History SuccessionCrisis / RealLife

** In the modern day, the constitution Japan adopted after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII[[note]]at the [[GunboatDiplomacy gentle urging]] of the [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks United States]][[/note]] limits possible heirs to the Chrysanthemum Throne to [[HeirClubForMen male-line]] descendants of Hirohito (Emperor Shōwa) or his three (now deceased) younger brothers, of whom only the youngest, Takahito, Prince Mikasa, had children. The real problems started once all three of Prince Mikasa's sons passed, with one of them childless and the other two leaving only daughters. Hirohito had 2 sons, but the younger is childless, while the elder (Akihito, who became Emperor upon Hirohito's death in 1989) had only female grandchildren until 2006 when Prince Hisahito was born. This means that, before the birth of Hisahito, there were a grand total of '''6''' people in the line of succession, with none under the age of 40[[note]]Compare this to the [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishRoyalFamily Crown of Great Britain]], which has about 5,000 people in the line of succession[[/note]]. There were many discussions of changing the rules of succession to either allow empresses regnant -- Japan ''has'' had female rulers in the past, most recently Empress Go-Sakuramachi from 1762 to 1771 -- or allow for princesses of the blood to pass claim to the throne to their sons. Hisahito's birth has put a damper on those discussions for now, but the issue is likely to surface again, especially as the Imperial Family themselves have (quietly) made known their displeasure about the immense pressures the Imperial Household Agency puts on them. Severely limiting the size of the Imperial Family means that very few people can share those duties. Akihito (Emperor Emeritus, who will be known posthumously as Emperor Heisei) was the first to abdicate from the Chrysanthemum Throne in over two hundred years on April 30, 2019, making way for his son, the current emperor Naruhito (Emperor Reiwa, though this would only be his title posthumously).

* Since 2005, there has been an ongoing dispute over the succession to the throne of the Balobedu people of South Africa. When Queen Makobo Modjadji died, the throne was expected to pass to her daughter, Princess Masalanabo. However, conflicts within the royal family, including the infant princess being stolen by a man claiming to be her father, made the intended succession difficult, as the princess being kept away from the royal family meant she missed training vital for the position. As such, the royal council secretly appointed her older brother, Prince Lekukela, as heir and began training him. Because it was kept secret this led the public to believe Masalanabo would become queen at the age of 18, as the throne had been matrilineal for the past 200 years, even to the point of being officially recognized as such by the South African government in 2016. The announcement of Lekukela has caused a rift among the Balobedu, as some support Lekuleka and others support Masalanabo and a legal team working on Masalananbo's behalf is planning to challenge Lekukela's intended succession, which was scheduled for October 2022. While a coronation did intend take place, the following year, the Royal Council announced they would support Masalanbo and so she is scheduled to be crowned as queen in August 2023. Whether her coronation will resolve the crisis remains to be seen.

** The 1824 election was a four-way race in which UsefulNotes/AndrewJackson won a plurality of both the popular vote (41 percent)[[note]]Though with 6 out of the 24 states at the time not actually holding a vote and instead having their state legislatures pick the winner, a true nationwide popular vote didn't actually exist yet.[[/note]] and in the electoral college (99 votes), but not an absolute majority in the latter. Under the Twelfth Amendment, it now fell on the House of Representatives to decide on the new president. It elected UsefulNotes/JohnQuincyAdams, who had come second in the popular vote (31 percent) and in the electoral college (84 votes). This was denounced by Jackson and his supporters as a "Corrupt Bargain", as it was widely believed that Adams had struck a deal with fourth-placed candidate UsefulNotes/HenryClay, whom he appointed as his Secretary of State.[[note]]Though since Congress is only allowed to choose from among the top three candidates and thus Clay was already out of the running, it's just as likely that he threw his support behind Adams [[WeWinBecauseYouDidnt simply to deny Jackson the victory]].[[/note]] All this led to the split of the Democratic-Republican party and the election of Andrew Jackson in 1828.

