Sa·lic law

(sā′lĭk, săl′ĭk)

1. The legal code of the Salian Franks.

2. A law, thought to derive from the code of laws of the Salian Franks, prohibiting a woman from succeeding to a throne.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Salic law

1. (Historical Terms)

a. the code of laws of the Salic Franks and other Germanic tribes

b. a law within this code excluding females from inheritance

2. (Historical Terms) a law excluding women from succession to the throne in certain countries, such as France and Spain

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

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Noun

Salic law - the code of laws of the Salian Franks and other German tribes

legal code - a code of laws adopted by a state or nation; "a code of laws"

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References in classic literature

â€œYes, yes, to the women, I know,â€ said Richard, â€œthat is your Salic law. I read, sir, all kinds of books; of France, as well as England; of Greece, as well as Rome.

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Under Salic law, the heir apparent was Henri of Bourbon, and Catholic fears of a Huguenot succession led Henry's Catholic subjects to rebel and the Guise plot against him.

Hero or Tyrant? Henry III, King of France, 1574-89

On the contrary, a separate law of succession, which provided for inheritance by Salic law (preventing females from inheriting), continued to apply in Hanover.

Royal Succession, Abdication, and Regency in the Realms

This is followed by an analysis of Salic law and the nature of political influence that this constructed for women in France.

Catherine de Medicis and others, Portraits of the Queen Mother: Polemics, Panegyrics, Letters

For example, in discussing the relative lag in women's political representation in France and the dearth of women at the top, they fail to mention the influence of France's Salic Law, which for centuries was thought to prohibit women from inheriting the throne--though historians now suspect this claim to have been fraudulent.

Women, power, and politics

Some examples include: Alcuin of York, Lombards, Donatism, Peasants, Salic Law, and more.

The early medieval world; from the fall of Rome to the time of Charlemagne; 2v

And yet there are some very interesting discussions in Shakespeare of the seemingly more mundane sense of geography, pertaining to place or the world in a more limited sense, such as the Salic law in Henry V or the geopolitical tensions that constrain the Denmark of Hamlet.

Monica Matei-Chesnoiu, Re-Imagining Western European Geography in English Renaissance Drama

For though Salic law prevented the empress from inheriting the throne, McQueen argues that Eugenie used the visual arts as the primary means to establish an autonomous position beyond that of consort.

Empress Maria Theresa and the Politics of Habsburg Imperial Art

Just if Salic Law had not prevented it, and Queen Victoria II, not King Edward VII, had inherited the throne of England in 1901.

Tragic fall-out of royal successions; LETTERS