succession

succession
  (səkˈsɛʃən)
  Also 4–5 -oun(e, -yon, etc.
  [ad. OF. succession (from 13th c.) or its source L. successio, -ōnem, n. of action f. succēdĕre to succeed. Cf. Pr. successio, It. successione, Sp. sucesion, Pg. successão.]
  I. 1. a. The action of a person or thing following, or succeeding to the place of, another; the coming of one person or thing after another; also, the passing from one act or state to another; an instance of this.

c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 2156 He hath so wel biset his ordinaunce, That speces of thynges and progressions Shullen enduren by successions. 1577 tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 6 Least peraduenture their children shuld be ignorant of the beginning and succession of worldly thinges. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. 113 b, The future succession of all ages. 1624 Gataker Transubst. 148 Such a succession is to be found in euery substantiall conuersion, whereby one substance is destroyed, and other succeedeth in the roome of it. 1690 Locke Hum. Und. ii. xiv. §6 By reflecting on the appearing of various Ideas, one after another in our Understandings, we get the Notion of Succession. 1738 Wesley Hymn ‘God is a Name my Soul adores’ iii, Thy Being no Succession knows And all thy vast Designs are one. 1764 Goldsm. Trav. 116 Whatever blooms in torrid tracts appear, Whose bright succession decks the varied year. 1847 Tennyson Princess iii. 312 We..live, perforce, from thought to thought, and make One act a phantom of succession. 1866 Owen Anat. Vertebrates I. §70. 381 The reproduction of the component denticles in horizontal succession. 1874 Green Short Hist. vi. §6 (1882) 330 The series of measures which in their rapid succession changed the whole character of the English Church. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 416 The ideas of men have a succession in time as well as an order of thought.

  † b. The act of passing by continuous movement into a place. Obs.

1691 Ray Creation i. (1692) 69 The Air accompanies and follows it by a constant Succession. 1729 T. Dale tr. Freind's Emmenol. (1752) xii. 154 Nutrition being nothing else than the apposition of any Juice, or a perpetual succession of aliment into the Pores of the Fibres.

  † c. The act of following another in a course of conduct. Obs. rare.

1601 Shakes. All's Well iii. v. 24 The miserie is example, that so terrible shewes in the wracke of maiden-hood, cannot for all that disswade succession.

  2. Phr. a. in succession, one after another in regular sequence, successively.

c 1449 Pecock Repr. iii. v. 306 Forto abide in thilk sufficience thoruȝ manye ȝeeris in successioun. 1668 Moxon Mech. Dyalling 46 Mark them in succession from the beginning with 10, 20, 30, to 90. 1690 Locke Hum. Und. ii. xiv. §10 'Tis as clear as any Demonstration can be, that it must..touch one part of the Flesh first, and another after; and so in Succession. 1801 Farmer's Mag. Apr. 149 In the period I have taken, we have had three unfavourable seasons, and two in succession, worse than any other in the memory of any man living. 1827 Faraday Chem. Manip. xix. (1842) 505 On one end of the tube the parts will be bent and curved in succession as they become heated. 1868 Lockyer Elem. Astron. iii. §12 (1879) 69 The rotation of the Earth bringing each part in succession from sunshine to shade. 1914 Infantry Training 73 When a column is on the march, platoons may, if desired, advance in fours in succession.

  † b. by succession(s: successively. Obs.

1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) II. 271 After that other realmes were made in Grece by succession. 1591 Sylvester Du Bartas i. ii. Wks. (1641) 11/1 Because the Matter, wounded deep in Heart With various Love..by successions, Form after Form receives.

  † c. in a succession: continuously. Obs.

a 1715 Burnet Own Time (1724) I. 173 If the money..had been raised all in a succession, as fast as the work could be carried on.

  † 3. The course, lapse, or process of time. Obs.

1456 Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 229 A thing that is nocht of valew be the law as ground of rycht in the begynnyng, the successioun of tyme may never mak it rycht. 1620 E. Blount Horæ Subs. 328 This was the true Originall, by which in succession of time the Empire was translated. 1655 M. Carter Honor Rediv. (1660) 90 Succession of time hath converted it into another custom.