* When Brazil's first Emperor (Dom Pedro the First) inherited the throne of Portugal, he had to choose between remaining Emperor of Brazil or becoming Dom Pedro the Fourth, King of Portugal, because the Brazilians, not wanting to return to being second-class citizens as a mere colony of Portugal, demanded a separate monarchy. He decided to stay in Brazil and pass the Portuguese crown to his daughter, Maria the Second. Unfortunately, her uncle Miguel managed to usurp the throne, and Pedro returned to Portugal to rescue her and restore her to the position. Upon leaving, he abdicated the Brazilian throne in favor of his son Dom Pedro de Alcântara, who'd later become known as [[UsefulNotes/PedroII Dom Pedro the Second]]. Because Pedro II was still a minor when Pedro I abdicated, the Empire of Brazil was ruled by regents until he was deemed ready to rule. During that time, republicans attempted to show Brazil that it didn't need a monarch. At first, there was a trio of regents; then another trio; then a regent being the sole ruler; then another one; and then the Government decided to declare Pedro the Second an adult so he could rule in his own right despite being only fourteen years old. Forty-some years later, a coup d'etat by some rich landowners ended his rule (despite overwhelming support by the general public, Pedro II refused to contest the coup, peacefully abdicating because he didn't want anyone to die fighting for him), and Brazil has been a republic ever since. Even after the abolition of the monarchy, there is still a dispute over who the rightful claimant is. Pedro II was succeeded as pretender by his only surviving child, his daughter Isabel. Isabel's eldest son Pedro de Alcântara renounced his rights after contracting an unequal marriage, so upon Isabel's death, she was succeeded as claimant by Pedro Henrique, the elder son of her deceased second son Luís. However, upon Pedro de Alcântara's death, his son Pedro Gastão claimed the right as head under the argument that his father's renunciation was invalid. The claim is currently disputed between Pedro Henrique's son Luiz and Pedro Gastão's son Pedro Carlos. As for Portugal, they became a Republic and after the death of the last monarch, Maria II's great-grandson Manuel II, it would be Miguel's descendants who became the claimants to the throne.

** The 1824 election was a four-way race in which UsefulNotes/AndrewJackson won a plurality of both the popular vote (41 percent)[[note]]Though with 6 out of the 24 states at the time not actually holding a vote and instead having their state legislatures pick the winner, a true nationwide popular vote didn't actually exist yet.[[/note]] and in the electoral college (99 votes), but not an absolute majority in the latter. Under the Twelfth Amendment, it now fell on the House of Representatives to decide on the new president. It elected UsefulNotes/JohnQuincyAdams, who had come second in the popular vote (31 percent) and in the electoral college (84 votes). This was denounced by Jackson and his supporters as a "Corrupt Bargain", as it was widely believed that Adams had struck a deal with fourth-placed candidate UsefulNotes/HenryClay, whom he appointed as his Secretary of State. All this led to the split of the Democratic-Republican party and the election of Andrew Jackson in 1828.

** UsefulNotes/WoodrowWilson suffered a debilitating stroke towards the end of his term. The ad hoc arrangement used to address his incapacity -- the VP picked up some duties while Wilson worked on whatever his wife Edith felt he was up to handling that day, with the whole situation kept secret from the public -- raised serious concerns about unelected shadow government. The TwentyFifthAmendment, which set out detailed rules for Presidential succession in case of death, illness, or other incapacity, was designed to keep delegation of powers above board. It also provides for the appointment of a new VP any time the office becomes vacant, so that the President is never without their primary successor. US law has also codified a line of succession 18 people deep (who by tradition are never allowed to gather at a single function; at least one "designated survivor" is always to be absent) to ensure such a crisis won't happen in the future. If anyone other than the Vice President succeeds to the Presidency, under the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 [3 USC § 19], he or she would "act as President", in the words of the act, unless and until such time as someone qualifies for the presidency constitutionally (e.g., through election). The act uses the title "Acting President". For reference, the Speaker of the House is next in line after the Vice President, followed by the President pro tempore of the Senate, followed by the Cabinet secretaries in the order their departments were established [[note]]Potential successors still must satisfy the Article II requirements for taking the office (i.e., be a natural-born US citizen at least 35 years old and have resided in the US for the past 14 years) -- every president since UsefulNotes/BillClinton has had at least one secretary who was born overseas and were/are skipped over for the purposes of presidential succession[[/note]].

** In 1973 the Speaker of the House, next in the line of succession after Nixon and Agnew, was Democrat Carl Albert (Nixon, Agnew, Ford, and Rockefeller were all Republicans). Albert was the one to advocate for Ford as Agnew's replacement, as Nixon was already deeply embroiled in the Watergate scandal, and the Senate was prepared to vote for removal from office if the House could pass the Articles of Impeachment. By ensuring that Nixon would NOT be replaced by a Democrat, Albert gained enough Republican support to begin impeachment proceedings. It was only then, once impeachment and removal had become inevitable, that Nixon resigned.

