Pretenders maintain an absolute or hypothetical claim to the
throne or titles they have been deprived of.
By an absolute claim is meant that
the claim that the throne in question is rightfully theirs; that the means by
which they were disposed or prevented from inheriting it were unlawful. They
may claim not merely that they should be, but that in fact they are sovereigns
of their lands.
A hypothetical claim is less strong, and in some cases
amount to little more than the claim to be head of a family: it is in essence
the claim that if the crown had not been taken away, it would now be vested in
the claimant.
In popular usage the work
“pretender” tends to be applied to both sorts. They both derive from the
logical pursuit of the idea of legitimacy. Pretendership was well known in the ancient and medieval
worlds; and can be often referred to as “titular” kingships.
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