Two years ago, I posted a video on this channel
about the line of succession to the British
throne. A lot has happened since then so I
thought it might be a good idea to make a
quick update and in particular, to address
certain rumours related to the topic. First
of all, let me address the biggest rumour
of all. Today is April 1st and therefore it’s
April Fools day so if you came here thinking
that Prince Charles has been removed from
the line of succession or that there’s a
good chance that this might actually happened,
let me tell you up front: No, this is not
true.
This rumour has actually been around for a
really long time. It stems from the fact that
Charles and Camilla are not the most popular
royals and that most people seem to like William
& Kate a lot more. Many people think that
Queen Elizabeth should just come out and say
that she wants William to be the next monarch,
not Charles. Well, she’s never said such
a thing, nor is she likely to ever do so.
You see, it’s not that easy. The UK is a
constitutional monarchy and therefore the
parliament would have to approve any changes
to the line of succession. In fact, Queen
Elizabeth is the monarch of fifteen other
countries (for example, Canada) and therefore
the parliaments of those countries would also
have to vote on the matter.
So, all feelings on the matter aside, Charles
is first in the line of succession and therefore
he is going to be the next monarch, unless,
of course he dies before his mother. Now,
at this point, I should mention that yes,
Charles did test positive for Covid-19. But,
in case you haven’t heard, he’s already
recovered.
So, he’s still number one and his firstborn
son Prince William is number two. After William,
comes his three children: George, Charlotte,
and Louis, making Prince Harry number six.
Which leads me to the second major point that
I’d like to make. Prince Harry and his son
Archie are still in the line of succession.
The fact that he and Meghan are no longer
working members of royal family does not change
this fact. The same is true for Prince Andrew.
Even if Prince Andrew were to be stripped
of all his titles and be put in prison, he’d
still be in the line of succession, whether
we like it or not.
You see, the line of succession has nothing
to do with titles or with popularity. It’s
strictly about birth order. So it always proceeds
down first, from firstborn to firstborn, and
then whenever the line ends, it goes sideways
to siblings and then back up to the previous
generation.
So, if Prince Charles were to die before his
mother, things wouldn’t automatically pass
to his brother Andrew. They would still go
to the descendants of Charles first. Likewise,
if William were to die while Charles was king,
this wouldn’t mean that Harry would move
to the front of the line. These kids, and
their future kids, are always going to be
in front of Harry. Even if the Queen, Prince
Charles, and Prince William were all to die
in quick succession, George would still be
king, even if he was still a child. In that
case, he’d be appointed a regent until he
turned 18.
Another thing I should mention. You’ve probably
heard that in 2013, the sixteen commonwealth
countries that all share the same monarch
did in fact all vote to make a small change
in the line of succession. This primarily
involved the place of females in the line.
Previously, male siblings were placed higher
than female siblings, even if they were younger.
So, for example, under the previous system,
Louis would have come before Charlotte. But
under the new system, it doesn’t matter
if a person is male or female – it just
goes according to birth order.
However, this new rule only applies to people
born after the year 2011. So it applies to
this generation but not to previous generations.
For example, the birth order of the Queen’s
children is: Charles, Anne, Andrew, Edward,
so boy, girl, boy, boy. But because they were
born under the previous system, the two younger
boys retain their positions ahead of their
older sister Anne. Now I should point out
that Anne is in fact second born. Some people
seem to think that she was born before Charles.
Nope. Charles was born in 1948 and Anne in
1950. It’s also common for people to confuse
her with her aunt, Princess Margaret. Margaret
was the Queen’s sister and she passed away
in 2002. Princess Anne is the Queen’s daughter
and she is still living.
The other small change involved religion.
Previously, a person lost their place in line
if they married a Catholic. This is no longer
the case. However, if a person becomes Catholic
themselves, they’re still out. So for those
who want Harry to become king, the only way
for that to happen would be to convince the
entire Cambridge family to convert to Catholicism.
Okay, a few other updates since my last video.
In addition to these two new children, there’s
also Lena Tindall, born around the same time
as Louis. Then there’s the marriage between
Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank in 2018
and the upcoming wedding between Princess
Beatrice and Eduardo Mapelli Mozzi. Eduardo
is unofficially ranked as a count. I say unofficially
because he’s an Italian noble and technically
the Italian nobility no longer exists.
But, that said, Beatrice will take the courtesy
title of Countess after the wedding. As for
when the wedding will take place, it’s somewhat
uncertain due to Covid-19.
Since Beatrice is the older sibling, when
and if she has children, those children would
come directly after her, bumping her sister
Eugenie down the line. I’ve heard some people
say that the “children before siblings”
principle is unfair. Usually because they’d
like to see Prince Harry come directly after
William. But be careful what you wish for.
If the rules did in fact work that way, what
you’d actually end up with is Andrew coming
directly after Charles.
One last thing to note. You can see that as
more and more children are born, this chart
gets bigger and bigger. But the line of succession
does not go on forever. So don’t think that
just because you’re a British citizen, you
fit somewhere on the list, even if it’s
somewhere in the millions. To be included
in the line of succession, you have to be
a descendant of this woman here - Sophia of
Hanover, the mother of King George I.
Okay, if you want to know more about the individuals
further down the line of succession, you can
check out my original video on the topic by
following the link on screen or in the description.
Thanks for watching.