* The Soviet Union also suffered this towards the end of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, eventually contributing to its dissolution. Or rather, it was a crisis of reassignment of powers between the union center and the constituent republics; some of the latter, pushed by growing separatist movements, demanded more powers reassigned to them from the union center. The fall itself happened when the Russian Federation, the central republic, jumped on the separatist bandwagon, leaving the union center the center of exactly nothing.
* Historian Simon Schaama has interpreted the Restoration in England in this way -- UsefulNotes/CharlesII became king not because England needed a successor for UsefulNotes/CharlesI, but because it needed one for UsefulNotes/OliverCromwell and Cromwell's own son wasn't up to the job.
* A Canadian example occurred when Sir John A. Macdonald, the first [[UsefulNotes/CanadianPrimeMinisters Prime Minister of Canada]], died in office just after being reelected in 1891. Macdonald had dominated his Conservative party for so long that when he died, there was no immediate successor. From 1891 to 1896, the Conservative party had four separate leaders, who each became Prime Minister in turn. Sir John Abbott eventually resigned when he got tired of the job, Sir John Thompson came to be seen as Macdonald's natural successor but died in office, Sir Mackenzie Bowell was forced out of office by a Cabinet revolt, and Sir Charles Tupper eventually took over in the last few months of the Conservatives' mandate. By the time of the 1896 election, the Conservative party was so damaged that it was said that "not even Sir Charles Tupper could put it back together again." Wilfrid Laurier and the Liberal party won the 1896 election handily, and Laurier would serve as Prime Minister until 1910. There ''was'' one more crisis before power was handed over to Laurier, when Tupper actually refused to step down as Prime Minister, claiming that only the Conservatives had the ability to rule the country... however, this one was quite easily dealt with, when the Governor-General simply threatened to have Tupper arrested if he refused to leave his position. Tupper, for his part, thought the Governor-General's actions were unconstitutional but ultimately relented.

* The reason for the split between [[UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} Sunni and Shi'a Islam]] was a dispute over who should have succeeded Muhammad as Caliph. The Shi'ites only recognize the short reigns of Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law Ali, who they felt should have been Muhammad's direct successor, and his son Hassan, while the Sunnis recognize Ali and the three Caliphs who preceded him.

** The 1824 election was a four-way race in which UsefulNotes/AndrewJackson won a plurality of both the popular vote (41 percent)[[note]]Though with 6 out of the 24 states at the time not actually holding a vote and instead having their state legislatures pick the winner, a true nationwide popular vote didn't actually exist yet.[[/note]] and in the electoral college (99 votes), but not an absolute majority in the latter. Under the Twelfth Amendment, it now fell on the House of Representatives to decide on the new president. It elected UsefulNotes/JohnQuincyAdams, who had come second in the popular vote (31 percent) and in the electoral college (84 votes). This was denounced by Jackson and his supporters as a "Corrupt Bargain", as it was widely believed that Adams had struck a deal with fourth-placed candidate UsefulNotes/HenryClay, whom he appointed as his Secretary of State. All this led to the split of the Democratic-Republican party and the election of Andrew Jackson in 1828.

** UsefulNotes/WoodrowWilson suffered a debilitating stroke towards the end of his term. The ad hoc arrangement used to address his incapacity -- the VP picked up some duties while Wilson worked on whatever his wife Edith felt he was up to handling that day, with the whole situation kept secret from the public -- raised serious concerns about unelected shadow government. The TwentyFifthAmendment, which set out detailed rules for Presidential succession in case of death, illness, or other incapacity, was designed to keep delegation of powers above board. It also provides for the appointment of a new VP any time the office becomes vacant, so that the President is never without their primary successor. US law has also codified a line of succession 18 people deep (who by tradition are never allowed to gather at a single function; at least one "designated survivor" is always to be absent) to ensure such a crisis won't happen in the future. If anyone other than the Vice President succeeds to the Presidency, under the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 [3 USC § 19], he or she would "act as President", in the words of the act, unless and until such time as someone qualifies for the presidency constitutionally (e.g., through election). The act uses the title "Acting President". For reference, the Speaker of the House is next in line after the Vice President, followed by the President pro tempore of the Senate, followed by the Cabinet secretaries in the order their departments were established [[note]]Potential successors still must satisfy the Article II requirements for taking the office (i.e., be a natural-born US citizen at least 35 years old and have resided in the US for the past 14 years) -- every president since UsefulNotes/BillClinton has had at least one secretary who was born overseas and were/are skipped over for the purposes of presidential succession[[/note]].

