The Roman Empire is the clearest example of adoption used deliberately to choose capable successors:
Nerva → Trajan
Nerva adopted Trajan, a respected general, who became emperor in 98 CE.
Trajan → Hadrian
Hadrian was adopted (likely on Trajan’s deathbed) and succeeded him.
Hadrian → Antoninus Pius → Marcus Aurelius
A chain of adoptions: Hadrian adopted Antoninus, who in turn adopted Marcus Aurelius.
👉 This era is often called the “Five Good Emperors,” largely because merit-based adoption worked better than hereditary succession.
Difficult to create a successor that way, which is the core function of marriage in a monarchy.
Or they could go hypermonarchist and have the child be genetically engineered from both parents.
That would have made the Middle Ages really weird.
I think this is how you end up with the Hungarian Kwisatz-Haderach.
The paprika must flow
This is the Habsburgs, they can afford a surrogate
I see someone hasnt watched Young Royals
The Romans made it work, though. From ChatGPT:
And it ended because the stoic guy couldn’t suck it up and just adopt someone better than his biological son.