The kingdom began to fight to restore itself through Emir Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman, known to the world as "Ibn Saud", and his capture of Riyadh in 1902.
This strengthened his power within the Al Sauds and expanded his legitimacy in Arabia, not to mention nearly a hundred children, sixty of whom were boys.
[8] When Ibn Saud first began the reconquest of his kingdom, he had a son named Turki, who was considered his likely heir, but he died during the great influenza epidemic of 1918–19, leaving a pregnant wife behind.
During one of the times Faisal took over the government, he appointed his half brother Khalid (Ibn Saud's fifth son) as Deputy Prime Minister in 1962, bypassing Mohammed.
One of the reasons that Mohammed initially demured from standing down, was his distrust of the so-called Sudairi Seven, the sons of Ibn Saud's favorite wife.
He was given the position of "second deputy Prime Minister" and at the same time, royal sources let it be known that Prince Abdullah (Ibn Saud's eleventh son), head of the National Guard, would be in line after him.
He was asked to name his price for stepping aside and, seeing that his more powerful brothers were inimical to the idea of his accession, Bandar read the writing on the wall and accepted the offer of money.
He is said to have named a high price, but the massive bribe, reputed to be in the tens of millions of USD (US$), was something the world's richest family could easily afford.
Crown Prince Sultan convinced the King to appoint the next Sudairi, Nayef (Ibn Saud's twenty-third son), to the Second deputy spot.
In 2011–12, both Sultan and Nayef died within months of each other, and a fourth Sudairi brother, Salman (Ibn Saud's twenty-fifth son), became crown prince on 18 June 2012.
With the advancing ages of the sons of Ibn Saud (the youngest was born in 1945), King Abdullah created the Allegiance Council[7] to address the shrinking number of candidates for the throne.
In order to make his place in the line of succession permanent and preclude any challenges by any of the dispossessed royals, King Abdullah polled each member of the Allegiance Council individually before announcing Muqrin's new title.
[1] At the same time, Muhammad bin Nayef, the Interior Minister and a supporter of Salman's, was appointed deputy crown prince, an act that was ratified by the Allegiance Council after the fact.
[citation needed] Normally, the position of Crown Prince was an extremely powerful one, with Faisal, Fahd and Abdullah running the country on behalf of, or sometimes despite, their monarch.
This[vague] was not the case of Crown Prince Muqrin, who was frozen out of King Salman's new double cabinet scheme and relegated to mostly ceremonial activities.
[citation needed] Muhammad bin Nayef, the Deputy Crown Prince as well as the Interior Minister, was also a Sudairi, and it was clear[according to whom?]