Succession to the British Throne
Encyclopedia
Succession to the British throne is governed both by common law
and statute. Under common law the crown is currently passed on by male-preference primogeniture
. In other words, succession passes first to an individual's sons, in order of birth, and subsequently to daughters, again in order of birth.. Succession is also governed by the Act of Union 1800
, which restates the provisions of the Act of Settlement 1701
and the Bill of Rights 1689
. These laws restrict the succession to legitimate descendants of Sophia, Electress of Hanover
, and disbar those who are Roman Catholics, or who have married Roman Catholics. The descendants of those who are disbarred for being or marrying Roman Catholics, however, may still be eligible to succeed. The succession was also regulated by His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936
, which excluded the abdicated king Edward VIII and his descendants, if any, from the throne; this Act ceased to have any practical effect when Edward, then known as the Duke of Windsor, died without issue in 1972.
The first four individuals in the line of succession who are twenty-one years or older, along with the Sovereign's consort, may be appointed Counsellors of State
. Counsellors of State are individuals who perform some of the Sovereign's duties whilst he or she is abroad or temporarily incapacitated. Otherwise, individuals in the line of succession need not have specific legal or official duties (though members of the royal family
often do). The heir apparent
to Elizabeth II, the present Sovereign, is her eldest son, Charles, Prince of Wales
. Next in line is Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, the Prince of Wales's eldest son.
The person who is monarch of the United Kingdom also acts as monarch of 15 other sovereign state
s within the Commonwealth of Nations
. By convention iterated in the preamble to the Statute of Westminster
, the line of succession cannot be altered without the agreement of all 16 realms.
On 28 October 2011, during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting
in Perth
, Australia
, it was announced that heads of government had agreed unanimously that succession laws in the UK and in other Commonwealth realm
s would be changed, so that sons of any future monarch would no longer be preferred over daughters. This change will not apply retroactively, only affecting the descendants of Charles, Prince of Wales
. It was also agreed that the ban on the monarch being married to a Roman Catholic would be lifted, although the monarch him/herself would still need to be in communion with the Church of England. The changes need to be enacted in legislation in each of the affected countries before they take effect.
For a more extended list, see Line of succession to the British throne
.
), conquest or prescription (de facto possession of the Crown). It was often unclear which of these bases should take precedence; often, the outcome depended not on the legal strength of the claims, but on the political
power of the claimants.
However, over time, the default rule in England and Scotland became male primogeniture: later monarchs coming to the throne by exception to this rule went to great lengths to explain and justify going against these rules, and to prove their rivals illegitimate. Eventually, Parliament took control of succession.
who had forced him into exile, Egbert of Wessex
returned to Wessex
and took the throne. Overtaking Mercia
as the dominant power in Britain, Egbert militarily expanded his realm to include Kent
, Sussex
, Surrey
, some Mercian territory, and briefly all of Mercia; this gained him the title Bretwalda
, or "ruler of Britain". Egbert's heirs have ruled England almost exclusively ever since; in the years since there have been only five, or possibly six, monarchs of the country who were not his descendants: the four Danish kings, William the Conqueror, and arguably Harold II, whose claimed patrilineal descent, referred to below, is not universally accepted as true.
Egbert was succeeded by his son Æthelwulf upon his death. Æthelwulf's second son Æthelbald was not as patient and forced his father to abdicate the throne. Dying without issue Æthelbald was followed by his brother Æthelberht who left two children who were young and skipped. The next brother, Æthelred did have two young sons, but still upon his death his younger brother Alfred the Great
took the throne, which caused no resistance mostly due to domestic turmoil connected with Danish invasions. Alfred was succeeded on his death by his son Edward the Elder
, but the latter's death caused a rougher transition. England was briefly split with various of Edward's children ruling Mercia, Wessex and Kent. In Wessex he was followed by Ælfweard
who died only about two weeks later and was probably never crowned. Though he may have been followed by his brother Edwin, this too would have been very brief as Athelstan
soon came to power over a reunited England.
Athelstan had no children and was succeeded by his half-brother Edmund
. Though Edmund had a son, his half-brother Eadred took the throne upon his death. This only delayed Edmund's son Eadwig's ascension to the throne, as Eadred died without issue. Eadwig also remained childless, however, so upon his death the crown went to his brother Edgar
, who had already taken some of the realm by force.
Edgar died at the relatively young age of about 32 leaving an unclear succession. He left two sons, ostensibly one each to his two wives, but rumors circulated that the eldest son Edward
who was initially crowned was actually born to a mistress. As Edward and his brother Æthelred were both quite young, they did not directly participate in the struggle, which was led on the one side by Æthelred's mother and on the other by the Archbishop of Canterbury. However, Edward's participation became quite direct when he was murdered three years into his reign by servants of his stepmother, allowing Æthelred to ascend the throne. Æthelred "the Unready" spent the bulk of his reign unsuccessfully defending the realm against Viking
invaders. Sweyn I of Denmark
conquered England and took the throne in 1013, only to die a few weeks later. This allowed Æthelred to retake the crown for the three final years of his life, but his son and successor Edmund Ironside
lasted only seven months before being conquered by Sweyn's son Cnut the Great.
(who may not even have been his son) and the younger, legitimate Harthacnut who was supposed to be heir to the throne of all Cnut's realms. However, Harthacnut could not travel to England due to threats of invasion in Denmark, so Harold took the throne. Harthacnut eventually began assembling a force to depose his half-brother, but Harold died before this could materialize and Harthacnut assumed power in England peacefully. Harthacnut left no sons, however, and since his mother, Emma, had been married to Æthelred the Unready (and borne him sons) before his death and Cnut's ascension, the throne passed back to the original Anglo-Saxon line in the form of her son (Harthacnut's half-brother) Edward the Confessor
.
. As such Edward was succeeded by Harold Godwinson
, who made no hereditary claim but was the most powerful landowner and adviser under Edward. Modern reconstructions make him a possible descendant of Æthelred's disenfranchised son rather than Alfred the Great, Æthelred's younger brother. Harold was killed in the Battle of Hastings
, and was theoretically succeeded by Edgar Ætheling
, who had not even been crowned when the Norman William the Conqueror marched on London and took the throne.
, the first Norman monarch of England, willed that his second son William
—not his eldest son Robert—receive the Crown. (Robert instead inherited the Duchy of Normandy
.) William II and Robert agreed that in the event of one dying without children the other would inherit their possessions (and realms), but Robert was away on the crusades when William II died, and their younger brother Henry claimed the throne instead. Robert's subsequent invasion of England was resolved diplomatically via the Treaty of Alton
, in which he renounced his claim to the English throne for a stipend and other concessions. Women were not originally accepted as monarchs; William II's successor, Henry I
, named his daughter Matilda as his heir, but his nephew Stephen
took the Throne, eventually resulting in a period of civil war known as The Anarchy
, during which Matilda ruled briefly.
As part of the settlement Stephen named as his successor Matilda's son Henry II
, which was challenged by his own children. Henry II's son, Henry the Young King
, was crowned king during his own father's lifetime, but he never actually ruled, and is not known by any ordinal. He predeceased his father, who was succeeded by Richard I
. Richard designated his younger brother's son Arthur
as his heir, but his youngest brother John
assumed the Crown instead. The throne then passed directly from father to son four times, through Henry III
and Edward I
, II
, and III
. This straightforward succession was about to end, however; the proper rules of primogeniture would be followed once more with the ascension of 10-year-old Richard II
, the son of Edward the Black Prince, the deceased eldest son of Edward III. Afterward, a long, violent conflict ensued between the descendants of Edward III's five legitimate sons.
, son of John of Gaunt (third surviving son of Edward III), deposed his cousin and became Henry IV. Henry IV's House of Lancaster
(John of Gaunt's descendants) was opposed by another branch of the royal family, the House of York
(Lionel of Antwerp's descendants), which had a better claim by strict primogeniture. As both houses used roses in their family symbols the conflict is known as the Wars of the Roses
. Henry IV passed the throne to his son Henry V
, who likewise passed it to his son Henry VI
. However in 1461, Henry VI was deposed by the Yorkist Edward IV
. Henry VI returned to the Throne briefly in 1470, but Edward IV deposed him again in 1471; this second time Henry and his son Edward were murdered, destroying the main Lancaster line. Edward IV's son, Edward V
, was proclaimed king on his father's death, but never crowned as his uncle usurped the Throne as Richard III
.
, who became King as Henry VII. Though a Lancastrian by descent, Henry claimed the crown not on inheritance but by right of conquest. The Act of Parliament passed in 1485 which recognised Henry VII as the Sovereign did not assert that he was entitled to the Crown by inheritance but rather, merely acknowledged the fact that Henry ruled over England.
Henry VII was followed by his son, Henry VIII
. Though his father was a Lancastrian, Henry VIII could also claim the Throne through the Yorkist line, as his mother Elizabeth
was the sister and heiress of Edward V.
Henry VIII's numerous marriages led to several complications over succession. Henry VIII was first married to Catherine of Aragon
, by whom he had a daughter named Mary
. His second marriage, to Anne Boleyn
, resulted in a daughter named Elizabeth
. Henry VIII had a son Edward
by his third wife, Jane Seymour
. An Act of Parliament passed in 1533 declared Mary illegitimate; another passed in 1536 did the same for Elizabeth. Though the two remained illegitimate, an Act of Parliament passed in 1544 allowed reinserting them, providing further "that the King should and might give, will, limit, assign, appoint or dispose the said imperial Crown and the other premises … by letters patent
or last will in writing." Mary and Elizabeth, under Henry VIII's will, were to be followed by descendants of the King's deceased sister Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk
(he however excluded his niece Frances Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk
). This will also excluded from the succession the descendants of Henry's eldest sister Margaret Tudor
, who were the rulers of Scotland
.
