Ancestral right means descent in the male line from an ancestor who lawfully bore arms.

Henry had justified his usurpation by emphasizing his descent in the male line.

Records are unclear as to whether Louis and Catherine produced any surviving descent in the male line.

There is no evidence, however, for thinking that, in general, people who reckon descent in the male line reckoned it in the female line before.

Henry IV's descent in the male line from Louis IX of France.

The consuls came from a new elite, the nobiles (noblemen), an artificial aristocracy of all who could demonstrate direct descent in the male line from a consul.

His claim to Sedad Mir is based on descent in the male line, since it is well known that the last Count of that seignory wrongfully dispossessed his sister, who survived him to pass on her rights to the crown of Dossola."

Gaelic tradition gave Somerled a Celtic descent in the male line, as the medieval Seanachies traced his lineage through a long line of ancestors back to the High Kings of Ireland, namely Colla Uais and Conn of the Hundred Battles.