Survival of the fittest

[M.Sjostrom]

Primogeniture also came because lifespans of rulers
and magnates lengthened. Better health and nutrition,
but also very importantly, their personal
participation in violent activities decreased and they
were better-protected (they led their troops more
"from the rear" or used separate military commanders
more). When eldest sons started to be 15..35 yo at the
time of father's demise (and not under ten years old),
it was no longer so untenable to accept that son as
successor.

The rule of strongest was not the precise situation of
either Wessex or Navarre of that era. They certainly
had some respect to hereditary rights. AFAIK all those
kings of Wessex tried to convince that they are
male-line descendants of early kings, at least through
some obscure lineage.
I am not saying those pedigrees could not have been
fabrications - In matter of fact, I tend to believe
that very likely, some of them were fabricated.
(I have also been relatively critical towards certain
obscure male-line lineages between certain Norwegian
kings, and towards certain mythical male lineages in
pre-history of the Japanese monarchical dynasty.)

Were some of those genealogies truthful, such as some
in Wessex, then the blood-stained exemplification
above displays an example how problematic the custom
of agnatic seniority tended to become after a few
generations, when two or more branches were at
loggerheads in Succession Dispute, practically such a
War.
Fortunately, we are not reliant only on such
badly-documented genealogy cases.
Better-documented genealogies in several historical
countries of their era of agnatic seniority succession
displays similar tendencies to rivalry (war, blood
feud) between branches.



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