Alternate History: Stannis doesn't shadowbaby Renly

[cpg2016]

15 hours ago, Trigger Warning said:

Stephen of Blois.  

... is not at all comparable to Renly usurping Stannis' position?  Stephen of Blois claimed power on the basis of his gender and his descent from William the Conqueror, as well as the fact that Anglo-Norman succession had been violent and contested in the recent past.  His oath to support Matilda was only because Henry I had couched it in terms of preserving the stability of the kingdom; given that Matilda was openly supporting a rebel faction at the time of his death, that reasoning was moot.  If Stannis were a woman, this would be a legitimate point.  Seeing as he isn't, you'll have to go back to the drawing board.

Moreover, you are fundamentally misunderstanding the difference between a claim disputed on the basis of gender, and one on primogeniture.  As we see in Westeros itself, there are supporters of the idea that women can inherit (though they are mostly dismissed).  At the very least, it's a somewhat open political question.  There is not, and never has been, a monarchy based on the principle of male primogeniture in which a younger brother was considered a legal candidate for the throne while the older brother still lived (assuming both had control of their faculties).