  4. The transmission (or mode of transmission) of an estate, royal or official dignity, or the like.

a 1325 MS. Rawl. B. 520 fol. 59 Þoru maner of ȝifte þe womman passez bifore þe man, in succession. 1375 Barbour Bruce i. 57 Thai said, successioun of kyngrik Was nocht to lawer feys lik; For thar mycht succed na female. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) II. 147 The moder blood schulde be putt to fore in successioun of heritage. 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) III. 403 Philippus the kynge of Macedony, sollicitate and besy for the succession of þat realme [orig. de regni successore]. 1538 Starkey England ii. ii. 195 As touchyng the successyon and intaylyng of landys, ther must nedys be prouysyon. 1641 Earl of Monmouth tr. Biondi's Civil Wars ix. 223 So long as the Earl of Warwick lived, he was not certaine of the Kingdoms succession. 1682 Dryden Mac Fl. 10 To settle the Succession of the State. 1690 in Nairne Peerage Evidence (1874) 26 To provyde and secure the successione of the lands. 1826 Bell Comm. Laws Scotl. (ed. 5) I. 100 The equal partition of the succession which prevailed in the Roman law, has place also in the law of Scotland in the succession of moveables.

  5. a. The process by which one person succeeds another in the occupation or possession of an estate, a throne, or the like; the act or fact of succeeding according to custom or law to the rights and liabilities of a predecessor; the conditions or principles in accordance with which this is done.
  the succession: the conditions under which successors to a particular estate, throne, etc. are appointed. war of succession: a war to settle a dispute as to the succession to a particular throne.

a 1513 Fabyan Chron. vii. ccxxvi. (1811) 254 That he shulde haue MMM. markes yerelye, as before was promysed vnto hym..with other condycions of successyon. 1533–4 Act 25 Hen. VIII c. 22 An Acte for the establishement of the Kynges succession. 1593 Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, ii. i. 172 He swore consent to your Succession. 1607 Chapman Bussy d'Ambois iii. ii. 385 Why wrongful to suppose the doubtless right To the succession worth the thinking on? 1643 Baker Chron. (1653) 99 King Richard being dead, the right of Succession remained in Arthur, Son of Geoffry Plantagenet. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 303 Th' immortal Line in sure Succession reigns. a 1700 Evelyn Diary 16 May 1681, Lord Sunderland..having fallen into displeasure of the King for siding with the Commons about the Succession. 1701 Farquhar Sir H. Wildair iv. i, What, sir? the Succession!—Not mind the Succession! 1708 Chamberlayne M. Brit. Notitia ii. ii. ii. (1710) 385 The succession to the Crown of Scotland. 1714 Swift Pres. St. Aff. Wks. 1755 II. i. 214 The security of the protestant succession in the house of Hanover. 1766 Blackstone 13 Comm. ii. The power of the laws in regulating the succession to property. 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. 1808 V. 64 The course of succession is the healthy habit of the British constitution. 1832 Ld. Mahon (title) History of the War of the Succession in Spain. 1839 Keightley Hist. Eng. II. 44 The dangers of a disputed succession being now terminated. 1853 Act 16 & 17 Vict. c. 51 (title) An Act for granting to Her Majesty Duties on Succession to Property. 1879 Dixon Windsor II. xvi. 169 She stood in order of succession to the duchy.

  b. Phr. (a) by succession: according to the customary or legal principle by which one succeeds another in an inheritance, an office, etc. by inherited right.

1412–20 Lydg. Chron. Troy i. 2889 Sche þat..schulde haue ben by successioun Eyre by dissent of þat regioun. c 1430 ― Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 17 The degré be just successioune,..Unto the kyng is now descended doune, From ether parte righte as eny lyne. 1474 Caxton Chesse ii. ii. (1883) 27 For better is to haue a kynge by succession than by eleccion. 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, ii. i. 199 How art thou a King But by faire sequence and succession? c 1600 ― Sonn. ii, Proouing his beautie by succession thine. 1668 Dryden Def. Dram. Poesy Ess. 1900 I. 111, I am only a champion by succession. 1865 F. M. Nichols tr. Britton I. 219 marg., Title by succession.

  (b) (To have, hold, take) in succession.

