Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2
The king is encouraged to have many, many children, by multiple women. These kids make up the nobility for the next generation, and one (chosen by whatever means out of the group) is the next king.
The other royal offspring are forbidden to reproduce, on rather nasty penalties for violation. This means that they cannot sire/give birth to their own heirs, their replacements will be the offspring of their sibling the current monarch. The only legal aristocrats in the system are thus 1rst generation royal offspring, there are no 'rival lines'.
This in practical terms probably means that the actual monarch has to be a male, but the other noble positions could be either sex, as long as the 'no kids' rule was applied to them.
So the Duke/Duchess of Wherever is the child of the previous king, but can have no kids of his/her own, the title will pass to a niece or nephew born from the current king.
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It could mean the monarch absolutely has to be female. You can after all prove that the queen had given birth to a child.
I would question the practicality of forcing celibacy on all the princes. Bastardry is enough of a trouble in the European feudal system but at least a given noble can show some modicum of self-control. On the other hand clerical governments do exist. It would probably need to exist in the future where medical technology makes certain things easier.
One of the main uses of polygamy is to make sure the monarch is allied to the chief families in his realm. This can happen. In fact spare princes/princesses can be given to other tribes and change their surname to allow them to marry.