When Henry VIII died in 1547, the young Edward succeeded him, becoming Edward VI. Edward VI was the first Protestant Sovereign to succeed to the rule of England; he strongly opposed having the Catholic Mary be his heir. Therefore, he attempted to divert the course of succession in his will. He excluded Mary and Elizabeth, settling on the Duchess of Suffolk's daughter, the Lady Jane Grey
. The Lady Jane was also originally excluded on the premise that no woman could reign over England. Nonetheless, the will, which originally referred to the Lady Jane's heirs-male, was amended to refer to the Lady Jane and her heirs-male. Upon Edward VI's death in 1553, Jane was proclaimed reigning Queen of England; however, she was not universally recognised and after nine days overthrown by the popular Mary. As Henry VIII's will had been passed by an Act of Parliament in 1544, Edward's contravening will was unlawful and ignored.
Mary was succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth, who broke with the precedents of many of her predecessors, and refused to name an heir. Whilst previous monarchs (including Henry VIII) had specifically been granted authority to settle uncertain successions in their wills, the Treasons Act 1571
asserted that Parliament had the right to settle disputes, and made it treason to deny Parliamentary authority. Wary of threats from other possible heirs, Parliament further passed the Act of Association 1584, which provided that any individual involved in attempts to murder the Sovereign would be disqualified from succeeding. (The Act was repealed in 1863.)
(later Stuart) had ruled in Scotland since 1371. It had followed strict rules of primogeniture until the deposition and exile of Mary I in 1567; even then she was succeeded by her son, James VI.
, her first cousin twice removed, even though his succession also violated Henry VIII's will, under which Lady Anne Stanley, heiress of Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk, was supposed to succeed. James asserted that hereditary right was superior to statutory provision and as King in Scotland, was powerful enough to deter any rival, reigning as James I of England.
James's eldest surviving son and successor, Charles I, was overthrown and beheaded in 1649. The monarchy itself was abolished. A few years later, it was replaced by the Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell
, effectively a monarch with the title of Lord Protector
rather than King. Cromwell had the right to name his own successor, which he exercised on his deathbed by choosing his son, Richard Cromwell
. Richard was ineffective, and was quickly forced to abdicate. Shortly afterward, the monarchy was restored, with Charles I's son Charles II
as King.
James II and VII
, a Catholic, followed his brother Charles II, despite efforts in the late 1670s to exclude him in favour of Charles' Protestant bastard son, the Duke of Monmouth
. James was deposed when his Protestant opponents forced him to flee from England in 1688. Parliament then deemed that James had, by fleeing the realms, abdicated the thrones and offered the Crowns not to the King's infant son James
but to his Protestant daughter Mary
and to her husband William
, who as James' nephew was the first person in the succession not descended from him. The two became joint Sovereigns (a unique circumstance in British history) as William III of England and Ireland (and II of Scotland) and Mary II of England, Scotland and Ireland. William had insisted on this unique provision as a condition of his military leadership against James.
The English Bill of Rights
passed in 1689 determined succession to the English, Scottish and Irish Thrones. First in the line were the descendants of Mary II. Next came Mary's sister the Princess Anne
and her descendants. Finally, the descendants of William III & II by any future marriage were added to the line of succession. Only Protestants were allowed to succeed to the Thrones, and those who married Roman Catholics were excluded.
After Mary II died in 1694, her husband continued to reign alone until his own death in 1702. The line of succession provided for by the Bill of Rights was almost at an end; William and Mary never had any children, and the Princess Anne's children had all died. Therefore, Parliament passed the Act of Settlement 1701
. The Act maintained the provision of the Bill of Rights whereby William III & II would be succeeded by the Princess Anne and her descendants, and thereafter by his own descendants from future marriages. The Act, however, declared that they would be followed by James I & VI's granddaughter Sophia, Electress and Dowager Duchess of Hanover (the daughter of James's daughter Elizabeth Stuart
) and her heirs. As under the Bill of Rights, non-Protestants and those who married Roman Catholics were excluded.
Upon William III & II's death, Anne became Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland. Because the Parliament of England settled on Sophia, Electress
of Hanover as Anne's heir without consulting Scottish leaders, the Estates of Scotland retaliated by passing the Scottish Act of Security. The Act provided that, upon the death of Anne, the Estates would meet to select an heir to the throne of Scotland, who could not be the same person as the English Sovereign unless numerous political and economic conditions were met. Anne originally withheld the Royal Assent
, but was forced to grant it when the Estates refused to raise taxes and sought to withdraw troops from the Queen's army. England's Parliament responded by passing the Alien Act, which threatened to cripple Scotland's economy by cutting off trade with them. Thus, Scotland had little choice but to unite with England to form the Kingdom of Great Britain
in 1707; the Crown of the new nation (along with the Crown of Ireland) was subject to the rules laid down by the English Act of Settlement.
in 1714.
The Crown descended thereafter without incident until 1936, when Edward VIII
abdicated. Edward VIII had desired to marry Wallis Simpson, a divorcée, but the Church of England
, of which the British Sovereign is Supreme Governor, prohibited divorcés and divorcées from remarrying. Therefore, Parliament passed His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936
, by which Edward VIII ceased to be Sovereign. The Act provided that he and his descendants, if any, were not to have any "right, title or interest in or to the succession to the Throne". He had no children, and Edward VIII was succeeded by his brother George VI
and thereafter succession proceeded as normal.
Anyone ineligible to succeed is deemed "naturally dead". That individual's descendants are not also disqualified, unless they are personally ineligible.
In addition to the normal rules relating to marriage, the Royal Marriages Act 1772
applies to the descendants of George II
. (The descendants of princesses who married into foreign royal families were excepted, as were, in 1936, any descendants of Edward VIII.) The Act provides that each individual bound by its provisions may not marry without the Sovereign's consent being signified under the Great Seal and being announced before the Privy Council
. The Act provides, however, that if an individual older than twenty-five years notifies the Privy Council of his or her intention to marry without the consent of the Sovereign, then he or she may lawfully do so after one year, unless both houses of Parliament expressly disapprove of the marriage. Any marriage that contravenes the Royal Marriages Act is void, and the offspring thereof are illegitimate and ineligible to succeed to the Crown. Such a purported marriage, if made to a Roman Catholic, cannot by itself be cause for removal from the line of succession. Thus when the future George IV
attempted to marry the Roman Catholic Maria Fitzherbert
in 1785 without seeking permission from George III
he did not disqualify himself from inheriting the throne in due course.
The individuals closest to the throne who are disqualified from the succession on the grounds of being born out of wedlock are the Hon Benjamin Lascelles and the Hon Emily Lascelles, who would have otherwise ranked fortieth and forty-first in the line of succession respectively, after their father, Viscount Lascelles
. Lord Lascelles subsequently legitimated them by marrying their mother, but they still remain ineligible to succeed to the Crown.
or shall profess the Popish religion or shall marry a papist shall be subject to such Incapacities" as the Bill of Rights established.
The precise meaning of the aforementioned clauses is subject to contention. Under one interpretation, the religion of an individual at the precise moment of succession is relevant. Under another interpretation, anyone who has been a Roman Catholic at any time since 1689 ("then … or afterwards") is forever ineligible to succeed. The former interpretation allows a Roman Catholic to convert to Protestantism and succeed to the Throne just before his predecessor dies; the latter does not. In either case, however, other religions are not affected; it is clear that any non-Catholic may convert to Protestantism and succeed to the Throne.
The Act of Settlement further provides that anyone who marries a Roman Catholic at any time would be forever ineligible to succeed to the Throne. (Some suggest that the religion of one's spouse at the precise time of succession is all that matters. This interpretation, however, is not borne out by a literal reading of the Act, which uses the phrase "shall marry", not "shall be married.") The Act does not require that the spouse be Protestant; it only bars those who marry Roman Catholics. Furthermore, an individual is not barred because his or her spouse converts to Roman Catholicism after marriage.
The highest individual ineligible to succeed because he or she married a Roman Catholic is the Earl of St Andrews, who would have otherwise ranked twenty-third in the line of succession. The highest individual ineligible to succeed because he or she is not a Protestant is Lord Downpatrick (Lord St Andrews' son), who would have otherwise ranked twenty-fourth.
and the Treason (Ireland) Act 1703, it is treason
to "endeavour to deprive or hinder any person who shall be the next in succession to the crown ... from succeeding ... to the imperial crown of this realm". Since 1998
the maximum penalty has been life imprisonment.
On 28 October 2011, proposed reforms to the succession were announced during the 2011 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting
in Perth
, Australia
. The heads of government of the 16 Commonwealth realms agreed to change the rules of succession by replacing male preference primogeniture with absolute primogeniture, in which the first born child of a monarch is heir apparent regardless of gender. The change would only apply for descendants of the current Prince of Wales. It was also proposed to end both the ban on marriage to Catholics and the requirement for those in line to the throne to gain the permission of the sovereign to marry. However the requirement for the sovereign to be in communion with the Church of England
was proposed to remain, as well as the specific ban on Catholics sitting on the throne. The Queen was understood to support the changes. Depending on individual constitutional arrangements, the reforms now need to be approved by parliaments of most of the realms, however, in some realms such as Papua New Guinea
and Tuvalu
, the reforms do not require direct legislation and will become automatic once the changes are implemented in the United Kingdom. New Zealand will chair a working group to determine the process for reform. In the United Kingdom, the reforms will require amendments to numerous pieces of legislation including the Bill of Rights 1688, the Act of Settlement 1700, the Union with Scotland Act 1706 and the Coronation Oath Act 1688
, Princess Sophia's Precedence Act 1711
, the Royal Marriages Act 1772
, the Union with Ireland Act 1800, the Accession Declaration Act 1910
and the Regency Act 1937.
