Talk:Desire & Decorum Miscellaneous Characters/@comment-36744766-20190916033625/@comment-3452092-20190917122340

We don't. We know that he is Richards's heir, not necessarily the same thing. Although an heir usually is the child of the person they are the heir of, they can be a nephew, brother, cousin, even uncle. Depending on the time frame and location they can also be a niece, sister, or aunt as instead. And by cousin, they can be a close cousin or a distant cousin. I think I've even heard of a great uncle inheriting although not for long. And that's just heirs for titles. Heirs for anything unentailed, well, they can be anyone the person wants as long as they write it down.