What's the difference between heir apparent and heir presumptive?
Hello anon!!! What a lovely question!
The difference between heir apparent and heir presumptive, in a simple way of saying, that the heir apparent is the confirmed heir the throne while heir presumptive is the “unconfirmed” heir.
For example: Prince William is heir apparent to the British throne because there is nobody who could alter his place in the line of succession. Queen Elizabeth II (when she was heir) was always considered heir presumptive because there was still a chance that she could’ve had a brother to take her spot because of primogeniture rules at that time.
Many monarchies at that time (and a few today ex: Spain) used male preference primogeniture, basically meaning no matter birth order, Men outrank women but women can still inherit the throne. This was the situation in England before 2011 when the law was changed so that is why Princess Charlotte outranks Prince Louis but Princess Anne is outranked by Prince Edward in the line of succession because they were born before the law was changed.
I hope this very basic explanation makes sense and let me know if you have any questions! Thank you for asking, as always!
