Liechtenstein's royal family just voted to abolish male-only succession, clearing the way for first-born daughters to inherit the throne — the latest centuries-old institution to rewrite its founding rules under egalitarian pressure.

This isn't just trivia about a principality of 40,000 most Americans couldn't find on a map. Liechtenstein is traditionally conservative — it was the last country in Europe to grant women the vote, and that didn't happen until 1984, when male voters narrowly approved it in a referendum. Now even its royal house, one of the most powerful monarchies on the continent, is abandoning male primogeniture. The pattern is unmistakable: no tradition, however old or however small the stage, escapes the rewrite.

Hereditary Prince Alois announced the change Saturday during the country's national day address. The vote passed Wednesday with the required two-thirds majority of family members eligible to decide such matters.

"The line of succession will be adjusted from male primogeniture to absolute primogeniture," Alois said, according to remarks posted on the princely house's website. "That means that in the future, the first-born child will, regardless of sex, become the heir to the throne and later the princess or prince of Liechtenstein."

Alois framed the move as continuity, not rupture. "The ability to combine continuity and renewal is also a principle that we foster inside the princely house," he said. "In our centuries-old history, it has served us well to make decisions in a long-term and very well thought-out way."

The change won't shake up the immediate line. Prince Hans-Adam II remains head of state, though he handed most powers to Alois in 2004. Alois is 58; his eldest child is 31-year-old Prince Joseph Wenzel. No princess is leapfrogging anyone today.

But the precedent is set. Liechtenstein's ruling prince wields real power — the authority to veto referendum results, appoint judges, and fire the government. That is unusually potent for a European monarchy. The family just voted to change the rules governing who can hold that power, and they did it without asking the public.

CBS News noted that Brigitte Haas became Liechtenstein's first female prime minister last year; the Associated Press omitted that detail. Both outlets presented the succession change as straightforward modernization. Nobody asked whether a family vote on the structure of a head-of-state office — in a country where the prince can veto the people's referendums — raises democratic questions of its own.

The country that took until 1984 to let women vote just had its royal house decide, behind closed doors, that sex no longer matters in the line of sovereigns. The question isn't whether Liechtenstein's change is fair by today's lights. The question is what institution is next, and who gets a vote when the rules change.