Why does RewriteRule only work when I change the line position? - .htaccess

Question

I have the following lines in my .htaccess file:
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} id=([0-9]+)
RewriteRule ^page/([0-9]+)/$ ?page=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^(20\d\d)/page/([0-9]+)/$ ?yearMeasure=$1&page=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^(20\d\d)/$ ?yearMeasure=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^category/([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/page/([0-9]+)/$ ?category=$1&page=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^category/([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/$ ?category=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^(20\d\d)/([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/$ ?type=post&year=$1&title=$2 [L,QSA]
When the file is left as above, the server does not capture /page/1/. Rather, it returns a 404 error. However, when I flip the second and third lines, everything works perfectly. Why is this?
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} id=([0-9]+)
RewriteRule ^(20\d\d)/page/([0-9]+)/$ ?yearMeasure=$1&page=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^page/([0-9]+)/$ ?page=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^(20\d\d)/$ ?yearMeasure=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^category/([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/page/([0-9]+)/$ ?category=$1&page=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^category/([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/$ ?category=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^(20\d\d)/([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/$ ?type=post&year=$1&title=$2 [L,QSA]
Edit:
After a few minutes of experimenting, it seems that the line that comes directly after RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} id=([0-9]+) is ineffectual.
Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

Any RewriteCond belongs to the RewriteRule directly following it
The RewriteCond directive defines a rule condition. One or more RewriteCond can precede a RewriteRule directive. The following rule is then only used if both the current state of the URI matches its pattern, and if these conditions are met.
1. RewriteCond ...
2. RewriteRule ...
3. RewriteCond ...
4. RewriteRule ...
5. RewriteRule ...
So in this case condition 1 belongs to rule 2, and condition 3 belongs to rule 4, and finally rule 5 has no condition at all.
This means, when you have
1. RewriteCond ...
2. RewriteRule ...
3. RewriteRule ...
and switch rules 2 and 3,
1. RewriteCond ...
3. RewriteRule ...
2. RewriteRule ...
the condition belongs to the other rule.
When you use the first set of rules and request /page/1/?id=5, it would work, because now the preceding condition "QUERY_STRING matches id=([0-9]+)" is met.