1472–3 Rolls of Parlt. VI. 4/2 Londes..which eny persone temporell..hath..in fee symple, eny maner fee tayle, or in succession. 1835 Tomlins Law Dict. s.v. Successor, Such a corporation cannot regularly take in succession goods and chattels. 1890 Gross Gild Merch. I. 95 The borough..was an aggregate body acting as an individual,..having a common seal, holding property in succession.

  c. pregnantly for: The line or order of succession.

[1533–4: see sense 5.] 1708 Swift Sentim. Ch. Eng. Man ii. Wks. 1841 II. 214/1 Thus hereditary right should be kept so sacred as never to break the succession. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xx. II. 460 He was in the succession to an earldom. 1874 Green Short Hist. vii. §2 (1882) 353 Mary..had been placed next in the succession to Edward by her father's will.

  6. (A person's) right or privilege of succeeding to an estate or dignity.

1461 Rolls of Parlt. V. 490/2 Any persone or persones corporat, or havyng succession perpetuell. 1477 Ibid. VI. 172/2 Any persone or persones havyng succession. 1571 Golding Calvin on Ps. lxi. vii, He dyed full of dayes..having delivered the succession of his kingdome to his Sonne. 1583 Reg. Privy Council Scot. Ser. i. III. 568 To denude him of his heretage and rychteous successioun dew to him as eldest sone. 1651 tr. De-las-Coveras' Don Fenise 314 He without regarding the ordinance of his mother would possesse himselfe of the succession. a 1700 Dryden (J.) What people is so void of common sense, To vote succession from a native prince? 1828 Scott F.M. Perth xiv, He could achieve such a purpose without endangering both his succession and his life. 1875 Maine Hist. Instit. i. 16 Each tract was the property..of some body of persons who, in modern legal phrase, had perpetual succession. 1894 Sir W. Harcourt in Daily News 17 April 2/7 The right to make wills or settlements or successions is the creation of positive law.

  7. The act of succeeding to the episcopate by the reception of lawfully transmitted authority by ordination. apostolic(al) succession (or the succession), the continued transmission of the ministerial commission, through an unbroken line of bishops from the Apostles onwards.

1565 Harding Confut. Apol. Ch. Eng. 57 b, To go from your succession, which ye can not proue, and to come to your vocation, how saye you, Syr? 1567 Jewel Def. Apol. ii. 129 Haue these menne their owne succession in so safe Record? Who was then the Bishop of Rome nexte by succession vnto Peter? 1577 Hanmer Anc. Eccl. Hist. 55 Obtayning the first stepp of Apostolical Succession, and being deuine Disciples of the..principall men. 1653 Cromwell Sp. 4 July (Carlyle), I speak not..for a Ministry deriving itself from the Papacy, and pretending to that which is so much insisted on, ‘Succession’. 1845 Bp. Wilberforce in Ashwell Life (1880) I. viii. 314 Instead of taking as your prominent subject the ‘Succession’..you would take the more spiritual view of the Ministry. 1847 J. Yeowell Anc. Brit. Ch. ix. 99 We have an account of their [sc. the bishops'] successions for some ages. 1879 Haddon Apost. Success. Ch. Eng. ii. 35 Foreign or other Protestants, who either disclaim or do not possess the Succession. Ibid. 30 The historical and canonical objections advanced..against the validity of the English Succession.

  II. † 8. Successors, heirs, or descendants collectively; progeny, issue. Obs.

a 1340 Hampole Psalter Cant. 496 My generacioun, þat is, succession of childire. c 1400 Rom. Rose 4857 Bycause alle is corrumpable And faile shulde successioun. 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) II. 441 The sonnes of Hector recurede and toke þe cite of Troye, expellenge the succession of Antenor. 1459 Rolls of Parlt. V. 351/2 Eny other succession of youre body lawefully commyng. 1533–4 Act 25 Hen. VIII c. 22 To..provyde for the perfite suertie of both you and of your moste lawfull succession and heires. 1555 Eden Decades (Arb.) 296 When they [sc. beasts] shulde bringe furth theyr broode or succession. 1605 in Abst. Protocols Town Clerks Glasgow (1896) II. 121 Prayeris..for..the Kingis Majestie, his hienes Quein, and thair successioune. 1611 Shakes. Cymb. iii. i. 8 Cassibulan..for him, And his Succession, granted Rome a Tribute. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 78 Their young Succession all their Cares employ: They breed, they brood, instruct and educate.

