Short version: Help me find a historic noble who lost his heir, and had to settle for another person, ideally much less competent/appealing/
Long version: My English teacher is a big history fan, and as one of our assignments, we are to act out scenes of medieval life (as noble, should they be counts, dukes, kings, anything really).
My idea was to play a king who had lost his son, and now had another son as heir. However she wants us to bring in sources, and here's where I need you guys.
The information I need:
The purpose of this oral is to demonstrate how dysfunctional royal families were. My main idea was to make the father sound "pissed" that his son had passed, rather than mourn his death. If that doesn't fit with the facts, I'll change my approach.
Thanks in advance.
Uh one possibility could be Tsar Ivan IV, also known as Ivan the Terrible.
His name was Ivan Vasilyevich, and he was descended from the Rurik Dynasty
He was Russian.
His first son and heir apparent was Ivan Ivanovich, who he tragically beat to death in what appeared to be a fit of madness. This seems to fit your requirements pretty well given that this son was intended to succeed his father, Ivan IV.
After the death of Ivan Ivanovich, however, Ivan IV's second son, Feodor Ivanovich became the next heir, and would eventually succeed his father. This also seems to fit into your requirements given that Feodor was apparently a weak and ineffectual ruler, and handed over most of his duties to his ministers.
Ivan IV is a complex character in Russian history. He was extremely significant given that he was the first to claim the title "Tsar of All the Russians," and his long reign saw a great number of developments in terms of increasing Russia's power and prestige.
You can check out this wikipedia link if you want to read more about him. It is very important to keep in mind that wikipedia is just a launching point; you should definitely work to find other more scholarly sources.
The main reason I am recommending it is because you mentioned that English is not your first language, and I was wondering if wikipedia might have a version of this Ivan IV article in your native language.