Succession

When the cyning dies, abdicates the throne, or becomes too infirm to rule, the ierfenuma - designated heir - succeeds them. If there is not an ierfenuma, a witenagemot - a meeting of the witan, select powerful and influential æþelingas and clergy - is called to select the new cyning. The witan may also assemble to select an ierfenuma, or several with designated priority, before the cyninges death if it appears that continuity of cynedom might be vital and the cyning might be in danger of sudden and unexpected death - war on the horizon being historically the most common reason for that.

The witenagemot chooses the new cyning or ierfenuma by vote, nominally a voice vote in open council, though the actual decision is typically made by back-room negotiations before the official public vote. The appearance of unity given by a single vote that provides one candidate with a clear and overwhelming majority is generally considered good for the strength and peace of the cynerice.

Until the brief reign of Ithamar Landleas, a candidate needed only gain the largest portion of the vote, but after the bloody chaos resulting from Ithamar's bare plurality and lack of ability, his successor, his sister Siflæd Isenhand, commanded the rules be changed to require an actual majority of the witenagemot to name an ierfa. It's not entirely clear that the cyning or cwene has the lawful power to alter the workings of the witenagemot in that manner, but by that point, after two years of bloody civil war resulting from the contested succession, that Siflæd ended through main force ruthlessly applied, no one with any sense was going to try to tell her "no".

The witenagemot can, in theory, select any æþelboren adult as the next cyning or cwene. In practice, they seldom select from outside the late cyninges immediate family, and even more rarely venture outside the Eahlene, the line of the first cyning, Ida se Ærest. They prefer to respect the will of the late cyning, but they're not actually bound to by anything beyond common politeness.

There's no legal distinction between weremenn and wifmenn, so far as eligibility goes, but the witenagemot historically has preferred males. This is changing as the witan age and the more conservative ones die off, though.

Upon the cyninges death, disability, or abdication, the ierfenuma, newly selected or otherwise, proceeds to Idasmynster in Nearubæc, and on the steps of the cathedral that Ida se Ærest ordered built, he is raised upon a shield supported by his fighting-men and hailed cyning by the folc gathered on the green. By tradition older than Christ, older than Eahland itself, dating back to the days when the Eahlcynn were a multitude of scattered þeodas in the lake-lands far west of Eahland, that is the moment that he actually becomes cyning, and the subsequent anointing with sacred oils and placing of the Isen Cynehelm upon his head by the Heahbiscop of Nearubæc are mere formalities, of no more real importance than the party afterwards.