** In 1973 the Speaker of the House, next in the line of succession after Nixon and Agnew, was Democrat Carl Albert (Nixon, Agnew, Ford, and Rockefeller were all Republicans). Albert was the one to advocate for Ford as Agnew's replacement, as Nixon was already deeply embroiled in the Watergate scandal, and the Senate was prepared to vote for removal from office if the House could pass the Articles of Impeachment. By ensuring that Nixon would NOT be replaced by a Democrat, Albert gained enough Republican support to begin impeachment proceedings. It was only then, once impeachment and removal had become inevitable, that Nixon resigned.

* The Soviet Union also suffered this towards the end of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, eventually contributing to its dissolution. Or rather, it was a crisis of reassignment of powers between the union center and the constituent republics; some of the latter, pushed by growing separatist movements, demanded more powers reassigned to them from the union center. The fall itself happened when the Russian Federation, the central republic, jumped on the separatist bandwagon, leaving the union center the center of exactly nothing.
* Historian Simon Schaama has interpreted the Restoration in England in this way -- UsefulNotes/CharlesII became king not because England needed a successor for UsefulNotes/CharlesI, but because it needed one for UsefulNotes/OliverCromwell and Cromwell's own son wasn't up to the job.
* A Canadian example occurred when Sir John A. Macdonald, the first [[UsefulNotes/CanadianPrimeMinisters Prime Minister of Canada]], died in office just after being reelected in 1891. Macdonald had dominated his Conservative party for so long that when he died, there was no immediate successor. From 1891 to 1896, the Conservative party had four separate leaders, who each became Prime Minister in turn. Sir John Abbott eventually resigned when he got tired of the job, Sir John Thompson came to be seen as Macdonald's natural successor but died in office, Sir Mackenzie Bowell was forced out of office by a Cabinet revolt, and Sir Charles Tupper eventually took over in the last few months of the Conservatives' mandate. By the time of the 1896 election, the Conservative party was so damaged that it was said that "not even Sir Charles Tupper could put it back together again." Wilfrid Laurier and the Liberal party won the 1896 election handily, and Laurier would serve as Prime Minister until 1910. There ''was'' one more crisis before power was handed over to Laurier, when Tupper actually refused to step down as Prime Minister, claiming that only the Conservatives had the ability to rule the country... however, this one was quite easily dealt with, when the Governor-General simply threatened to have Tupper arrested if he refused to leave his position. Tupper, for his part, thought the Governor-General's actions were unconstitutional but ultimately relented.

* The reason for the split between [[UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} Sunni and Shi'a Islam]] was a dispute over who should have succeeded Muhammad as Caliph. The Shi'ites only recognize the short reigns of Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law Ali, who they felt should have been Muhammad's direct successor, and his son Hassan, while the Sunnis recognize Ali and the three Caliphs who preceded him.

*** This Catholic view was one of the thorns in UsefulNotes/ElizabethI's side as she dealt with her own succession crisis: there were few potential heirs to her throne because most of them either disqualified themselves in some way (for example, both Katherine and Mary Grey, sisters of Jane Grey, were struck from the succession because they both married without Elizabeth's permission, which under law they needed as princesses of the blood) or were children, the most likely heir, Mary, Queen of Scots, was also the most troublesome because of her Catholic faith (and complicating things was that as far as the Catholics were concerned, Mary was the ''real'' Queen of England because they didn't recognize Elizabeth as a legitimate heir) and Elizabeth refused to solve the crisis the simple way by marrying and having children herself because she didn't want to share her power with a man. It's very possible this problem was why it took nearly twenty years for Elizabeth to consent to Mary's death: to get time for a more suitable heir-Mary's son James, who was raised Protestant-to come of age.

