I know there was some passage from father to son, or keeping the monarchy in the family. I was wondering why they chose to elect their monarch and how that came about.
If I may expand the question? Elections were held, either continuously or for a period, for the Empire, the kingdoms of Jerusalem, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Poland/Lithuania, Bohemia, Anglo-Saxon England, Capetian France, the pope and other bishops, abbots, various Italian republics, Dutch stadtholders, et cetera. (Changes made various positions elective or non-elective.) Considering just the secular offices, are there any common patterns to which offices were elective, or were they just contingent accidents of history?