Changes made to the succession law in the United Kingdom do not have effect in most other Commonwealth Realm
s, unless specifically enacted by the Parliaments thereof. The Commonwealth Realms, of which the United Kingdom is one, are independent nations, all under a single monarch. The Statute of Westminster 1931
provides, "it would be in accord with the established constitutional position of all the members of the Commonwealth in relation to one another that any alteration in the law touching the Succession to the Throne or the Royal Style and Titles shall hereafter require the assent as well of the Parliaments of all the Dominion
s (now Commonwealth realm
s) as of the Parliament of the United Kingdom." This provision, however, is a part of the Preamble of the Act. Since it does not follow an enacting clause, it has no legal force. Therefore, each Commonwealth realm may be permitted to amend its own succession laws, insofar as it applies to that Realm, with the convention set out in the preamble only applying as a guideline, though one central to the symmetrical relationship of the Realms under the Crown. The prospect of creating different succession laws in the United Kingdom and the Realms is widely regarded as an obstacle to making any change to the laws of succession in any one Realm. Accordingly, Cameron sought unanimous consent from Commonwealth realm prime ministers for the reforms.
The reforms will not cause Princess Anne
and her issue to be promoted over her younger brothers, the Princes Andrew
and Edward
and their children, as they will only come into effect for descendents of the Prince of Wales.
, saying "The idea that a younger son should become monarch instead of an elder daughter simply because he is a man, or that a future monarch can marry someone of any faith except a Catholic - this way of thinking is at odds with the modern countries that we have become." On the question of continued requirements that the sovereign be a Protestant, Cameron added, "Let me be clear, the monarch must be in communion with the Church of England because he or she is the head of that Church."
He was supported by Australian prime minister Julia Gillard
, who said she was "very enthusiastic about it. You would expect the first Australian woman prime minister to be very enthusiastic about a change which equals equality for women in a new area." Canadian prime minister
Stephen Harper
described the reforms as "obvious modernizations".
Scottish First Minister
Alex Salmond
was more critical, saying: “It is deeply disappointing that the reform has stopped short of removing the unjustifiable barrier on a Catholic becoming monarch.”
While welcoming the gender equality reforms, The Guardian
also criticized the failure to remove the ban on Catholics sitting on the throne as "fanning a religious hostility the rest of Europe was already growing beyond."
A representative of the campaigning group Republic
said: "The monarchy discriminates against every man, woman and child who isn't born into the Windsor family. To suggest that this has anything to do with equality is utterly absurd."
Upon the death of a Sovereign, his or her heir-apparent or heir-presumptive immediately and automatically succeeds, without any need for confirmation or further ceremony. Nevertheless, it is customary for the accession of the Sovereign to be publicly proclaimed, first in London, and then in York
and other cities. The anniversary of this is observed throughout the Sovereign's reign as Accession Day
.
Formerly, the new Sovereign proclaimed his or her own succession. After Elizabeth I died, however, an Accession Council
proclaimed the succession of James I, who was in Scotland at the time, to the throne of England (he was already King James VI of Scotland at the time). This precedent has been followed in each case since; now, the Accession Council normally meets in St. James's Palace
. Proclamations since James I's have usually been made in the name of the Lords Spiritual
and Temporal, the Privy Council
, the Lord Mayor, Aldermen
and citizens of the City of London
and "other principal Gentlemen
of quality", though there have been variations in some proclamations. Elizabeth II's proclamation was the first to also make mention of representatives of members of the Commonwealth
.
After an appropriate period of mourning has passed, the Sovereign is also crowned
. Coronations are held in Westminster Abbey
. The Archbishop of Canterbury
normally officiates, though the Sovereign may designate any other bishop of the Church of England
. A coronation is not necessary for a Sovereign to reign; for example, Edward VIII was never crowned, yet was the undoubted king during his short reign.
The statistical tables show how the line has grown over the years. In 1701 when the law was passed there were ten living people in the line, including three who later became sovereign — Queen Anne
, King George I and King George II. On 26 April 1721 the first member of the line of succession to be born in Britain was Prince William, Duke of Cumberland, the 6th child of George II. In 1748 the first Dutch prince was born in the line of succession, and in 1749 the first Danish prince was born into the line. In 1761 after George III became king there were 20 living descendants of his grandfather George II and 35 living descendants of the sister of George II (which also formed the Prussian line of succession). In 1777, Aleksandr Pavlovich
was the first Russian born into the line of succession. In 1821 George IV had been king for less than a year and Victoria was two years old. In 1901 she died leaving 74 living descendants. By then they lived in nearly every country in Europe and included the monarchs of Germany, Hesse and Saxe-Coburg; the consorts of Russia and Saxe-Meiningen; future monarchs of Greece and Schleswig-Holstein; and future consorts of Spain, Sweden, Norway, Romania, Yugoslavia, Brunswick and Hohenlohe-Langenburg.
The table for 1 January 2001 shows the number of descendants from different generations. George III is the grandfather of Victoria, and George II is the grandfather of George III. There is no estimate on the number of illegitimate descendants, but they could be in the thousands, as George I had three illegitimate children, and only two legitimate ones.
Although the law says that all issue from the body of Sophia (mother to George I) are eligible to succeed to the throne (if they meet the other criteria), Sophia only had three legitimate grandchildren, the son and daughter of George I, and his nephew. The daughter of George I married her cousin, so all the living descendants of Sophia are also descendants of George I.
Common law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...
and statute. Under common law the crown is currently passed on by male-preference primogeniture
Primogeniture
Primogeniture is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn to inherit the entire estate, to the exclusion of younger siblings . Historically, the term implied male primogeniture, to the exclusion of females...
. In other words, succession passes first to an individual's sons, in order of birth, and subsequently to daughters, again in order of birth.. Succession is also governed by the Act of Union 1800
Act of Union 1800
The Acts of Union 1800 describe two complementary Acts, namely:* the Union with Ireland Act 1800 , an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, and...
, which restates the provisions of the Act of Settlement 1701
Act of Settlement 1701
The Act of Settlement is an act of the Parliament of England that was passed in 1701 to settle the succession to the English throne on the Electress Sophia of Hanover and her Protestant heirs. The act was later extended to Scotland, as a result of the Treaty of Union , enacted in the Acts of Union...
and the Bill of Rights 1689
Bill of Rights 1689
The Bill of Rights or the Bill of Rights 1688 is an Act of the Parliament of England.The Bill of Rights was passed by Parliament on 16 December 1689. It was a re-statement in statutory form of the Declaration of Right presented by the Convention Parliament to William and Mary in March 1689 ,...
. These laws restrict the succession to legitimate descendants of Sophia, Electress of Hanover
Sophia of Hanover
Sophia of the Palatinate was an heiress to the crowns of England and Ireland and later the crown of Great Britain. She was declared heiress presumptive by the Act of Settlement 1701...
, and disbar those who are Roman Catholics, or who have married Roman Catholics. The descendants of those who are disbarred for being or marrying Roman Catholics, however, may still be eligible to succeed. The succession was also regulated by His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936
His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936
His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936 was the Act of the British Parliament that allowed King Edward VIII to abdicate the throne, and passed succession to his brother Prince Albert, Duke of York . The Act also excluded any possible future descendants of Edward from the line of succession...
, which excluded the abdicated king Edward VIII and his descendants, if any, from the throne; this Act ceased to have any practical effect when Edward, then known as the Duke of Windsor, died without issue in 1972.
The first four individuals in the line of succession who are twenty-one years or older, along with the Sovereign's consort, may be appointed Counsellors of State
Counsellor of State
In the United Kingdom, Counsellors of State are senior members of the British royal family to whom the Monarch, currently Elizabeth II, delegates certain state functions and powers when she is in another Commonwealth realm, abroad or unavailable for other reasons...
. Counsellors of State are individuals who perform some of the Sovereign's duties whilst he or she is abroad or temporarily incapacitated. Otherwise, individuals in the line of succession need not have specific legal or official duties (though members of the royal family
British Royal Family
The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...
often do). The heir apparent
Heir apparent
An heir apparent or heiress apparent is a person who is first in line of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting, except by a change in the rules of succession....
to Elizabeth II, the present Sovereign, is her eldest son, Charles, Prince of Wales
Charles, Prince of Wales
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...
. Next in line is Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, the Prince of Wales's eldest son.
The person who is monarch of the United Kingdom also acts as monarch of 15 other sovereign state
Sovereign state
A sovereign state, or simply, state, is a state with a defined territory on which it exercises internal and external sovereignty, a permanent population, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states. It is also normally understood to be a state which is neither...
s within the Commonwealth of Nations
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
. By convention iterated in the preamble to the Statute of Westminster
Statute of Westminster 1931
The Statute of Westminster 1931 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Passed on 11 December 1931, the Act established legislative equality for the self-governing dominions of the British Empire with the United Kingdom...
, the line of succession cannot be altered without the agreement of all 16 realms.
On 28 October 2011, during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2011
The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2011, commonly known as CHOGM 2011, was the twenty-second Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations...
in Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, it was announced that heads of government had agreed unanimously that succession laws in the UK and in other Commonwealth realm
Commonwealth Realm
A Commonwealth realm is a sovereign state within the Commonwealth of Nations that has Elizabeth II as its monarch and head of state. The sixteen current realms have a combined land area of 18.8 million km² , and a population of 134 million, of which all, except about two million, live in the six...
s would be changed, so that sons of any future monarch would no longer be preferred over daughters. This change will not apply retroactively, only affecting the descendants of Charles, Prince of Wales
Charles, Prince of Wales
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...
. It was also agreed that the ban on the monarch being married to a Roman Catholic would be lifted, although the monarch him/herself would still need to be in communion with the Church of England. The changes need to be enacted in legislation in each of the affected countries before they take effect.
Current line of succession
The first 20 individuals in the line of succession are:- HRH The Prince of WalesCharles, Prince of WalesPrince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...
(Prince Charles; b 1948), eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II
- HRH The Duke of Cambridge (Prince William; b 1982), elder son of The Prince of Wales
- HRH Prince Harry of WalesPrince Harry of WalesPrince Henry of Wales , commonly known as Prince Harry, is the younger son of Charles, Prince of Wales and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, and fourth grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
(b 1984), younger son of The Prince of Wales
- HRH The Duke of YorkPrince Andrew, Duke of YorkPrince Andrew, Duke of York KG GCVO , is the second son, and third child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
(Prince Andrew; b 1960), second son of Queen Elizabeth II
- HRH Princess Beatrice of YorkPrincess Beatrice of YorkPrincess Beatrice of York is the elder daughter of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Sarah, Duchess of York...
