Otto was sincere in his desire to give Greece good government, but he suffered from two great handicaps, his Roman Catholic faith, and the fact that his marriage to Queen Amalia remained childless.

The childless dukes Louis and Otto had already promised Charles IV the succession in Brandenburg in 1364 as revenge for a conflict with their brother Stephen II over the Bavarian succession after the death of their nephew Meinhard, the son of Louis V. Louis the Roman died in Berlin in 1365.

Apparently a very plain woman, she was overlooked in favour of her sister Zoe, who was selected as the potential bride, but Otto III died before she could be wed. From that point onwards, Theodora lived a life of virtual total obscurity in the imperial gynaeceum until circumstances ( her uncle Basil II dying childless and her dying father not siring any sons ) forced her into the centre of imperial politics.

However, Mary II died childless in 1694, after which William III did not remarry, and Princess Anne's last surviving child, Prince William, Duke of Gloucester, died six years later, after which it was unlikely she would have any more children due to her age and the large number of miscarriages she had previously suffered.

With the descendents of Charles I thus either childless ( in the case of William III and Anne ) or Catholic, consideration then fell to the descendants of Elizabeth of Bohemia, the only other child of James I to have reached adulthood.

Elisabeth was childless, and in 1440 made a treaty with her powerful neighbour Philip III, Duke of Burgundy that Philip would administer the duchy and inherit it after the Duchess Elisabeth's death.

Under its terms, King William III, childless, would be succeeded by Queen Mary II's sister Princess Anne and her descendants.

After the Wassenberg line became extinct in 1371 following the deaths of Reginald II's childless sons Edward II ( on 24 August, from wounds suffered in the Battle of Baesweiler ) and Reginald III ( on 4 December ), the ensuing Guelders War of Succession saw William I of Jülich emerge victorious.

William III died childless after a riding accident on March 8, 1702, leaving the House of Orange extinct, and leaving Scotland, England and Ireland to his sister-in-law Queen Anne.

Since William III died childless in 1702 the principality became a matter of dispute between Prince John William Friso of Nassau-Dietz of the Frisian Nassaus and King Frederick I of Prussia, who both claimed the title Prince of Orange.

Elisabeth of Parma had also wanted the Grand Duchy of Tuscany for her son Charles III of Spain ; Gian Gastone de ' Medici was childless and was related to Elisabeth via her great grandmother Margherita de ' Medici.

According to the Chronicle of Alfonso III, credited to Ramiro's grandson, the childless Alfonso II chose as his successor Ramiro, his distant kinsman and son of Alfonso's predecessor Bermudo I.

The aged and childless brother of Gustav III, Charles XIII was made king in 1809, but he was a mere puppet in the hands of parliament and the question of his successor had to be solved.

In 1305, Wenceslaus III married Viola of Teschen, a daughter of Mieszko I, Duke of Teschen ; the marriage was childless.

Eric then held Bergedorf ( Vierlande ) and Lauenburg and inherited the share of his childless brother Albert III, Saxe-Ratzeburg, after he was already deceased in 1308 and a retained section from Albert's widow Margaret of Brandenburg-Salzwedel on her death.

When his brother, King Stephen III died childless on 4 March 1172, Béla became his rightful heir.

When the Elector of Bavaria Maximilian III Joseph, the last Wittelsbach ruler, died childless in 1777, the land passed to the Electorate of the Palatinate archduke and elector Carl Theodor.

* Ferumbras III Took ( 30th Thain, died childless in 3015 )

Before 1086, he had married Almodis, daughter of Count Aldebert II of La Marche in Poitou, and sister and presumptive heiress of count Boso III who was childless and unmarried.

John III was succeeded in 1557 by his grandson Sebastian, who died, aged 24 and childless, in the Battle of Alcácer Quibir.

Since John III was childless, his heir of choice became Jeanne de Penthièvre, la Boiteuse, daughter of his younger brother Guy.

The County of Anjou passed down in the dynasty founded by Ingelger until in 1060 Geoffrey II Martel died childless, and the county passed to his nephew, Geoffrey III the Bearded, son of Geoffrey of Gâtinais by a sister of Martel.

Baldwin III died unexpectedly, childless, in 1162, leaving Amalric as heir.

The union, whose principal purpose was to increased the influence of Mieszko III in Western Pomerania, proved to be childless.

They also put before the court the suggestion that Alexander III had designated Bruce as heir when he himself was still childless.

In 1525, bypassing the ecclesiastic canons, Daniel sanctioned the divorce between Vasili III and his childless wife Solomonia Saburova, which caused general discontent in Muscovy.

There was a particularly marvelous opportunity for study in this area since almost every stage of pregnancy was represented, from a childless couple to and including every trimester.

William of Malmesbury's account attacks Sybilla, but the evidence argues that Alexander and Sybilla were a devoted but childless couple and Sybilla was of noteworthy piety.

In spite of this, it had been agreed with the Serbian Government that Prince Mirko of Montenegro, who was married to Natalija Konstantinovic, the granddaughter of Princess Anka Obrenovic, an aunt of King Milan, would be proclaimed Crown Prince of Serbia in the event that the marriage of King Alexander and Queen Draga was childless .< ref name =" njeg ">

At Athens, the traveller Pausanias was informed in the second-century CE that the cult of Aphrodite Urania above the Kerameikos was so ancient that it had been established by Aegeus, whose sisters were barren, and he still childless himself.

In a generous act by his father, he was adopted and raised in Vienna by his childless aunt Archduchess Marie Christine of Austria and her husband Albert of Saxe-Teschen.

He was slated to become the heir, but did not succeed to the throne, dying childless in 1377, 7 years after King Casimir.

Nerva was old and childless, and had spent much of his career out of the public light, prompting both ancient and modern authors to speculate on his involvement in Domitian's assassination.

Although Domnall is generally been supposed to have been childless, it has been suggested that Giric was a son of Domnall, reading his patronym as mac Domnaill rather than the commonly supposed mac Dúngail.

He was childless and was succeeded by his younger brother, the third Marquess.

Albert died childless and was succeeded by his brother, who became King George.

The ship master was so satisfied with the young Drake's conduct that, being unmarried and childless at his death, he bequeathed the barque to Drake.

Like his first marriage, this was childless.

This union was childless.

This union was childless.

The death of Ivan's childless son Feodor was followed by a period of civil wars and foreign intervention known as the " Time of Troubles " ( 1606 – 13 ).

Jacob Abendana died childless in London in 1695 and was buried in the Portuguese cemetery at Mile End.

Erik was deposed ( 1438 – 39 ) as the union king and was succeeded by the childless Christopher of Bavaria.