** Re. the War of the Spanish Succession: the Spanish Habsburgs bred themselves into extinction by [[RoyalInbreeding a series of incestuous marriages]], with [[RoyallyScrewedUp Charles II]] being the last of the line, leading to rival claimants backed by France (Philip V Bourbon, Duke of Anjou, second son of Louis, Grand Dauphin, himself son and heir of Louis XIV of France, who was married to the half-sister of Charles II), Austria (Archduke Charles, second son of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, who was married to Charles II's full sister, though Archduke Charles was from a subsequent marriage but still was descended from the Spanish Habsburgs), and an Anglo-Dutch alliance (Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria, great nephew of Charles II, was their first choice, but when he keeled over, they decided the Austrians were less threatening). The Anglo-Dutch for a while supported Charles of Habsburg, but when his elder brother Joseph I died, this made Charles the new Emperor, and they did not want him to rule both the Holy Roman Empire and Spain. So, when the dust finally settled, Philip got to keep the throne of Spain on condition that he renounce any claim to the throne of France (the current king of Spain, Felipe VI, is a direct descendant). So instead of becoming King Charles III of Spain, Archduke Charles became Emperor Charles VI -- and since he had no son, his death would directly lead to the UsefulNotes/WarOfTheAustrianSuccession.

*** Under rules set down by Benedict XVI, conclaves go to a runoff between the top two candidates if no Pope is elected after 32 ballots. John Paul had earlier established rules that after 32 ballots the number of votes needed to be elected Pope dropped from 2/3 to a simple majority. Benedict reinstated the 2/3 vote requirement but introduced the runoff system that if not changed by Francis will be used for future papal elections.

* Historian Simon Schaama has interpreted the Restoration in England in this way -- Charles II became king not because England needed a successor for Charles I, but because it needed one for UsefulNotes/OliverCromwell and Cromwell's own son wasn't up to the job.

* Another Canadian example was the King-Byng Affair in 1926. William Mackenzie King's Liberal government was reduced to second-largest after the previous year's election but clung onto power via an agreement with the third-largest party, the Progressives. The agreement eventually fell apart after a bribery scandal, and King asked the Governor-General, Lord Byng, to call an election so as to let the public decide on whether the Liberals should continue to govern. However, Byng refused to do this, and instead threw the Liberals out of power and installed Conservative leader Arthur Meighen as the new Prime Minister. This naturally resulted in a huge firestorm between those who considered Byng's actions an affront to democracy, and those (including Byng himself) who thought that the Conservatives should have been allowed to form a government after the previous election, and that the Liberals and Progressives had entered into a corrupt bargain. King decided to force the issue and immediately called a vote of no confidence in the new Conservative government, which they lost, and the Liberals won the new election that followed, albeit just barely, and still without a majority. The mess could potentially have dragged on further had the smaller parties chosen to back the Conservatives, but in a stroke of fate, Meighen actually lost his own seat and was quickly ousted as the party's leader, leaving them in no condition to govern.

* Throughout its (long) history, UsefulNotes/AncientEgypt had its share of crisis. Possibly the most prominent was the death of Tutankhamun at the age of 19. Since he had no children, inheritance would default to his sister-wife Ankhesenamun, meaning whoever married her would be able to declare themselves pharaoh without issue, something that was not lost on anyone in the court. Dreading the prospect of having to marry any of these men, she sent a message to the Emperor of the Hittites to send one of his younger sons to marry her. As this would've essentially made Egypt a client state of the Hittite Empire (considered Egypt's archenemy at the time), this was the one thing the whole court could agree could not be allowed to happen. At any rate, the Hittite prince never made it to Egypt (either having died along the way or been murdered), essentially rendering the issue moot. Ultimately, Ay, the former vizier to both Tut and his father, won out, though he didn't live long enough to produce any heirs, and from there, the chief general of the army, Horemheb, took the throne. Unfortunately, he also didn't end up producing an heir either and left the throne to his longtime friend and lieutenant, Ramses, who already had a son, and a [[UsefulNotes/RamsesII grandson]].

