Q&A: Who can inherit the British throne
December 3, 2012 -- Updated 2018 GMT (0418 HKT)
With royal baby, three wait for throne
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- The marriage of William and Catherine brought the succession back into focus
- Sons and daughters of British monarchs will now have an equal right to the throne
- Roman Catholics are still barred from holding the crown
- Both the UK laws and those of 15 other Commonwealth states will have to be amended
But until 2011, any
daughter born to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge would not have
enjoyed an equal right to inherit the British throne. Rules dating back
centuries decree that the crown passes to the eldest son and is only
bestowed on a daughter when there are no sons.
All this changed at an
October 2011 meeting of the leaders of 16 Commonwealth countries in
Perth, Australia, where they unanimously agreed to amend the succession
rules.
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CNN examines the background to a controversial and long-running debate.
What prompted the change?
The issue has been
discussed in the UK for many years -- and changes have been proposed
before -- but it requires an act of parliament and the agreement of the
15 other realms where British royalty is the head of state to alter the
rules of succession.
Successive UK governments
have failed to find parliamentary time to debate proposals to change
the law. A spokesman at UK Prime Minister David Cameron's office said it
had often been thought of as "too thorny and complicated to deal with
quickly."
The marriage of William
and Catherine in April 2011 brought the issue back into focus. David
Cameron referred directly to the couple in his speech to Commonwealth
leaders, saying the succession rules were "outdated."
"The idea that a younger
son should become monarch instead of an elder daughter simply because
he's a man... this way of thinking is at odds with the modern countries
that we've all become," he said.
So what was agreed?
The leaders of the 16
Commonwealth countries that have Queen Elizabeth II as head of state
unanimously agreed that sons and daughters of British monarchs will have
an equal right to the throne. They also agreed that a future British
monarch can marry a Roman Catholic -- something that is currently
banned.
What was the historical basis for the old rules?
The tradition of
favoring the male heir -- called male primogeniture -- goes back many
centuries and can be seen in the extensive family tree of the British
monarchy.
But a key law which
governs the way British monarchs are chosen is the 1701 Act of
Settlement which has its roots in the religious strife of the age. The
official British Monarchy website explains that the act was designed to
secure the protestant succession to the throne.
Royal commentator and
former editor of the International Who's Who, Richard Fitzwilliams,
explained that this has been a divisive issue ever since the English
Tudor King Henry VIII split with the Catholic Church in Rome in the 16th
Century, leading to decades of religious persecution.
The Act of Settlement
decreed that no Roman Catholic or anyone married to a Catholic could
hold the English crown. This is now to be amended so that an heir to the
throne can still be monarch even if they marry a Catholic.
The British Monarchy
website gives two examples of the current royal family who were removed
from the line of succession because they married Roman Catholics --
George Windsor, Earl of St Andrews, and Prince Michael of Kent.
How are William and Catherine affected?
The changes mean that if
the couple's first born is a girl, she will eventually become queen.
Previously, a younger son would have taken precedence. However, this
could be many years in the future. Prince Charles is first in line to
the throne when Queen Elizabeth II dies, and his son William would
ascend after his reign.
David Cameron's speech
makes it clear that the new rules are not retroactive, so Prince
Charles's eldest sibling, Anne, will not be in line to the throne in
front of her younger brothers Andrew and Edward.
It also means that any heir born to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge can marry a Catholic and retain the crown.
What isn't changing?
The British sovereign is
also head of the Church of England -- part of the Anglican church --
and retains the title Defender of the Faith. David Cameron said at the
2011 meeting that "the monarch must be in communion with the Church of
England because he or she is the head of that church." This would
currently bar a Catholic holding the crown.
Prince Charles caused
controversy in 1994 when he said in a TV interview that he would rather
be seen as "defender of faiths" to include Catholic subjects of the
sovereign which he described as "equally as important as the Anglican
ones or the protestant ones." He went on to list other faiths as also
being equally important.
What happens next?
David Cameron explained
in his speech to Commonwealth leaders that "for historic reasons" the UK
legislation needed to be published first but the necessary measures
would be implemented at the same time across the Commonwealth.
However, the process is a
complex one. The Downing Street spokesman said that in addition to the
Act of Settlement, many other archaic laws would have to be amended --
these include the Bill of Rights 1689, the Coronation Oath Act 1688, the
Acts of Union and the Royal Marriage Act 1772.
Each of the 15 other Commonwealth members would then have to amend their own legislation.
So which countries are affected?
The Commonwealth
consists of 54 independent states, most of which have ties to the United
Kingdom, but Queen Elizabeth II is head of state to only 16 of them
including the UK. Those nations are Antigua and Barbuda, Australia,
Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua
New Guinea, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines,
Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu.
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