(b 1988), elder daughter of The Duke of York
- HRH Princess Eugenie of YorkPrincess Eugenie of YorkPrincess Eugenie of York Eugenie Victoria Helena; born 23 March 1990) is the younger daughter of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Sarah, Duchess of York...
(b 1990), younger daughter of The Duke of York
- HRH The Earl of Wessex Prince Edward, Earl of WessexPrince Edward, Earl of Wessex KG GCVO is the third son and fourth child of Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh...
(Prince Edward; b 1964), youngest son of Queen Elizabeth II
- James, Viscount SevernJames, Viscount SevernJames, Viscount Severn is the second child and only son of Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, and Sophie, Countess of Wessex, and the youngest grandchild of Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh...
(b 2007), son of The Earl of Wessex
- The Lady Louise WindsorLady Louise WindsorThe Lady Louise Windsor is the elder child of Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, and Sophie, Countess of Wessex. She is the youngest granddaughter and second-youngest grandchild of Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh...
(b 2003), daughter of The Earl of Wessex
- HRH The Princess RoyalAnne, Princess RoyalPrincess Anne, Princess Royal , is the only daughter of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
(Princess Anne; b 1950), daughter of Queen Elizabeth II
- Peter PhillipsPeter PhillipsPeter Phillips is the son of Anne, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom.Peter Phillips or Philips may also refer to:* Peter Philips Peter Phillips (born 1977) is the son of Anne, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom.Peter Phillips or Philips may also refer to:* Peter Philips Peter Phillips (born...
(b 1977), son of The Princess Royal
- Savannah Phillips (b 2010), daughter of Peter Phillips
- Zara PhillipsZara PhillipsZara Anne Elizabeth Phillips, MBE is the second child and only daughter of Princess Anne and her first husband Captain Mark Phillips and is 13th in the line of succession to the throne...
(b 1981), daughter of The Princess Royal
- David Armstrong-Jones, Viscount LinleyDavid Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Linley-Ancestry:-External links:* * * *...
(b 1961), son of Princess MargaretPrincess Margaret, Countess of SnowdonPrincess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon was the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II and the younger daughter of King George VI....
, the Queen's late younger sister
- The Honourable Charles Armstrong-JonesCharles Armstrong-JonesCharles Patrick Inigo Armstrong-Jones is the son of Viscount Linley and Viscountess Linley. He is a great-grandson of King George VI of the United Kingdom....
(b 1999), son of Viscount Linley
- The Honourable Margarita Armstrong-JonesMargarita Armstrong-JonesThe Honourable Margarita Elizabeth Rose Alleyne Armstrong-Jones is the only daughter of Viscount Linley and Viscountess Linley. She was born three months after the death of her grandmother, Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, and a month and a half after the death of her great-grandmother...
(b 2002), daughter of Viscount Linley
- The Lady Sarah ChattoLady Sarah ChattoThe Lady Sarah Frances Elizabeth Chatto, née Armstrong-Jones , is the only daughter of the 1st Earl of Snowdon and Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, the second daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. She is 17th in line of succession to the thrones of each of the Commonwealth Realms;...
(b 1964), daughter of Princess Margaret
- Samuel Chatto (b 1996), elder son of Lady Sarah Chatto
- Arthur Chatto (b 1999), younger son of Lady Sarah Chatto
- HRH The Duke of GloucesterPrince Richard, Duke of GloucesterPrince Richard, Duke of Gloucester is a member of the British Royal Family. Prince Richard is the youngest grandchild of King George V and Queen Mary. He has been Duke of Gloucester since his father's death in 1974. He is currently 20th in the line of succession...
(Prince Richard; b 1944), son of the Queen's late paternal uncle Prince Henry, Duke of GloucesterPrince Henry, Duke of GloucesterThe Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester was a soldier and member of the British Royal Family, the third son of George V of the United Kingdom and Queen Mary....
For a more extended list, see Line of succession to the British throne
Line of succession to the British Throne
The line of succession to the British throne is the ordered sequence of those people eligible to succeed to the throne of the United Kingdom and the other 15 Commonwealth realms. By the terms of the Act of Settlement 1701, the succession is limited to the descendants of the Electress Sophia of...
.
Development
The current succession law in the United Kingdom evolved from succession law in both England and Scotland. Originally in both countries, there were no fixed rules governing succession to the Throne. The individual could have relied on inheritance, statute, election (by Parliament or by another body), nomination (by a reigning Sovereign in his or her willWill (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
), conquest or prescription (de facto possession of the Crown). It was often unclear which of these bases should take precedence; often, the outcome depended not on the legal strength of the claims, but on the political
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
power of the claimants.
However, over time, the default rule in England and Scotland became male primogeniture: later monarchs coming to the throne by exception to this rule went to great lengths to explain and justify going against these rules, and to prove their rivals illegitimate. Eventually, Parliament took control of succession.
House of Wessex
Upon the death of Offa of MerciaOffa of Mercia
Offa was the King of Mercia from 757 until his death in July 796. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æthelbald after defeating the other claimant Beornred. In the early years of Offa's reign it is likely...
who had forced him into exile, Egbert of Wessex
Egbert of Wessex
Egbert was King of Wessex from 802 until his death in 839. His father was Ealhmund of Kent...
returned to Wessex
Wessex
The Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest...
and took the throne. Overtaking Mercia
Mercia
Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
as the dominant power in Britain, Egbert militarily expanded his realm to include Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, some Mercian territory, and briefly all of Mercia; this gained him the title Bretwalda
Bretwalda
Bretwalda is an Old English word, the first record of which comes from the late 9th century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. It is given to some of the rulers of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms from the 5th century onwards who had achieved overlordship of some or all of the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms...
, or "ruler of Britain". Egbert's heirs have ruled England almost exclusively ever since; in the years since there have been only five, or possibly six, monarchs of the country who were not his descendants: the four Danish kings, William the Conqueror, and arguably Harold II, whose claimed patrilineal descent, referred to below, is not universally accepted as true.
Egbert was succeeded by his son Æthelwulf upon his death. Æthelwulf's second son Æthelbald was not as patient and forced his father to abdicate the throne. Dying without issue Æthelbald was followed by his brother Æthelberht who left two children who were young and skipped. The next brother, Æthelred did have two young sons, but still upon his death his younger brother Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English monarch still to be accorded the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself...
took the throne, which caused no resistance mostly due to domestic turmoil connected with Danish invasions. Alfred was succeeded on his death by his son Edward the Elder
Edward the Elder
Edward the Elder was an English king. He became king in 899 upon the death of his father, Alfred the Great. His court was at Winchester, previously the capital of Wessex...
, but the latter's death caused a rougher transition. England was briefly split with various of Edward's children ruling Mercia, Wessex and Kent. In Wessex he was followed by Ælfweard
Ælfweard of Wessex
Ælfweard was the second son of Edward the Elder, the eldest born to his second wife Ælfflæd.-Kingship and death:The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle simply states that Ælfweard died soon after his father's death on 17 July 924 and that they were buried together at Winchester Cathedral...
who died only about two weeks later and was probably never crowned. Though he may have been followed by his brother Edwin, this too would have been very brief as Athelstan
Athelstan of England
Athelstan , called the Glorious, was the King of England from 924 or 925 to 939. He was the son of King Edward the Elder, grandson of Alfred the Great and nephew of Æthelflæd of Mercia...
soon came to power over a reunited England.
Athelstan had no children and was succeeded by his half-brother Edmund
Edmund I of England
Edmund I , called the Elder, the Deed-doer, the Just, or the Magnificent, was King of England from 939 until his death. He was a son of Edward the Elder and half-brother of Athelstan. Athelstan died on 27 October 939, and Edmund succeeded him as king.-Military threats:Shortly after his...
. Though Edmund had a son, his half-brother Eadred took the throne upon his death. This only delayed Edmund's son Eadwig's ascension to the throne, as Eadred died without issue. Eadwig also remained childless, however, so upon his death the crown went to his brother Edgar
Edgar of England
Edgar the Peaceful, or Edgar I , also called the Peaceable, was a king of England . Edgar was the younger son of Edmund I of England.-Accession:...
, who had already taken some of the realm by force.
Edgar died at the relatively young age of about 32 leaving an unclear succession. He left two sons, ostensibly one each to his two wives, but rumors circulated that the eldest son Edward
Edward the Martyr
Edward the Martyr was king of the English from 975 until he was murdered in 978. Edward was the eldest son of King Edgar, but not his father's acknowledged heir...
who was initially crowned was actually born to a mistress. As Edward and his brother Æthelred were both quite young, they did not directly participate in the struggle, which was led on the one side by Æthelred's mother and on the other by the Archbishop of Canterbury. However, Edward's participation became quite direct when he was murdered three years into his reign by servants of his stepmother, allowing Æthelred to ascend the throne. Æthelred "the Unready" spent the bulk of his reign unsuccessfully defending the realm against Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
invaders. Sweyn I of Denmark
Sweyn I of Denmark
Sweyn I Forkbeard was king of Denmark and England, as well as parts of Norway. His name appears as Swegen in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and he is also known in English as Svein, Swein, Sven the Dane, and Tuck.He was a Viking leader and the father of Cnut the Great...
conquered England and took the throne in 1013, only to die a few weeks later. This allowed Æthelred to retake the crown for the three final years of his life, but his son and successor Edmund Ironside
Edmund Ironside
Edmund Ironside or Edmund II was king of England from 23 April to 30 November 1016. His cognomen "Ironside" is not recorded until 1057, but may have been contemporary. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, it was given to him "because of his valour" in resisting the Danish invasion led by Cnut...
lasted only seven months before being conquered by Sweyn's son Cnut the Great.
House of Denmark
Sweyn and Cnut then are the first two monarchs in a completely new succession, which was destined to be short-lived. Cnut left two sons, the elder, illegitimate Harold HarefootHarold Harefoot
Harold Harefoot was King of England from 1037 to 1040. His cognomen "Harefoot" referred to his speed, and the skill of his huntsmanship. He was the son of Cnut the Great, king of England, Denmark, and Norway by Ælfgifu of Northampton...
