SPOILERS
So I know if Rhaegar had not predeceased the Mad King, his son, Aegon, would have been next in line. But given that he did, wouldn’t the crown have passed to the next eldest son, Viserys? And from there, to Dany?
In other words, who has the superior claim, Dany or Aegon (assuming he’s not a pretender)?
Aegon.
Understandably it depends on the succession laws, but typically the child of the elder son inherits before a younger son.
This of course was one of the issues with the succession to Richard I of England. Richard had at one time designated Arthur, son of his younger brother Geoffrey as his heir for a variety of political reasons. But on his deathbed he ( probably ) designated his youngest brother John heir instead. In the actual event warfare broke out with the nobles of Arthur’s native Brittany and the adjoining region of Greater Anjou preferring Arthur’s claim ( as did Philip II ), while England and Normandy backed John, as did Aquitaine ( with plenty of bribes ) under John’s mother Eleanor. Both claimed precedence, both had decent legal arguments and thus you have general warfare.
In that case John won by force of arms. But you can also look to Richard II for another example of this sort of thing. He inherited at age 10 from his grandfather Edward III over his mature uncles by right of being the only surviving son of Edward III’s eldest son ( Edward, the Black Prince ), but 22 years later ended up getting deposed by one of his cousins. Might makes right :).
This is also why Richard III had to kill his nephews and issue Titulus Rex to get their sisters disinherited for being bastards.
And this is why Henry Tudor agreed to marry Elizabeth of York. As the eldest daughter of the old King, she had a superior claim to anyone and was one of the things Henry based his legitimacy on as Henry VII.
So Aegon would always have a superior claim to Dany. and if Jon is i) Rhaeghars son and ii) legitimate, he also has a better claim than Dany though not Aegon.
And Victoria’s claim to the British throne was that her father was older than her uncle, who was (I believe) next in the line of succession, or her cousin, who was the next male heir.
Her cousin, however, being a boy, did become king of Hanover, a German state, because Hanover had a Salic law, which meant females couldn’t inherit its throne.
Jon can never be legit, though. Rhaegar was married to Elia when Jon was conceived.
Anybody know if Dany has the superior claim under Dornish law?
Jon can be legit if the king says he is or if he conquers the kingdom and makes himself legit. The superior claim in both GoT and RL usually came down to who had the bigger army.
Well… polygamy was known amongst the Targaryens.
As regards Dorne, if its primogeniture then from what I can tell its absolute primogeniture meaning the eldest child, male and females inherit rather than a brother excluding an older sister.
If thats the case, the no. Her gender is irrelevant to her place on the list in this instance. The Line would be Aerys II-<Rhaegar and his heirs>, <Virseys and his heirs> and then Dany. In other words, a child of and elder heir (as well as his subsequent children) always have precedence over their younger uncles and aunts, Which is why is real life, Prince Andrew was second in line until William and Harry were born. He is now fourth. When William’s child is born s/he will be ahead of Harry and Andrew (in that order) regardless of her gender. If and when Harry has children, they will be ahead of Andrew and so on.
You’re right about polygamy: the original Aegon was married to both his sisters, right? I’d always sort of imagined Dany would take two husbands, for the sake of symmetry. One for each of the other dragons.
So but basically the fact that Rhaegar predeceased his father has no bearing on the situation…