I'm listening to some Christmas music about "the newborn king" and it got me wondering: Has anyone ever been born a king? I can imagine a scenario where a king dies with no heirs and his wife is pregnant with a boy. Has that ever actually happened? If so, did the child become a king at birth?
Yes, it has happened. You may be interested in a few examples:
How would a medieval monarchy handle the succession of an unborn heir? - /u/vonadler describes the case of Ladislaus the Posthumous, Duke of Austria and King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, son of Albert V
In medieval Europe did succession laws take pregnancy into account? - /u/OakheartIX describes the slightly more compicated case of Jean I, son of King Louis X
Is there ever a case of a legitimate heir being born before the coronation of a new king/duke/count after the death of the old one? And would this change anything? - /u/HenkieVV pulls out an even more complicated case, where the child of King Charles IV of France turns out to be a daughter
in the same thread, /u/CreakyTom gives a further example of Mary Tudor of France, widow of King Louis XII of France, being secluded after his death
These posts have all been archived, so if you have follow-up questions for these or other users, just ask them here & mention their username to notify them
When the Persian king Hormizd II died, a civil war broke out in which the nobility killed, maimed, or exiled Hormizd’s three sons. They then crowned his unborn fourth son (Shapur II) in utero, and named themselves as regents.
Alfonso XIII of Spain in May 1886 is the last I recall - his father had died six months earlier. His mother ruled as regent until he was 16, a fairly common practice (though the age of majority varied).