  † 9. a. A generation (of men); chiefly pl. (future or successive) generations. Obs.

c 1430 Lydg. Minor Poems (Percy Soc.) 85 The chieldren of Seth in story ye may se, Flowryng in vertu by longe successiouns. 1593 Nashe Christ's T. 26 b, So exceeding are mine aduersities, that after successions which shall heare of them; will euen be desolate..with the hearing. 1611 Beaum. & Fl. Maid's Trag. iv. i, Found out with every finger, made the shame Of all successions. 1659 Hammond On Ps. lxxix. 13 Our posterity to all successions joyning with us. 1685 Burnet tr. More's Utopia 98 Ancestors, who have been held for some Successions rich. 1720 Swift Mod. Educ. Wks. 1755 II. ii. 39 The sloth, luxury, and abandoned lusts, which enervated their breed through every succession.

  † b. Posterity. Obs.

1628 Hall Contempl., O.T. xiii. 1098 If we sow good workes succession shall reape them. 1655 Stanley Hist. Philos. i. (1701) 13/1 To propagate his Doctrine to Succession. 1704 Inett Orig. Anglic. I. xi. §14. 183 Succession so far justified this Proceeding, that this Council of Sardice was never receiv'd by the Eastern Churches. 1704 Nelson Fest. & Fasts (1705) xvi. 185 He..provided for Succession by constituting Bishops, and other Officers and Pastors.

  10. a. A series of persons or things in orderly sequence; a continued line (of sovereigns, heirs to an estate, etc.); an unbroken line or stretch (of objects coming one after another). Also, † a continued spell (of weather).

1579 W. Wilkinson Confut. Fam. Love A iij, The succession of Popes, and that body and kingdome is the very Antichrist. 1594 Hooker Eccl. Pol. ii. vi. §4 St. Augustine..saith..In all this order of succession of Bishops [of Rome] there is not one Bishop found that was a Donatist. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1638) 231 The Greeke Historiographers (best like to know the Turkish succession). 1662 Stillingfl. Orig. Sacræ ii. iv. §1 In that same place God doth promise a succession of Prophets. 1667 Milton P.L. xii. 331 A long succession must ensue, And his next Son..The clouded Ark of God..shall in a glorious Temple Enshrine. 1734 tr. Rollin's Anc. Hist. I. Pref. p. vi, The entire succession of ages is present to him. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. I. 168 An agreeable succession of small points of land. 1797 Jane Austen Pride & Prej. I. xvii. (1813) 203 Such a succession of rain. 1831 Brewster Optics iv. 34 When we consider the inconceivable minuteness of the particles of light, and that a single ray consists of a succession of those particles. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. vii. II. 189 The House of Austria had, by a succession of victories, been secured from danger on the side of Turkey. 1874 Green Short Hist. vii. §7 (1882) 418 Every progress of Elizabeth from shire to shire was a succession of shows and interludes.

  † b. The followers collectively, or a sect of followers, of a school of thought. (Rendering Gr. διαδοχή.) Obs.

1653 More Antid. Ath. Gen. Pref. p. xvii, I omitted to set down the succession of the Pythagorick school. 1656 Stanley Hist. Philos. iv. (1701) 133/1 The Succession of the Ionick Philosophy, which before Socrates was single: after him was divided into many Schools. 1699 Bentley Phal. 80 The Successions of the Pythagorean School.

  11. A set of persons or things succeeding in the place of others.

1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. §165 That That which looked like Pride in some, and like Petulance in others, would..be in time wrought off, or in a new Succession reformed. 1821 Shelley Adonais xliii, While the one Spirit's plastic stress Sweeps through the dull dense world, compelling there All new successions to the forms they wear. 1865 W. B. Carpenter in Youmans Corr. & Conserv. Forces 418 (Cent. Dict.) The leaves of ‘evergreens’..are not cast off until the appearance of a new succession.

  † 12. That to which a person succeeds as heir; an inheritance. Obs. rare.

