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All Site ContentHamletAct 1Scene 2
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Rules of Succession
Allusion
Act 1,
Scene 2
Lines 1-14

An explanation of the rules of succession in Denmark in Act 1, Scene 2 of myShakespeare’s Hamlet.

[The throne room of Elsinore castle. King Claudius enters with his newly wed Queen, Hamlet's recently widowed mother. They are followed by the king's chief counselor Polonius, Polonius' son Laertes, his daugher Ophelia, and other nobles.]

Claudius 

Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death,
The memory be green, and that it us befitted
To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom
To be contracted in one brow of woe;
Yet so far has discretion fought with nature
That we with wisest sorrow think on him
Together with remembrance of ourselves.
Therefore our sometimes sister, now our queen,
Th' imperial jointress of this warlike state,
Have we (as 'twere with a defeated joy,
With one auspicious and one dropping eye,
With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,
In equal scale weighing delight and dole) 
Taken to wife. Nor have we herein barred  

In the England of Shakespeare’s day, the crown automatically passed to a deceased king’s eldest son. But in the ancient Denmark of the play, there’s no fixed rule of succession. It’s to be expected that Claudius and Hamlet would be the rival contenders for the throne. Marrying Gertrude would solidify Claudius’ claim to the throne.