War of succession

A war of succession is a social conflict prompted by two or more individuals' claim as successor to a deceased or deposed monarch. The individuals are typically supported by competing factions within the royal court and foreign powers might also intervene through allying themselves with a faction.

List of wars of succession

• Fourth Fitna (811–827, a war of succession in 811–813)
• The Anarchy (England, 1135–1154)
• War of the Campanian Succession (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)
• First War of the Rügen Succession (1326–1328)
• Byzantine Civil War (1341–1347)
• Second War of the Rügen Succession (1342–1354)
• War of the Lüneburg Succession (1370–1388)
• War of the Guelderian Succession (1371–1379)
• First War of the Portuguese Succession (1383–1385 crisis)
• War of the Breton Succession (1341–1364)
• Lithuanian Civil War (1431–1435)
• Wars of the Roses (1455-1487)
• War of the Succession of Stettin (1464–1472)
• War of the Castilian Succession (1475–1479)
• War of the Succession of Landshut (1503–1505)
• War of the Incan Succession (1529–1532)
• Second War of the Portuguese Succession (1580–1583 crisis)
• War of the Polish Succession (1587–1588)
• War of the Jülich Succession (1609–1614)
• 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)
• Third War of the Portuguese Succession (Liberal Wars; 1828–1834)

Sometimes included in this category is the:

• War of the English Succession or War of the Palatine Succession, commonly called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg (1688–1697).

Also, after the death of Alexander the Great, there were the Wars of the Diadochi (successors).

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.