(who may not even have been his son) and the younger, legitimate Harthacnut who was supposed to be heir to the throne of all Cnut's realms. However, Harthacnut could not travel to England due to threats of invasion in Denmark, so Harold took the throne. Harthacnut eventually began assembling a force to depose his half-brother, but Harold died before this could materialize and Harthacnut assumed power in England peacefully. Harthacnut left no sons, however, and since his mother, Emma, had been married to Æthelred the Unready (and borne him sons) before his death and Cnut's ascension, the throne passed back to the original Anglo-Saxon line in the form of her son (Harthacnut's half-brother) Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor also known as St. Edward the Confessor , son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066....
.
Anglo-Saxon Restoration
Starting with Edward the Confessor there was a brief reinstatement of the House of Wessex, but the power of the crown had diminished greatly and succession was controlled by the WitenagemotWitenagemot
The Witenagemot , also known as the Witan was a political institution in Anglo-Saxon England which operated from before the 7th century until the 11th century.The Witenagemot was an assembly of the ruling class whose primary function was to advise the king and whose membership was...
. As such Edward was succeeded by Harold Godwinson
Harold Godwinson
Harold Godwinson was the last Anglo-Saxon King of England.It could be argued that Edgar the Atheling, who was proclaimed as king by the witan but never crowned, was really the last Anglo-Saxon king...
, who made no hereditary claim but was the most powerful landowner and adviser under Edward. Modern reconstructions make him a possible descendant of Æthelred's disenfranchised son rather than Alfred the Great, Æthelred's younger brother. Harold was killed in the Battle of Hastings
Battle of Hastings
The Battle of Hastings occurred on 14 October 1066 during the Norman conquest of England, between the Norman-French army of Duke William II of Normandy and the English army under King Harold II...
, and was theoretically succeeded by Edgar Ætheling
Edgar Ætheling
Edgar Ætheling , or Edgar II, was the last male member of the royal house of Cerdic of Wessex...
, who had not even been crowned when the Norman William the Conqueror marched on London and took the throne.
Normans and Plantagenets
William IWilliam I of England
William I , also known as William the Conqueror , was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II...
, the first Norman monarch of England, willed that his second son William
William II of England
William II , the third son of William I of England, was King of England from 1087 until 1100, with powers over Normandy, and influence in Scotland. He was less successful in extending control into Wales...
—not his eldest son Robert—receive the Crown. (Robert instead inherited the Duchy of Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
.) William II and Robert agreed that in the event of one dying without children the other would inherit their possessions (and realms), but Robert was away on the crusades when William II died, and their younger brother Henry claimed the throne instead. Robert's subsequent invasion of England was resolved diplomatically via the Treaty of Alton
Treaty of Alton
The Treaty of Alton was an agreement signed in 1101 between Henry I of England and his older brother Robert, Duke of Normandy in which Robert agreed to recognize Henry as king of England in exchange for a yearly stipend and other concessions...
, in which he renounced his claim to the English throne for a stipend and other concessions. Women were not originally accepted as monarchs; William II's successor, Henry I
Henry I of England
Henry I was the fourth son of William I of England. He succeeded his elder brother William II as King of England in 1100 and defeated his eldest brother, Robert Curthose, to become Duke of Normandy in 1106...
, named his daughter Matilda as his heir, but his nephew Stephen
Stephen of England
Stephen , often referred to as Stephen of Blois , was a grandson of William the Conqueror. He was King of England from 1135 to his death, and also the Count of Boulogne by right of his wife. Stephen's reign was marked by the Anarchy, a civil war with his cousin and rival, the Empress Matilda...
took the Throne, eventually resulting in a period of civil war known as The Anarchy
The Anarchy
The Anarchy or The Nineteen-Year Winter was a period of English history during the reign of King Stephen, which was characterised by civil war and unsettled government...
, during which Matilda ruled briefly.
As part of the settlement Stephen named as his successor Matilda's son Henry II
Henry II of England
Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...
, which was challenged by his own children. Henry II's son, Henry the Young King
Henry the Young King
Henry, known as the Young King was the second of five sons of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine but the first to survive infancy. He was officially King of England; Duke of Normandy, Count of Anjou and Maine.-Early life:Little is known of the young prince Henry before the events...
, was crowned king during his own father's lifetime, but he never actually ruled, and is not known by any ordinal. He predeceased his father, who was succeeded by Richard I
Richard I of England
Richard I was King of England from 6 July 1189 until his death. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Nantes, and Overlord of Brittany at various times during the same period...
. Richard designated his younger brother's son Arthur
Arthur I, Duke of Brittany
Arthur I was Duke of Brittany between 1194 and 1202. He was the posthumous son of Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany and Constance, Duchess of Brittany...
as his heir, but his youngest brother John
John of England
John , also known as John Lackland , was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death...
assumed the Crown instead. The throne then passed directly from father to son four times, through Henry III
Henry III of England
Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
and Edward I
Edward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
, II
Edward II of England
Edward II , called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in January 1327. He was the sixth Plantagenet king, in a line that began with the reign of Henry II...
, and III
Edward III of England
Edward III was King of England from 1327 until his death and is noted for his military success. Restoring royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father, Edward II, Edward III went on to transform the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe...
. This straightforward succession was about to end, however; the proper rules of primogeniture would be followed once more with the ascension of 10-year-old Richard II
Richard II of England
Richard II was King of England, a member of the House of Plantagenet and the last of its main-line kings. He ruled from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. Richard was a son of Edward, the Black Prince, and was born during the reign of his grandfather, Edward III...
, the son of Edward the Black Prince, the deceased eldest son of Edward III. Afterward, a long, violent conflict ensued between the descendants of Edward III's five legitimate sons.
Houses of Lancaster and York
According to the rules of primogeniture, Richard II's heir presumptive was the seven-year-old Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, grandson and heir of Lionel of Antwerp, the second surviving son of Edward III. However, in 1399 Henry BolingbrokeHenry IV of England
Henry IV was King of England and Lord of Ireland . He was the ninth King of England of the House of Plantagenet and also asserted his grandfather's claim to the title King of France. He was born at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire, hence his other name, Henry Bolingbroke...
, son of John of Gaunt (third surviving son of Edward III), deposed his cousin and became Henry IV. Henry IV's House of Lancaster
House of Lancaster
The House of Lancaster was a branch of the royal House of Plantagenet. It was one of the opposing factions involved in the Wars of the Roses, an intermittent civil war which affected England and Wales during the 15th century...
(John of Gaunt's descendants) was opposed by another branch of the royal family, the House of York
House of York
The House of York was a branch of the English royal House of Plantagenet, three members of which became English kings in the late 15th century. The House of York was descended in the paternal line from Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, the fourth surviving son of Edward III, but also represented...
(Lionel of Antwerp's descendants), which had a better claim by strict primogeniture. As both houses used roses in their family symbols the conflict is known as the Wars of the Roses
Wars of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses were a series of dynastic civil wars for the throne of England fought between supporters of two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: the houses of Lancaster and York...
. Henry IV passed the throne to his son Henry V
Henry V of England
Henry V was King of England from 1413 until his death at the age of 35 in 1422. He was the second monarch belonging to the House of Lancaster....
, who likewise passed it to his son Henry VI
Henry VI of England
Henry VI was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. Until 1437, his realm was governed by regents. Contemporaneous accounts described him as peaceful and pious, not suited for the violent dynastic civil wars, known as the Wars...
. However in 1461, Henry VI was deposed by the Yorkist Edward IV
Edward IV of England
Edward IV was King of England from 4 March 1461 until 3 October 1470, and again from 11 April 1471 until his death. He was the first Yorkist King of England...
. Henry VI returned to the Throne briefly in 1470, but Edward IV deposed him again in 1471; this second time Henry and his son Edward were murdered, destroying the main Lancaster line. Edward IV's son, Edward V
Edward V of England
Edward V was King of England from 9 April 1483 until his deposition two months later. His reign was dominated by the influence of his uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who succeeded him as Richard III...
, was proclaimed king on his father's death, but never crowned as his uncle usurped the Throne as Richard III
Richard III of England
Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty...
.
Tudors
Richard III was defeated and killed in battle against Henry TudorHenry VII of England
Henry VII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor....
, who became King as Henry VII. Though a Lancastrian by descent, Henry claimed the crown not on inheritance but by right of conquest. The Act of Parliament passed in 1485 which recognised Henry VII as the Sovereign did not assert that he was entitled to the Crown by inheritance but rather, merely acknowledged the fact that Henry ruled over England.
Henry VII was followed by his son, Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
. Though his father was a Lancastrian, Henry VIII could also claim the Throne through the Yorkist line, as his mother Elizabeth
Elizabeth of York
Elizabeth of York was Queen consort of England as spouse of King Henry VII from 1486 until 1503, and mother of King Henry VIII of England....
was the sister and heiress of Edward V.
Henry VIII's numerous marriages led to several complications over succession. Henry VIII was first married to Catherine of Aragon
Catherine of Aragon
Catherine of Aragon , also known as Katherine or Katharine, was Queen consort of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII of England and Princess of Wales as the wife to Arthur, Prince of Wales...
, by whom he had a daughter named Mary
Mary I of England
Mary I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547...
. His second marriage, to Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn ;c.1501/1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of Henry VIII of England and Marquess of Pembroke in her own right. Henry's marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that was the...
, resulted in a daughter named Elizabeth
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
. Henry VIII had a son Edward
Edward VI of England
Edward VI was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant...
by his third wife, Jane Seymour
Jane Seymour
Jane Seymour was Queen of England as the third wife of King Henry VIII. She succeeded Anne Boleyn as queen consort following the latter's execution for trumped up charges of high treason, incest and adultery in May 1536. She died of postnatal complications less than two weeks after the birth of...
