Line of succession to the British throne

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

The line of succession to the British throne is the order in which members of the royal family would come to the throne if the reigning king or queen died or abdicated.

At present the first in line is Charles, Prince of Wales, followed by his elder son, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and then Prince William, Duke of Cambridge's son.

The succession is decided firstly by gender and then by age. Males come before females, and older children come before younger children. When someone who is in line to the throne has a child, that child comes after them and their other children, but before anyone else in the line of succession.

Excluded from the line of succession are Catholics, people who are married with Catholics and illegitimate children.

Line of succession[change | change source]

No official, complete version of the line of succession is currently maintained. Any person's actual position in the line of succession may change when people are born or when they die. This list shows only those people who are descended from the sons of George V.

Notes and sources:

XC Excluded as Roman Catholics. This exclusion will not be affected by the Succession to the Crown Act 2013.
MC These people were excluded through marriage to a Roman Catholic. This exclusion is repealed under s. 2(2) of the Succession to the Crown Act 2013, restoring them to the line of succession once it comes into effect.
B listed by the official website of the British Monarchy, "Succession"
D listed on Debrett's website (as of 9 August 2013): "The Line of Succession to the British Throne"
W listed by Whitaker's Almanack 2013, London: Bloomsbury, ISBN 978-1-4081-7207-0, p. 21
D88 Listed by Debretts (1988).[5]
1952 Succession as published on the accession of Queen Elizabeth II in 1952[6]

Notes[change | change source]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 The Commonwealth governments agreed to changes to the line of succession. Sons born after 28 October 2011 would lose their male preference. This means that Tane Lewis and Rufus Gilman switch places with their elder sisters Senna and Lyla.
  2. Albert and Leopold Windsor are listed on The Official Website of the British Monarchy and in the 2013 edition of Whitaker's Almanack as following Estella Taylor (b 2004), not following Lady Amelia Windsor. As they were baptised as Catholics, they are not listed in Debrett's or editions of Whitaker's earlier than 2012.
  3. Lady Helen Taylor is listed on The Official Website of the British Monarchy, Debrett's and Whitaker's as following Lady Amelia Windsor, not following Leopold Windsor.

References[change | change source]

  1. Announcement of the birth of Mr and Mrs Tindall's first baby, 17 January 2014
  2. "Zara and Mike Tindall's baby named on Twitter".
  3. SEBASTIAN SHAKESPEARE: Cheer up, Cressy, it's a drama not a crisis -- Miracle birth for Windsors
  4. Prince and Princess Michael of Kent welcome first grandchild
  5. Williamson, David; Ellis, Patricia, eds. (1988). Debrett's Distinguished People of Today. Debrett's Peerage. p. 61. ISBN 0905649990 . ""First 25 in succession as listed - Viscount [David] Lascelles being the 25th""
  6. "Line of succession to the throne". The Sydney Morning Herald. 7 February 1952. Retrieved 24 June 2012.