* In the U.S. state of Georgia, there was the Three Governors controversy from 1946-1947. The governor-elect, Eugene Talmadge, had died before he could take office. There was debate over who should become governor. The outgoing governor, Ellis Arnall, believed that he should stay in office until the successor was properly sworn in. Melvin E. Thompson, who was elected to the newly created office of Lieutenant Governor, believed he should succeed to the office of Governor. Talmadge's supporters, who were unsure of his chances of surviving to take office, concluded from the state constitution that if the governor-elect died, the Georgia General Assembly would choose the successor from the runners-up. Since Talmadge was unopposed, they secretly put in write-in votes for Talmadge's son, Herman Talmadge. Thompson wanted the election results to be certified, which would give him the stronger claim, but Herman Talmadge's supporters postponed the certification and he was elected by the General Assembly on January 15, 1947. Both Arnall and Thompson protested the decision, with Thompson appealing to the State Supreme Court and Arnall physically refusing to leave office. When Talmadge took control of the governor's office and changed the locks, Arnall ended his claim in favor of Thompson. In March of the year, the State Supreme Court ruled that the Assembly violated the constitution by electing Talmadge and said that Thompson was the rightful governor. They said that a special election would be held in November 1948 to serve the remainder of the term. Talmadge gave up the governorship to Thompson but later beat him in the special election.

** Historians have also theorized that Rudolf shot himself (among other reasons) because he thought he wouldn't live to inherit the throne anyway - Franz Joseph lived to be 86, by which time Rudolf would have been 58, an old man, probably senile. (In addition to suffering from the aforementioned gonorrhea, he supposedly ''did'' inherit the much-vaunted "Wittelsbach madness" from his mother Elisabeth, who was [[KissingCousins first cousin]] to his father.) In this scenario, the succession crisis was inevitable.

* Speaking of Portugal, a SuccessionCrisis began when the young King Sebastian, who succeeded to the throne after the death of his grandfather John III, disappeared in a battle. As Sebastian had no children, his heir was his great-uncle Henry, the brother of John III. Since Henry was the fifth son of John III's predecessor King Manuel I, he joined the church due to his remote chances of succeeding to the throne and became a Cardinal, which naturally meant he was unmarried and without children. Henry attempted to renounce his Church orders and hoped to marry so as to continue the dynasty, but Pope Gregory XIII, who was allied with UsefulNotes/PhilipII of Spain, who was son of John III and Henry's sister Isabella, as well as maternal uncle to the last King Sebastian, refused to allow this, so when Henry died two years later, the succession was disputed. Philip II sought the crown, as did António, Prior of Crato, illegitimate son of Manuel I's second son Luís, Infanta Catherine, Duchess of Braganza, daughter of Manuel I's sixth son Edward, Ranuccio Farnese, Hereditary Duke of Parma, Catherine's nephew by her late older sister, and Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, the son of Manuel I's second daughter Beatrice. Ranuccio was the senior heir by primogeniture; however, his father UsefulNotes/AlexanderFarnese, Duke of Parma, was an ally and subject of King Philip, so his claim was set aside. Infanta Catherine, whose claim was strengthened by the fact that her husband João I, Duke of Braganza, was not only a male-line descendent of an illegitimate son of King John I, but was also a great-grandson of Manuel I's sister Isabella, saw some support but was dismissed due to her gender and distant claim. Emmanuel also was dismissed as he saw that his chances were slim compared to King Philip II, indisputably the most powerful claimant. He managed to get the Portuguese nobility on his side and many favored a union with Spain given that the Spanish Empire was at its peak while the Portuguese Empire was in financial crisis. Antonio, who had previously claimed the crown after Sebastian's disappearance, but was passed over in favor of Henry due to his illegitimacy, declared himself king, but he was only recognized in the Azores and was subsequently defeated and sent into exile. Felipe's dynasty would rule Portugal for 60 years until the union of Spain and Portugal was broken and John IV, the grandson of Catherine, Duchess of Braganza, was made king.

** Another one happened towards the end of the UsefulNotes/SengokuJidai, after UsefulNotes/ToyotomiHideyoshi died and left a five-year-old heir, Hideyori. This led to Hideyoshi's former ally UsefulNotes/TokugawaIeyasu seizing power and decisively ending the Sengoku Jidai by establishing the Tokugawa Shogunate. Which might have been inevitable anyway; Tokugawa was descended from the [[BlueBlood Minamoto clan]] and thus was able to install himself as shogun in his own right, while Hideyoshi, on account of being a commoner, could only be kampaku (regent to a puppet shogun). Unlike his father, Hideyori actually had aristocratic lineage, as his mother, Yodo-dono, was maternally a member of the Oda clan (her mother was the sister of UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga), making him a descendant of the equally aristocratic Taira clan, but this wasn't enough for him to get deposed by the Tokugawa.