claim of Edward III of England and his descendants to the French throne.

This law by no means covered all matters of inheritance -- only those lands considered "Salic" -- and there is still debate as to the legal definition of this word, although it is generally accepted to refer to lands in the royal fisc. Only several hundred years later, under the Capetian kings of France and their English contemporaries who held lands in France, did Salic law become a rationale for enforcing or debating succession. By then somewhat anachronistic (there were no Salic lands, since the Salian monarchy was long dead), the law was resurrected by Philip V to support his claim to the throne by removing his niece Jeanne from the succession, following the death of his nephew John. When the Capetian line ended, the law was contested by England, providing a putative motive for the Hundred Years' War.

Shakespeare uses the Salic law as a plot device in his play Henry V, and states that it was upheld by the French to bar the claim of Henry V from the throne of France. The play Henry V starts with the Archbishop of Canterbury being asked if Henry's claim can be upheld despite the law. The Archbishop says that it is not a French law but a German one.

The Salic law is responsible for some interesting chapters of history. The Carlist Wars occurred in Spain over the question of whether the heir to the throne should be a woman or a male relative. The War of the Austrian Succession was triggered by the Pragmatic sanction in which Charles VI of Austria, who himself had inherited the Austrian patrimony over his nieces because of Salic Law, attempted to ensure the succession of/ to forward the inheritance directly to his own daughter Maria Theresa of Austria.

The British and Hanoverian thrones separated after the death of King William IV of the United Kingdom and of Hanover. Hanover practiced the Salic law, while Britain did not. King William's niece Victoria ascended the throne of Great Britain and Ireland, but the throne of Hanover went to William's brother Ernest, Duke of Cumberland; Salic law was also an important issue in the Schleswig-Holstein question.

Finally, though it is sometimes claimed that Queen Elizabeth II is Duke, not Duchess, of Normandy, because of Salic law, she in fact claims no such title (nor could she, if Salic law pertained), though she is toasted in the Channel Islands (the only part of the former duchy of Normandy still held by her) as "Our Queen the Duke."