War of succession

A war of succession is a war prompted by a succession crisis in which two or more individuals claim the right of successor to a deceased or deposed monarch. The rivals are typically supported by factions within the royal court. Foreign powers sometimes intervene, allying themselves with a faction. This may widen the war into one between those powers.

List of wars of succession

• War of the Antiochene Succession (1201-1219)
• War of the Succession of Champagne (1216–1222)
• War of the Flemish Succession (1244–1257)
• War of the Thuringian Succession (1247–1264)
• War of the Euboeote Succession (1256–1258)
• War of the Limburg Succession (1283-1289)
• Wars of the Rügen Succession (1326–1328, 1342–1354)
• War of the Breton Succession (1341–1364)
• fr (1356-1357)
• War of the Lüneburg Succession (1370–1388)
• War of the Guelderian Succession (1371–1379)
• War of the Succession of Stettin (1464–1472)
• War of the Castilian Succession (1475–1479)
• War of the Burgundian Succession (1477-1482)
• War of the Succession of Landshut (1503–1505)
• War of the Portuguese Succession (1580–1583)
• War of the Polish Succession (1587–88)
• War of the Jülich Succession (1609–1614)
• fr (1613-1617)
• War of the Mantuan Succession (1628–1631)
• War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714)
• War of the Polish Succession (1733–1738)
• War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748)
• War of the Bavarian Succession (1778–1779)

Other conflicts of succession not usually or always designated as "War of Succession"

• Wars of the Diadochi (litt. "successors") between 322 and 275 BC
• Fourth Fitna (811–827, Abbasid Caliphate war of succession in 811–813)
• The Anarchy (England, 1135–1154)
• Hundred Years' War (1337-1453)
• Byzantine civil war of 1341–47
• 1383–85 Crisis, a.k.a. Portuguese Interregnum
• Lithuanian Civil War (1431–35)
• Wars of the Roses (1455-1487)
• Inca Civil War (1529–1532)
• Revolutions of Tunis (1675-1705)
• Nine Years' War, also known as the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg (1688–1697)
• Liberal Wars (a.k.a. Miguelist Wars) in Portugal (1828–1834)
• Carlist Wars in Spain (1833-1840, 1846-1849 and 1872-1876)

In fiction

• The Succession Wars, a wargame set in the BattleTech universe
• The Successions, civil wars over the monarchy of Andor in The Wheel of Time
• The books in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series and its TV adaptation, Game of Thrones feature the War of the Five Kings, based around five individuals' competing claims to the throne after the death of King Robert Baratheon.