We may suspect that they are based on a practice
actually observed for a definite reason in certain special
circumstances. Now in countries where the royal blood was traced
through women only, and where consequently the king held office
merely in virtue of his marriage with an hereditary princess, who
was the real sovereign, it appears to have often happened that a
prince married his own sister, the princess royal, in order to
obtain with her hand the crown which otherwise would have gone to
another man, perhaps to a stranger. May not the same rule of descent
have furnished a motive for incest with a daughter? For it seems a
natural corollary from such a rule that the king was bound to vacate
the throne on the death of his wife, the queen, since he occupied it
only by virtue of his marriage with her. When that marriage
terminated, his right to the throne terminated with it and passed at
once to his daughter's husband. Hence if the king desired to reign
after his wife's death, the only way in which he could legitimately
continue to do so was by marrying his daughter, and thus prolonging
through her the title which had formerly been his through her
mother.
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