Editing Heir apparent (section)

=== Daughters in male-preference primogeniture ===
{{main|Male heir|Son preference}}
Daughters (and their lines) may inherit titles that descend according to male-preference primogeniture, but only in default of sons (and their heirs).  That is, both female and male offspring have the right to a place somewhere in the order of succession, but when it comes to what that place is, a female will rank behind her brothers regardless of their ages or her age.

Thus, normally, even an only daughter will not be an heiress apparent, since at any time a brother might be born who, though younger, would assume that position. Hence, she is an heiress presumptive. For example, [[Elizabeth II|Queen Elizabeth II]] was the heiress presumptive during the reign of her father, [[George VI|King George VI]]; had George fathered a legitimate son, then that child would have displaced Elizabeth in the line of succession and become heir apparent.

However, a granddaughter could for example be an heiress apparent if she were the only daughter of the deceased eldest son of the sovereign (e.g. Queen Elizabeth II would have been the heiress apparent to George V if her oldest uncle and father both had died before their father).