1382 Wyclif Deut. xviii. 8 Out take that, that in his cytee of the fadre successyoun is owed to hym. 1587 Golding De Mornay xxvii. 479 Now let vs see what we our selues haue brought to this decayed succession. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Succession,..an Inheritance or Estate come to one by Succession. 1751 Female Foundling II. 80, I can, indeed, leave him a good Succession.

  III. † 13. The result, issue. Obs. (Cf. late L. successio.)

1514 in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. ii. I. 228 Any prousperous succession of your Graces causes. 1549 Latimer 1st Serm. bef. Edw. VI (Arb.) 36 According to the aduyse of his friend the one of them wroght where the succession was not good. 1557 Card. Pole in Strype Eccl. Mem. (1822) III. ii. 494 As the successyon shewede he dyd.

  IV. 14. In technical use: a. Astron. (See quots.)

1679 Moxon Math. Dict., Succession of the Signs, Is that order in which they are usually reckoned; as first Aries, next Taurus, then Gemini, &c. 1728 Chambers Cycl. s.v., When a Planet is direct, it is said to go according to the Order and Succession of the Signs,..when Retrograde, it is said to go contrary to the Succession of the Signs.

  b. Mus. ‘The order in which the notes of a melody proceed.’ Also = sequence n. 3 b.

1752 tr. Rameau's Treat. Mus. 85 A Sequence, or Succession of Harmony, is nothing else but a Link or Chain of Keys and Governing-notes. 1801 Busby Dict. Mus. (1811) s.v., Of succession there are two kinds, conjunct and disjunct. Conjunct Succession is when the sounds proceed regularly, upward or downward, through the several intervening degrees. Disjunct Succession is when they immediately pass from one degree to another without touching the intermediate degrees. 1875 Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. Terms s.v., A sequence is sometimes spoken of as a succession, and passages of similar chords or progressions are described as a succession of thirds [etc.].

  c. Milit. (See quots.)

1745 J. Millan (title) The Succession of Colonels to All His Majesties Land Forces, from their Rise, to 1744. 1802 James Milit. Dict., Succession of Rank, relative gradation according to the dates of commissions. Ibid., A Commission in succession, a commission in which an individual has an inherent property from having purchased it, or raised men. 1805 ― Milit. Dict. (ed. 2), Succession of colonels , a particular part of the official army list is so called. The dates of the several appointments are therein specified, together with the numbers and facings of the different regiments.

  d. Agric. and Hort. (a) The rotation (of crops); (b) the maturing of crops of the same kind by a system of successive sowings so that as one is declining another is coming on.

1778 [Marshall] Observ. Agric. 168 The Succession of Crops (or rather of the Occupants of the Soil, whether Crops, or Fallow) may be regular or irregular. 1796 ― Rural Econ. W. Eng. II. 144 The succession is similar to that of West Devonshire: ley ground, partially fallowed for wheat, with one or two crops of oats; grass seeds being sown with the last crop. 1842 Loudon Suburban Hort. 505 In order to have a succession of fruit, it is requisite to sow the seed at three different times. 1900 Daily News 5 May 4/3 Almost every kind of vegetable may now be sown for succession.

  e. Geol., etc. The continued sequence in a definite order of species, types, etc.; spec. the descent in uninterrupted series of forms modified by evolution or development.

1834 Darwin Jrnl. in Voy. Beagle (1839) III. 210 The law of the succession of types. 1836 Buckland Geol. & Min. I. vi. 54 To refer the origin of existing organizations..to an eternal succession of the same species. 1842 Sedgwick in Hudson's Guide Lakes (1843) 188 Phenomena which not only indicate succession, but were elaborated during vast intervals of time.

  f. Ecol. The sequence of ecological changes in which one group of plant or animal species is replaced by another.

1860 H. D. Thoreau in N.Y. Weekly Tribune 6 Oct. 6/6 (heading) The succession of forest trees. 1899 Bot. Gaz. XXVII. 95 The ecologist..must study the order of succession of the plant societies in the development of a region. 1904 Univ. Nebraska Stud. IV. 332 Such succession herbaria are the natural outgrowth of formational ones. 1926 Tansley & Chipp Aims & Methods in Study of Vegetation ii. 7 Vegetation, when left to itself, tends to change in a definite direction..and this change we call succession. 1957 G. E. Hutchinson Treat. Limnol. I. xv. 834 It is not impossible that the element plays some part in regulating phytoplankton succession. 1975 Sci. Amer. May 90/1 Forest succession proceeds too slowly for it to be observed directly.

  g. Geol. A group of strata whose order represents a single chronological sequence.

