Grailknight and kings

[Sir_Glonojad]

and some are widely renowned for their lack of celibacy

What a beautiful, (some would say: typically British ) euphemism ... I laughed my ass out.

On topic: I also don't think that a prospective Grail Knight would throw away all his duties and go on the Quest - and I actually seem to remember a passage from the infamous 6th ed book stating something akin to "some knights feel sorry to not be able to begin the Quest because of their duties" - so I'd believe that it is unhonorable to begin the Quest if the duties to the Land are not first passed to a capable successor or steward.

[TheDungen]

We on the other hand have seen grail knight living alone as hermits in grail chapels. I guess as you said its down to who you are.

And Ian Solo? You mean Han Solo?

[Urgat]

Yeah, Han, sorry, for some reason it's pronounced Ian in French so I always write it that way.

[TheDungen]

Cause you folk arent used to pronouncing H in the beginning of a word perhaps? and you're French Urgat? would never have guessed.

[Fen]

Actually,Bretonnia monarchy is hereditary but by his non-standard rules.

You just need to think about a few things to see that a normal model doesn't fit

-the fay enchantress must approve the crowning
-the new king must find and drink from the grail (and he can either succed or fail)
-at the moment,the king is born inside line of Couronne....But the bloodline of Gilles is still alive and running with Bohemond of Bastonne.So,if the monarchy was purely hereditary,shouldn't he be be the king,since he's the direct descendant?

There's an additional question of what happens if the heir apparent is too young, or has yet to embark on his Grail Quest - does he inherit the throne and then go on the quest? I think that's what Louis the Rash did

Louis the Rash is kind of a special point.6th edition muddled the event,but before it was stated clearly that Gilles was never crowned king (le Breton was a title for "battle leader" or something like that,it's been ages).
So he went to search the grail to prove he was worth,then came back with the fay enchantress and was crowned first king of Bretonnia,setting the custom of "you must be a GK to be king"

If you notice it,6th ed. background says that Gilles was king but actually Louis is,even in this version,the first one to be crowned as such.

[Arnizipal]

at the moment,the king is born inside line of Couronne....But the bloodline of Gilles is still alive and running with Bohemond of Bastonne.So,if the monarchy was purely hereditary,shouldn't he be be the king,since he's the direct descendant?

Maybe one king had only daughters?

[Athelassan]

I suspect at some point the bloodline of the Duchy of Couronne died out and the king made a second son Duke; then, further down the line the bloodline of Bastonne failed so the crown went to the senior family member in Couronne, with a new dukedom of Bastonne being created, or something like that.

Even though they might operate on an "hereditary" principle though there are a lot of models to choose from. It doesn't necessarily mean agnatic/cognatic primogeniture. It could work like the old Scottish model (pre-Malcolm III) where the crown went to the oldest surviving descendant of Gilles regardless of immediate ancestry. Or all of them could be eligible but with one of them chosen by the nobility and approved by the Enchantress (not entirely dissimilar to Denmark or pre-Conquest England). The requirement for the FE to endorse is not that unusual: a similar condition seems to apply in the Empire (see Magritta of Nuln) and historically the Emperor was supposed to be crowned by the Pope, although they gave up on that after a while.

If descent from Gilles (or Louis) is all that's needed then presumably the number of potential claimants could be very large. Indeed, Knights of the Grail speaks of an ambitious nobleman (not even a Duke) scheming for his son to become a GK and then Duke so that he could become King - this only seems likely if the interpretation of hereditary royalty is fairly broad.

[Lord Zarkov]

Also the Dukedom might not follow the Crown due to the Grail Knight rule, for example in The Red Duke the King is the younger brother of the eponymous Duke of Aquitaine.

So the crown could have moved Duchy by say the younger son of the Duke getting the crown due to the Grail Knight rule, and then the King having daughters who married into another Dutchy.