Salic law

Salic law was a body of Frankish law, traditionally associated with the Salian Franks, that later supplied a precedent for excluding women and their descendants from the French succession.

Salian Franks: A group of Frankish peoples who settled in parts of the Lower Rhine region and formed a kingdom under the Merovingians. The law takes its name from this Frankish group.
Salic inheritance law: The provisions of Lex Salica governing inheritance, including a rule that excluded women from inheriting certain family lands. This land-inheritance provision became the textual basis for later royal claims.
Louis X of France: King of France from 1314 until his death in 1316, whose daughter Joan was excluded from the succession to the crown. His death without a surviving son opened the succession dispute that tested female inheritance.
Isabella of France: A daughter of Philip IV of France who became queen consort of England and mother of Edward III. Her position as Edward III’s mother made female-line descent central to his French claim.
Cognatic succession: A succession system that permits inheritance through both male and female lines. It would have allowed claims transmitted through women, unlike the French rule.
Merovingian dynasty: The dynasty that ruled much of the Frankish world from the fifth to the eighth century. The law’s early compilation belongs to the Merovingian Frankish setting.
Allodial land: Land held as private property rather than as a fief granted by a superior. The original exclusion concerned inheritance of particular kinds of family land.
Joan II of Navarre: Queen of Navarre from 1328 to 1349 and daughter of Louis X of France. Her exclusion from the French crown contrasted with her inheritance of Navarre.
Edward III of England: King of England from 1327 to 1377 and a claimant to the French crown through his mother, Isabella of France. His claim tested whether a woman could transmit a right she could not inherit.
Semi-Salic law: A succession rule allowing women to inherit only when no eligible male-line heirs remain. It differs from strict Salic exclusion by admitting female succession as a last resort.

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