. An Act of Parliament passed in 1533 declared Mary illegitimate; another passed in 1536 did the same for Elizabeth. Though the two remained illegitimate, an Act of Parliament passed in 1544 allowed reinserting them, providing further "that the King should and might give, will, limit, assign, appoint or dispose the said imperial Crown and the other premises … by letters patent
Letters patent
Letters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch or president, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, title, or status to a person or corporation...
or last will in writing." Mary and Elizabeth, under Henry VIII's will, were to be followed by descendants of the King's deceased sister Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk
Mary Tudor (queen consort of France)
Mary Tudor was the younger sister of King Henry VIII of England and queen consort of France through her marriage to Louis XII. The latter was more than 30 years her senior. Following his death, which occurred less than two months after her coronation as his third wife, she married Charles Brandon,...
(he however excluded his niece Frances Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk
Lady Frances Brandon
Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk , born Lady Frances Brandon, was the second child and eldest daughter of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk and Mary Tudor, Dowager Queen of France...
). This will also excluded from the succession the descendants of Henry's eldest sister Margaret Tudor
Margaret Tudor
Margaret Tudor was the elder of the two surviving daughters of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York, and the elder sister of Henry VIII. In 1503, she married James IV, King of Scots. James died in 1513, and their son became King James V. She married secondly Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of...
, who were the rulers of Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
When Henry VIII died in 1547, the young Edward succeeded him, becoming Edward VI. Edward VI was the first Protestant Sovereign to succeed to the rule of England; he strongly opposed having the Catholic Mary be his heir. Therefore, he attempted to divert the course of succession in his will. He excluded Mary and Elizabeth, settling on the Duchess of Suffolk's daughter, the Lady Jane Grey
Lady Jane Grey
Lady Jane Grey , also known as The Nine Days' Queen, was an English noblewoman who was de facto monarch of England from 10 July until 19 July 1553 and was subsequently executed...
. The Lady Jane was also originally excluded on the premise that no woman could reign over England. Nonetheless, the will, which originally referred to the Lady Jane's heirs-male, was amended to refer to the Lady Jane and her heirs-male. Upon Edward VI's death in 1553, Jane was proclaimed reigning Queen of England; however, she was not universally recognised and after nine days overthrown by the popular Mary. As Henry VIII's will had been passed by an Act of Parliament in 1544, Edward's contravening will was unlawful and ignored.
Mary was succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth, who broke with the precedents of many of her predecessors, and refused to name an heir. Whilst previous monarchs (including Henry VIII) had specifically been granted authority to settle uncertain successions in their wills, the Treasons Act 1571
Treasons Act 1571
The Treasons Act 1570 was an Act of the Parliament of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. It restored the provisions of the Treasons Act 1534, which had been passed by Parliament during the reign of her father, Henry VIII of England, and then repealed by the Treason Act 1547 at the...
asserted that Parliament had the right to settle disputes, and made it treason to deny Parliamentary authority. Wary of threats from other possible heirs, Parliament further passed the Act of Association 1584, which provided that any individual involved in attempts to murder the Sovereign would be disqualified from succeeding. (The Act was repealed in 1863.)
Scotland
The House of StewartHouse of Stuart
The House of Stuart is a European royal house. Founded by Robert II of Scotland, the Stewarts first became monarchs of the Kingdom of Scotland during the late 14th century, and subsequently held the position of the Kings of Great Britain and Ireland...
(later Stuart) had ruled in Scotland since 1371. It had followed strict rules of primogeniture until the deposition and exile of Mary I in 1567; even then she was succeeded by her son, James VI.
Stuarts
Elizabeth I of England was succeeded by King James VI of ScotlandJames I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
, her first cousin twice removed, even though his succession also violated Henry VIII's will, under which Lady Anne Stanley, heiress of Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk, was supposed to succeed. James asserted that hereditary right was superior to statutory provision and as King in Scotland, was powerful enough to deter any rival, reigning as James I of England.
James's eldest surviving son and successor, Charles I, was overthrown and beheaded in 1649. The monarchy itself was abolished. A few years later, it was replaced by the Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
, effectively a monarch with the title of Lord Protector
Lord Protector
Lord Protector is a title used in British constitutional law for certain heads of state at different periods of history. It is also a particular title for the British Heads of State in respect to the established church...
rather than King. Cromwell had the right to name his own successor, which he exercised on his deathbed by choosing his son, Richard Cromwell
Richard Cromwell
At the same time, the officers of the New Model Army became increasingly wary about the government's commitment to the military cause. The fact that Richard Cromwell lacked military credentials grated with men who had fought on the battlefields of the English Civil War to secure their nation's...
. Richard was ineffective, and was quickly forced to abdicate. Shortly afterward, the monarchy was restored, with Charles I's son Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
as King.
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
, a Catholic, followed his brother Charles II, despite efforts in the late 1670s to exclude him in favour of Charles' Protestant bastard son, the Duke of Monmouth
James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth
James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, 1st Duke of Buccleuch, KG, PC , was an English nobleman. Originally called James Crofts or James Fitzroy, he was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the eldest illegitimate son of Charles II and his mistress, Lucy Walter...
. James was deposed when his Protestant opponents forced him to flee from England in 1688. Parliament then deemed that James had, by fleeing the realms, abdicated the thrones and offered the Crowns not to the King's infant son James
James Francis Edward Stuart
James Francis Edward, Prince of Wales was the son of the deposed James II of England...
but to his Protestant daughter Mary
Mary II of England
Mary II was joint Sovereign of England, Scotland, and Ireland with her husband and first cousin, William III and II, from 1689 until her death. William and Mary, both Protestants, became king and queen regnant, respectively, following the Glorious Revolution, which resulted in the deposition of...
and to her husband William
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
, who as James' nephew was the first person in the succession not descended from him. The two became joint Sovereigns (a unique circumstance in British history) as William III of England and Ireland (and II of Scotland) and Mary II of England, Scotland and Ireland. William had insisted on this unique provision as a condition of his military leadership against James.
The English Bill of Rights
Bill of Rights 1689
The Bill of Rights or the Bill of Rights 1688 is an Act of the Parliament of England.The Bill of Rights was passed by Parliament on 16 December 1689. It was a re-statement in statutory form of the Declaration of Right presented by the Convention Parliament to William and Mary in March 1689 ,...
passed in 1689 determined succession to the English, Scottish and Irish Thrones. First in the line were the descendants of Mary II. Next came Mary's sister the Princess Anne
Anne of Great Britain
Anne ascended the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702. On 1 May 1707, under the Act of Union, two of her realms, England and Scotland, were united as a single sovereign state, the Kingdom of Great Britain.Anne's Catholic father, James II and VII, was deposed during the...
and her descendants. Finally, the descendants of William III & II by any future marriage were added to the line of succession. Only Protestants were allowed to succeed to the Thrones, and those who married Roman Catholics were excluded.
After Mary II died in 1694, her husband continued to reign alone until his own death in 1702. The line of succession provided for by the Bill of Rights was almost at an end; William and Mary never had any children, and the Princess Anne's children had all died. Therefore, Parliament passed the Act of Settlement 1701
Act of Settlement 1701
The Act of Settlement is an act of the Parliament of England that was passed in 1701 to settle the succession to the English throne on the Electress Sophia of Hanover and her Protestant heirs. The act was later extended to Scotland, as a result of the Treaty of Union , enacted in the Acts of Union...
. The Act maintained the provision of the Bill of Rights whereby William III & II would be succeeded by the Princess Anne and her descendants, and thereafter by his own descendants from future marriages. The Act, however, declared that they would be followed by James I & VI's granddaughter Sophia, Electress and Dowager Duchess of Hanover (the daughter of James's daughter Elizabeth Stuart
Elizabeth of Bohemia
Elizabeth of Bohemia was the eldest daughter of King James VI and I, King of Scotland, England, Ireland, and Anne of Denmark. As the wife of Frederick V, Elector Palatine, she was Electress Palatine and briefly Queen of Bohemia...
) and her heirs. As under the Bill of Rights, non-Protestants and those who married Roman Catholics were excluded.
Upon William III & II's death, Anne became Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland. Because the Parliament of England settled on Sophia, Electress
Prince-elector
The Prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire were the members of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire, having the function of electing the Roman king or, from the middle of the 16th century onwards, directly the Holy Roman Emperor.The heir-apparent to a prince-elector was known as an...
of Hanover as Anne's heir without consulting Scottish leaders, the Estates of Scotland retaliated by passing the Scottish Act of Security. The Act provided that, upon the death of Anne, the Estates would meet to select an heir to the throne of Scotland, who could not be the same person as the English Sovereign unless numerous political and economic conditions were met. Anne originally withheld the Royal Assent
Royal Assent
The granting of royal assent refers to the method by which any constitutional monarch formally approves and promulgates an act of his or her nation's parliament, thus making it a law...
, but was forced to grant it when the Estates refused to raise taxes and sought to withdraw troops from the Queen's army. England's Parliament responded by passing the Alien Act, which threatened to cripple Scotland's economy by cutting off trade with them. Thus, Scotland had little choice but to unite with England to form the Kingdom of Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
in 1707; the Crown of the new nation (along with the Crown of Ireland) was subject to the rules laid down by the English Act of Settlement.
Hanoverians, Wettins, and Windsors
Anne was predeceased by Sophia, Electress of Hanover, and was therefore succeeded by the latter's son, who became George IGeorge I of Great Britain
George I was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 until his death, and ruler of the Duchy and Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the Holy Roman Empire from 1698....
in 1714.
The Crown descended thereafter without incident until 1936, when Edward VIII
Edward VIII of the United Kingdom
Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and Emperor of India, from 20 January to 11 December 1936.Before his accession to the throne, Edward was Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay...
abdicated. Edward VIII had desired to marry Wallis Simpson, a divorcée, but the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
, of which the British Sovereign is Supreme Governor, prohibited divorcés and divorcées from remarrying. Therefore, Parliament passed His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936
His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936
His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936 was the Act of the British Parliament that allowed King Edward VIII to abdicate the throne, and passed succession to his brother Prince Albert, Duke of York . The Act also excluded any possible future descendants of Edward from the line of succession...
