ANOTHER BRAKE: "ABSURD" SUCCESSION PRACTICES...

TO PREVENT THE RISE OF POWERFUL DYNASTIES,
 STOP THE TRANSMISSION OF WEALTH

-- "Absurd:" 
Anne Raffenel, Voyage en Afrique occidentale, 1846, 280

• Throughout Africa until about 1800
kings cannot leave their wealth to sons,
which encourages them to distribute it
and keeps monarchies weak. 

Succession practices differ,
but have the same effect 

° Succession goes from brother to brother, and since a "vicious principle" extends the term to cousins, it is "impossible that he who governs not be of an advanced age" (on the Senegal and Middle Niger).

-- Raffenel

° Reigns last only two years (in Futa Toro, Senegal)

° Succession struggles disperse treasure (in Borgu, Nigeria).

° When a local chief dies his wives, slaves and horses are sent to his superior (in Mossi, Burkina Faso).

° A ruler's death brings generalized pillaging (in Bonduku and Anno, Ivory Coast).

° A king's riches are buried with him (in Ashanti, Ghana).

° A ruler's favorite wife destroys all he owns and then takes poison herself (in Oyo, Nigeria),

 -- Lander tells of the wife of an Oyo chief who tries to survive: 1832, I, 112

For the other references: Aubin, 473-4, n.148-156

 • Elsewhere? 

The death of Sardonopolus by Eugene Delacroix, 1827, Louvre

An Assyrian king has all his property destroyed, including horses, wives and concubines, before committing suicide.

That Old Testament drama may -- or may not -- be connected with succession. But it is probably a clue to underlying change of some kind, because such stories are rarely remembered unless they point so something deeper.   

That there be no study
of the tie between succession practices 
and the rise of strong kingship in Europe
seems impossible. 

But most historians seem unaware
of the interest of such a question. 

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Next,
For kings of medieval Europe, comparable containment