1940 Bull. Amer. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists XXIV. 309 Near Las Vegas an apparently conformable succession of marine beds, mostly limestone, is designated as the Bird Spring formation. 1976 Jrnl. Geol. Soc. CXXXII. 121 The study area covers..the eastern half of the flysch succession. 1979 D. Attenborough Life on Earth ii. 36 The limestones at the top of the Moroccan succession are about 560 million years old.

  V. 15. attrib.: succession bath, a bath in which hot and cold water are used in succession (Cent. Dict.); succession-crop, a crop of some plant coming in succession to another; succession duty, a duty assessed upon succession to estate; succession flowers, a crop of flowers following an earlier crop; succession house, one of a series of forcing-houses having regularly graded temperatures into which plants are moved in succession; so succession-pine; succession powder (F. poudre de succession), a poison supposed to have been made of lead acetate; succession state, a state which comes into existence after the overthrow or division of a previous state (used orig. of those states which succeeded the dismembered Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1919); succession tax, a tax similar to succession duty; succession war = ‘war of succession’ (see 5).

1864 Mrs. A. Gatty Parab. fr. Nat. 21 A narrow slip..for *succession-crops of mustard and cress.

1853 Act 16 & 17 Vict. c. 51 §45 The Commissioners..may assess the *Succession Duty on the Footing of such Account and Estimate. Ibid. 55 This Act may be cited for all Purposes as ‘The Succession Duty Act, 1853’. 1894 Act 57 & 58 Vict. c. 30 §18 (2) The principal value of real property for the purpose of succession duty shall be ascertained in the same manner.

1841 Florist's Jrnl. (1846) II. 25 Some amends is, however, made for this, in the readiness with which the *succession-flowers come on.

1792 C. Smith Desmond II. 93 An immense range of forcing and *succession houses. 1798 Jane Austen Northang. Abb. (1833) II. vii. 147 How were Mr. Allen's succession-houses worked? 1857 A. Marsh Rose Ashurst I. iii. 77 He went on, opening succession house after succession house. We ended by the garden door at which we had entered.

1786 Abercrombie Gard. Assist. 59 Young *succession pines—or last years crowns and suckers retained in nursery bark pits or beds.

a 1821 Mrs. Piozzi in A. Hayward Autobiogr., Lett. & Lit. Remains Mrs. Piozzi (1861) I. 356 In Italy it was supposed to have been the *succession powder mingled with chocolate whilst in the cake, not in the liquid we drink. Acqua Toffana, and succession powder (polvere per successione) were administered, as I have heard, with certain although ill-understood effects. 1824 Ld. J. Russell Mem. Aff. Europe I. 192 The Countess of Soissons..Being accused of having bought some of the poison, called by the dealers succession powder. 1846 A. Amos Great Oyer Poisoning 347 In more modern times the like powers have been attributed to the Aqua Tophana, and the Succession Powder.

1924 *Succession state [see nationalistically adv.]. 1943 C. Hollingworth German just behind Me ii. 14 Like Romania it [sc. Yugoslavia] is a ‘Succession State’. 1973 Times Lit. Suppl. 23 Mar. 318/2 Now that the breakaway of Bangladesh has effected a second partition of the Indo-Pakistani subcontinent, there has been renewed interest in all three succession states in the long-standing controversy over whether the first partition was either inevitable or necessary.

1858 Bright Sp., Reform 27 Oct. (1869) 281 A law to impose a *Succession-tax.

a 1823 Penney Linlithgowshire (1832) 151 This barony was probably forfeited during the *succession war. 1867 Chambers' Encycl. IX. 177/2 Succession wars were of frequent occurrence in Europe, between the middle of the 17th and the middle of the 18th centuries, on the occasion of the failure of a sovereign house.

Oxford English Dictionary