, by which Edward VIII ceased to be Sovereign. The Act provided that he and his descendants, if any, were not to have any "right, title or interest in or to the succession to the Throne". He had no children, and Edward VIII was succeeded by his brother George VI
George VI of the United Kingdom
George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death...
and thereafter succession proceeded as normal.
Current rules
The Act of Settlement 1701 (restated by the Acts of Union) still governs succession to the Throne. (The Act does not abrogate several provisions of the Bill of Rights, which, therefore, still remain in effect.) His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936, which provided that Edward VIII and his descendants would have no claim to the Throne, is no longer applicable, as Edward died in 1972 without issue.Anyone ineligible to succeed is deemed "naturally dead". That individual's descendants are not also disqualified, unless they are personally ineligible.
Marriages
The Protestant "heir of the body" of Sophia, Electress of Hanover succeeds to the Throne. The term, under English law, applies the rules of male primogeniture to succession. Children born out of wedlock and adopted children, however, are not eligible to succeed. Illegitimate children whose parents subsequently marry are legitimated, but remain ineligible to inherit the Crown.In addition to the normal rules relating to marriage, the Royal Marriages Act 1772
Royal Marriages Act 1772
The Royal Marriages Act 1772 is an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain which prescribes the conditions under which members of the British Royal Family may contract a valid marriage, in order to guard against marriages that could diminish the status of the Royal House...
applies to the descendants of George II
George II of Great Britain
George II was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Archtreasurer and Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death.George was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain. He was born and brought up in Northern Germany...
. (The descendants of princesses who married into foreign royal families were excepted, as were, in 1936, any descendants of Edward VIII.) The Act provides that each individual bound by its provisions may not marry without the Sovereign's consent being signified under the Great Seal and being announced before the Privy Council
Privy council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch's closest advisors to give confidential advice on...
. The Act provides, however, that if an individual older than twenty-five years notifies the Privy Council of his or her intention to marry without the consent of the Sovereign, then he or she may lawfully do so after one year, unless both houses of Parliament expressly disapprove of the marriage. Any marriage that contravenes the Royal Marriages Act is void, and the offspring thereof are illegitimate and ineligible to succeed to the Crown. Such a purported marriage, if made to a Roman Catholic, cannot by itself be cause for removal from the line of succession. Thus when the future George IV
George IV of the United Kingdom
George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
attempted to marry the Roman Catholic Maria Fitzherbert
Maria Anne Fitzherbert
Maria Fitzherbert , was the woman with whom the future George IV secretly undertook a form of marriage, and his companion for a large part of his adult life. However the marriage in England was invalid under English civil laws concerning royal marriages...
in 1785 without seeking permission from George III
George III of the United Kingdom
George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
he did not disqualify himself from inheriting the throne in due course.
The individuals closest to the throne who are disqualified from the succession on the grounds of being born out of wedlock are the Hon Benjamin Lascelles and the Hon Emily Lascelles, who would have otherwise ranked fortieth and forty-first in the line of succession respectively, after their father, Viscount Lascelles
David Lascelles, Viscount Lascelles
David Henry George Lascelles, 8th Earl of Harewood is a British hereditary peer and film and television producer. He is in line to the British throne....
. Lord Lascelles subsequently legitimated them by marrying their mother, but they still remain ineligible to succeed to the Crown.
Religion
Rules relating to eligibility established by the Bill of Rights are retained under the Act of Settlement. The preamble to the Act of Settlement notes that the Bill of Rights provides "that all and every person and persons that then [at the time of the Bill of Right's passage] were, or afterwards should be reconciled to, or shall hold communion with the see or Church of Rome, or should profess the popish religion, or marry a papist, should be excluded." The Act of Settlement continues, providing "that all and every Person and Persons who shall … is, are or shall be reconciled to or shall hold Communion with the See or Church of RomeHoly See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
or shall profess the Popish religion or shall marry a papist shall be subject to such Incapacities" as the Bill of Rights established.
The precise meaning of the aforementioned clauses is subject to contention. Under one interpretation, the religion of an individual at the precise moment of succession is relevant. Under another interpretation, anyone who has been a Roman Catholic at any time since 1689 ("then … or afterwards") is forever ineligible to succeed. The former interpretation allows a Roman Catholic to convert to Protestantism and succeed to the Throne just before his predecessor dies; the latter does not. In either case, however, other religions are not affected; it is clear that any non-Catholic may convert to Protestantism and succeed to the Throne.
The Act of Settlement further provides that anyone who marries a Roman Catholic at any time would be forever ineligible to succeed to the Throne. (Some suggest that the religion of one's spouse at the precise time of succession is all that matters. This interpretation, however, is not borne out by a literal reading of the Act, which uses the phrase "shall marry", not "shall be married.") The Act does not require that the spouse be Protestant; it only bars those who marry Roman Catholics. Furthermore, an individual is not barred because his or her spouse converts to Roman Catholicism after marriage.
The highest individual ineligible to succeed because he or she married a Roman Catholic is the Earl of St Andrews, who would have otherwise ranked twenty-third in the line of succession. The highest individual ineligible to succeed because he or she is not a Protestant is Lord Downpatrick (Lord St Andrews' son), who would have otherwise ranked twenty-fourth.
Treason
Under the Treason Act 1702Treason Act 1702
The Treason Act 1702 is an Act of the Parliament of England, passed to enforce the line of succession to the English throne, previously established by the Bill of Rights 1689 and the Act of Settlement 1701....
and the Treason (Ireland) Act 1703, it is treason
High treason in the United Kingdom
Under the law of the United Kingdom, high treason is the crime of disloyalty to the Crown. Offences constituting high treason include plotting the murder of the sovereign; having sexual intercourse with the sovereign's consort, with his eldest unmarried daughter, or with the wife of the heir to the...
to "endeavour to deprive or hinder any person who shall be the next in succession to the crown ... from succeeding ... to the imperial crown of this realm". Since 1998
Crime and Disorder Act 1998
The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act was published on 2 December 1997 and received Royal Assent in July 1998...
the maximum penalty has been life imprisonment.
Reforms initiated in 2011
On 28 October 2011, proposed reforms to the succession were announced during the 2011 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2011
The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2011, commonly known as CHOGM 2011, was the twenty-second Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations...
in Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. The heads of government of the 16 Commonwealth realms agreed to change the rules of succession by replacing male preference primogeniture with absolute primogeniture, in which the first born child of a monarch is heir apparent regardless of gender. The change would only apply for descendants of the current Prince of Wales. It was also proposed to end both the ban on marriage to Catholics and the requirement for those in line to the throne to gain the permission of the sovereign to marry. However the requirement for the sovereign to be in communion with the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
was proposed to remain, as well as the specific ban on Catholics sitting on the throne. The Queen was understood to support the changes. Depending on individual constitutional arrangements, the reforms now need to be approved by parliaments of most of the realms, however, in some realms such as Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
and Tuvalu
Tuvalu
Tuvalu , formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, midway between Hawaii and Australia. Its nearest neighbours are Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa and Fiji. It comprises four reef islands and five true atolls...
, the reforms do not require direct legislation and will become automatic once the changes are implemented in the United Kingdom. New Zealand will chair a working group to determine the process for reform. In the United Kingdom, the reforms will require amendments to numerous pieces of legislation including the Bill of Rights 1688, the Act of Settlement 1700, the Union with Scotland Act 1706 and the Coronation Oath Act 1688
Coronation Oath Act 1688
The Coronation Oath Act 1688 was an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of England passed in 1689, the long title of which is "An Act for Establishing the Coronation Oath"...
, Princess Sophia's Precedence Act 1711
Princess Sophia's Precedence Act 1711
The Princess Sophia's Precedence Act 1711 was an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of Great Britain. The Act is still in force....
, the Royal Marriages Act 1772
Royal Marriages Act 1772
The Royal Marriages Act 1772 is an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain which prescribes the conditions under which members of the British Royal Family may contract a valid marriage, in order to guard against marriages that could diminish the status of the Royal House...
, the Union with Ireland Act 1800, the Accession Declaration Act 1910
Accession Declaration Act 1910
The Accession Declaration Act 1910 is an Act passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom that sets out the declaration that the Sovereign is required to make at his or her coronation....
and the Regency Act 1937.
Changes made to the succession law in the United Kingdom do not have effect in most other Commonwealth Realm
Commonwealth Realm
A Commonwealth realm is a sovereign state within the Commonwealth of Nations that has Elizabeth II as its monarch and head of state. The sixteen current realms have a combined land area of 18.8 million km² , and a population of 134 million, of which all, except about two million, live in the six...
s, unless specifically enacted by the Parliaments thereof. The Commonwealth Realms, of which the United Kingdom is one, are independent nations, all under a single monarch. The Statute of Westminster 1931
Statute of Westminster 1931
The Statute of Westminster 1931 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Passed on 11 December 1931, the Act established legislative equality for the self-governing dominions of the British Empire with the United Kingdom...
provides, "it would be in accord with the established constitutional position of all the members of the Commonwealth in relation to one another that any alteration in the law touching the Succession to the Throne or the Royal Style and Titles shall hereafter require the assent as well of the Parliaments of all the Dominion
Dominion
A dominion, often Dominion, refers to one of a group of autonomous polities that were nominally under British sovereignty, constituting the British Empire and British Commonwealth, beginning in the latter part of the 19th century. They have included Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland,...
s (now Commonwealth realm
Commonwealth Realm
A Commonwealth realm is a sovereign state within the Commonwealth of Nations that has Elizabeth II as its monarch and head of state. The sixteen current realms have a combined land area of 18.8 million km² , and a population of 134 million, of which all, except about two million, live in the six...
s) as of the Parliament of the United Kingdom." This provision, however, is a part of the Preamble of the Act. Since it does not follow an enacting clause, it has no legal force. Therefore, each Commonwealth realm may be permitted to amend its own succession laws, insofar as it applies to that Realm, with the convention set out in the preamble only applying as a guideline, though one central to the symmetrical relationship of the Realms under the Crown. The prospect of creating different succession laws in the United Kingdom and the Realms is widely regarded as an obstacle to making any change to the laws of succession in any one Realm. Accordingly, Cameron sought unanimous consent from Commonwealth realm prime ministers for the reforms.
