Liechtenstein's Equal Succession: The Latest European Crown to Rewrite Its Rules
Liechtenstein's royal family has announced a change to its succession laws, giving women and men equal rights to the throne — making it the latest European monarchy to overhaul rules that once barred first-born daughters from inheriting the crown.
The announcement draws fresh attention to a pattern that runs across Europe's reigning houses: several of the continent's current kings would never have worn the crown had their countries operated under the equal-primogeniture rules that are now becoming the norm. Equal primogeniture, the principle that the eldest child inherits regardless of gender, has replaced older male-preference systems in successive waves across Scandinavian and Benelux monarchies over the past half-century.
King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, the longest-reigning monarch in Europe, is about to mark 53 years on the throne. When he was born, women could not succeed to the Swedish throne. He had four older sisters — all ahead of him in birth order, all pushed aside by a law that privileged younger brothers over elder sisters.
Princess Margaretha, the eldest of those four sisters, is still alive and aged 92. Under Sweden's current succession law she would have become Queen Margaretha as the first-born child. Instead she married an English businessman and lives in Oxfordshire. Princess Birgitta, nine years older than Carl XVI Gustaf, died in 2024. Princess Desirée, eight years his senior, died earlier in 2025. Princess Christina, now 82, is the sister closest in age to the King and remains close to him. Three of the four sisters who were bypassed are now gone; one is living proof of the road not taken.
Carl XVI Gustaf himself oversaw the changes to Swedish succession law that made women equal with men in the line to the throne — and Sweden did so well before most of its neighbours. The reform process began soon after the birth of Crown Princess Victoria, who arrived a year after Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia's marriage. The King and Queen's son, Prince Carl Philip, was born Crown Prince. Seven months later, the new law took effect and he was demoted to second in line. Victoria became Crown Princess. The King has said more than once that his son lost his birthright through the change, comments that have drawn controversy in Sweden.
Norway tells a similar story. King Harald V, who has reigned since 1991, was the youngest of three children born to King Olav. His elder sister Princess Ragnhild, born in 1930, was barred from the succession, as was Princess Astrid, born in 1932. Harald, born five years after his sisters, instantly became second in line to the throne upon his birth — leapfrogging both. On 29 May 1990, the Norwegian Storting — the country's parliament — amended the Constitution so that the eldest child, regardless of gender, takes precedence over their siblings in the order of succession.
The Norwegian reform came too late to affect Harald's own generation. It did, however, confirm Princess Märtha Louise's place behind her younger brother, Crown Prince Haakon — a consequence of the law applying only to those born after the 1990 amendment, not retroactively.
What makes Liechtenstein's announcement stand out is its timing. Where Sweden and Norway made these changes decades ago, Liechtenstein is acting now — closing one of the last remaining gaps in European succession law where a younger brother still overrides an elder sister. The principality has not yet published the text of the reform, so the mechanics — whether it applies retroactively, from what date, and through what instrument — remain to be set out. Royal Central
For now, the broader picture is clear. Across Europe, the paperwork that decides who wears a crown has been quietly rewritten, one country at a time, and the kings who owe their thrones to the old rules are the ones who signed the new ones into law.