The reforms will not cause Princess Anne
Anne, Princess Royal
Princess Anne, Princess Royal , is the only daughter of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
and her issue to be promoted over her younger brothers, the Princes Andrew
Prince Andrew, Duke of York
Prince Andrew, Duke of York KG GCVO , is the second son, and third child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
and Edward
Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex
Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex KG GCVO is the third son and fourth child of Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh...
and their children, as they will only come into effect for descendents of the Prince of Wales.
Comments
The changes were announced by British prime minister David CameronDavid Cameron
David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
, saying "The idea that a younger son should become monarch instead of an elder daughter simply because he is a man, or that a future monarch can marry someone of any faith except a Catholic - this way of thinking is at odds with the modern countries that we have become." On the question of continued requirements that the sovereign be a Protestant, Cameron added, "Let me be clear, the monarch must be in communion with the Church of England because he or she is the head of that Church."
He was supported by Australian prime minister Julia Gillard
Julia Gillard
Julia Eileen Gillard is the 27th and current Prime Minister of Australia, in office since June 2010.Gillard was born in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales and migrated with her family to Adelaide, Australia in 1966, attending Mitcham Demonstration School and Unley High School. In 1982 Gillard moved...
, who said she was "very enthusiastic about it. You would expect the first Australian woman prime minister to be very enthusiastic about a change which equals equality for women in a new area." Canadian prime minister
Prime Minister of Canada
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...
Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
described the reforms as "obvious modernizations".
Scottish First Minister
First Minister of Scotland
The First Minister of Scotland is the political leader of Scotland and head of the Scottish Government. The First Minister chairs the Scottish Cabinet and is primarily responsible for the formulation, development and presentation of Scottish Government policy...
Alex Salmond
Alex Salmond
Alexander Elliot Anderson "Alex" Salmond MSP is a Scottish politician and current First Minister of Scotland. He became Scotland's fourth First Minister in May 2007. He is the Leader of the Scottish National Party , having served as Member of the Scottish Parliament for Gordon...
was more critical, saying: “It is deeply disappointing that the reform has stopped short of removing the unjustifiable barrier on a Catholic becoming monarch.”
While welcoming the gender equality reforms, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
also criticized the failure to remove the ban on Catholics sitting on the throne as "fanning a religious hostility the rest of Europe was already growing beyond."
A representative of the campaigning group Republic
Republic (political organisation)
Republic is a British non-partisan republican pressure group advocating the replacement of the United Kingdom's monarchy with a democratically-elected head of state....
said: "The monarchy discriminates against every man, woman and child who isn't born into the Windsor family. To suggest that this has anything to do with equality is utterly absurd."
Timetable
| Realm | Date reforms approved in principle by Prime Minister | Date reforms approved by parliament | Date given royal assent |
|---|---|---|---|
 Antigua and BarbudaAntigua and Barbuda Antigua and Barbuda is a twin-island nation lying between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It consists of two major inhabited islands, Antigua and Barbuda, and a number of smaller islands... |
28 October 2011 | ||
 AustraliaAustralia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area... |
28 October 2011 | ||
 The BahamasThe Bahamas The Bahamas , officially the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, is a nation consisting of 29 islands, 661 cays, and 2,387 islets . It is located in the Atlantic Ocean north of Cuba and Hispaniola , northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and southeast of the United States... |
28 October 2011 | ||
 BarbadosBarbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint... |
28 October 2011 | ||
 BelizeBelize Belize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official... |
28 October 2011 | ||
 CanadaCanada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean... |
28 October 2011 | ||
 GrenadaGrenada Grenada is an island country and Commonwealth Realm consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea... |
28 October 2011 | ||
 JamaicaJamaica Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic... |
28 October 2011 | ||
 New ZealandNew Zealand New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga... |
28 October 2011 | ||
 Papua New GuineaPapua New Guinea Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands... |
28 October 2011 | ||
 Saint Kitts and NevisSaint Kitts and Nevis The Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis , located in the Leeward Islands, is a federal two-island nation in the West Indies. It is the smallest sovereign state in the Americas, in both area and population.... |
28 October 2011 | ||
 Saint LuciaSaint Lucia Saint Lucia is an island country in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. Part of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent, northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique. It covers a land area of 620 km2 and has an... |
28 October 2011 | ||
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Accession
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
and other cities. The anniversary of this is observed throughout the Sovereign's reign as Accession Day
Accession Day
An Accession Day is the anniversary of the date on which a monarch succeeds to the throne upon the death of the previous monarch.-Monarchy:The custom of marking this day was inaugurated during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England....
.
Formerly, the new Sovereign proclaimed his or her own succession. After Elizabeth I died, however, an Accession Council
Accession Council
In the United Kingdom, the Accession Council is a ceremonial body which assembles in St. James's Palace upon the death of a monarch , to make a formal proclamation of the accession of his or her successor to the throne, and to receive a religious oath from the new monarch...
proclaimed the succession of James I, who was in Scotland at the time, to the throne of England (he was already King James VI of Scotland at the time). This precedent has been followed in each case since; now, the Accession Council normally meets in St. James's Palace
St. James's Palace
St. James's Palace is one of London's oldest palaces. It is situated in Pall Mall, just north of St. James's Park. Although no sovereign has resided there for almost two centuries, it has remained the official residence of the Sovereign and the most senior royal palace in the UK...
. Proclamations since James I's have usually been made in the name of the Lords Spiritual
Lords Spiritual
The Lords Spiritual of the United Kingdom, also called Spiritual Peers, are the 26 bishops of the established Church of England who serve in the House of Lords along with the Lords Temporal. The Church of Scotland, which is Presbyterian, is not represented by spiritual peers...
and Temporal, the Privy Council
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
, the Lord Mayor, Aldermen
Alderman
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...
and citizens of the City of London
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
and "other principal Gentlemen
Gentleman
The term gentleman , in its original and strict signification, denoted a well-educated man of good family and distinction, analogous to the Latin generosus...
of quality", though there have been variations in some proclamations. Elizabeth II's proclamation was the first to also make mention of representatives of members of the Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
.
After an appropriate period of mourning has passed, the Sovereign is also crowned
Coronation of the British monarch
The coronation of the British monarch is a ceremony in which the monarch of the United Kingdom is formally crowned and invested with regalia...
. Coronations are held in Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
. The Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
normally officiates, though the Sovereign may designate any other bishop of the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
. A coronation is not necessary for a Sovereign to reign; for example, Edward VIII was never crowned, yet was the undoubted king during his short reign.
Statistical tables
| Year | Total line | Descendents of Queen Victoria |
|---|---|---|
| 1701 | 10 | N/A |
| 1761 | 55 | N/A |
| 1821 | 192 | N/A |
| 1901 | 806 | 74 |
| 1941 | 1,466 | 178 |
| 1981 | 3,326 | 426 |
| 2001 | 4,982 | 625 |
| 1 Jan 2001 | Most Recent Ancestor |
|---|---|
| 80 | Edward VII Edward VII of the United Kingdom Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910... |
| 625 | Queen Victoria |
| 657 | George III George III of the United Kingdom George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death... |
| 3,638 | George II George II of Great Britain George II was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Archtreasurer and Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death.George was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain. He was born and brought up in Northern Germany... |
| 4,982 | George I George I of Great Britain George I was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 until his death, and ruler of the Duchy and Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the Holy Roman Empire from 1698.... |
The statistical tables show how the line has grown over the years. In 1701 when the law was passed there were ten living people in the line, including three who later became sovereign — Queen Anne
Anne of Great Britain
Anne ascended the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702. On 1 May 1707, under the Act of Union, two of her realms, England and Scotland, were united as a single sovereign state, the Kingdom of Great Britain.Anne's Catholic father, James II and VII, was deposed during the...
, King George I and King George II. On 26 April 1721 the first member of the line of succession to be born in Britain was Prince William, Duke of Cumberland, the 6th child of George II. In 1748 the first Dutch prince was born in the line of succession, and in 1749 the first Danish prince was born into the line. In 1761 after George III became king there were 20 living descendants of his grandfather George II and 35 living descendants of the sister of George II (which also formed the Prussian line of succession). In 1777, Aleksandr Pavlovich
Alexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....
was the first Russian born into the line of succession. In 1821 George IV had been king for less than a year and Victoria was two years old. In 1901 she died leaving 74 living descendants. By then they lived in nearly every country in Europe and included the monarchs of Germany, Hesse and Saxe-Coburg; the consorts of Russia and Saxe-Meiningen; future monarchs of Greece and Schleswig-Holstein; and future consorts of Spain, Sweden, Norway, Romania, Yugoslavia, Brunswick and Hohenlohe-Langenburg.
The table for 1 January 2001 shows the number of descendants from different generations. George III is the grandfather of Victoria, and George II is the grandfather of George III. There is no estimate on the number of illegitimate descendants, but they could be in the thousands, as George I had three illegitimate children, and only two legitimate ones.
Although the law says that all issue from the body of Sophia (mother to George I) are eligible to succeed to the throne (if they meet the other criteria), Sophia only had three legitimate grandchildren, the son and daughter of George I, and his nephew. The daughter of George I married her cousin, so all the living descendants of Sophia are also descendants of George I.
See also
- Alternative successions of the English crown
- British monarchs' family treeBritish monarchs' family treeThis is the British monarchs' family tree, from James VI of Scotland to the present queen, Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.-Before James VI/I:-House of Stuart:-House of Hanover:...
- British monarchyBritish monarchyThe monarchy of the United Kingdom is the constitutional monarchy of the United Kingdom and its overseas territories. The present monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, has reigned since 6 February 1952. She and her immediate family undertake various official, ceremonial and representational duties...
- History of the British line of successionHistory of the British line of successionThe first ten people in the line of succession to the British throne at the time of death or abdication of each monarch are shown.-Anne:The Act of Union 1707, which united the thrones of Scotland and England, extended the Act of Settlement to Scotland...
- List of monarchs in the British Isles