The Unofficial British Royal Family Pages

Sunday 17 August 2008

"Who's on First?" - Britain's Order of Succession

Before plunging into my topic for this month I simply must give a cheer to Prince Charles concerning his recent observations criticizing industrial agriculture and genetically modified crops.  As the son of a traditional farmer I very much agree with the Prince, and hope his “outburst” has some impact.  As I see it the innovations of the so-called “experts” over the last fifty years have too often wrecked havoc against both the environment and against farming families.  One of Prince Charles’ traditional Scottish titles is that of “Great Steward” and I think it takes on new meaning when he speaks out like this.  (I was also glad to read in the same interview that he’s a fan of the wonderful “smoky-peaty” single malt whiskey, Laphroig.  Which is also a favorite of mine!)  Now, onward to what I intended to write about… 

Most of my American readers will be familiar with the classic old Abbott and Costello comedy routine of “Who’s on First?” where great confusion reigns as the person who is asking the question fails to understand that a baseball player named “Who” actually is the first baseman.  It is a simply hilarious piece.  That the routine occurred to me as I recently began to try to understand the broad outlines of the British order of succession to the throne is no surprise.  The “batting order” for the throne is fairly simple close in, but gets far more confusing the further one gets into the outfield.  (And with that I’ll lay aside the sporting metaphor... before I get in over my head!) 

The basic rules of the British order of succession are these: 

1. The succession is vested in the legitimate descendants of Princess Sophia, Electress of Hanover, who was the one eligible Protestant heiress to Queen Anne in the early 18^th century.  Sophia was a granddaughter of King James VI/I, and the youngest child of James’ daughter Elizabeth the “Winter Queen” of Bohemia and Electress Palatinate. 

2. Those in the line of succession cannot be a member of the Roman Catholic Church, or married to a member of the Roman Catholic Church.  This was due to the real-politick struggles of 17^th century Europe, emerging from the era of the Wars of Religion. 

3. The succession gives preference to males, but does not exclude women (as did the succession rules of many other countries).  Hence all the sons of a given monarch rank above the daughters, but when there are no sons, or the sons have no eligible offspring, the female heir succeeds. 

4. Under the Royal Marriages Act passed in 1772 during the reign of George III, the Sovereign must give his or her consent to the marriage of any descendant of George II (with certain exceptions and provisions) or that marriage is illegal and void (thus making any offspring officially illegitimate).  Since it still applies to all descendants of George II there are currently thousands of people who are technically covered by the law, and who thus should seek the Queen’s permission to marry.  (Readers might be interested in a column about this act in this website’s archives: http://www.etoile.co.uk/Muse/010302.html) 

So, that all being said, how is the line of succession organized?  In what follows I will give the broad outlines.  (Those who wish to find detailed lists can check out various online sources such as Wikipedia.)  Here goes…. 

Descendants of Queen Elizabeth II:  Prince Charles and his sons are followed by the Duke of York and his daughters, the Earl of Wessex and his children (Viscount Severn preceding Lady Louise), and the Princess Royal and her children. 

Descendants of King George VI: the late Princess Margaret’s children Viscount Linley and Lady Sarah Chatto, and their respective children. 

Descendants of King George V:  the Duke of Gloucester followed by his son and daughters, with their respective children as they come along; the Kent family consisting of the Duke of Kent, Prince Michael’s family (he himself being barred by his marriage to a Catholic), and Princess Alexandra, along with their various eligible children and grandchildren; and then the Lascelles descendants of Princess Mary, the Countess of Harewood, headed up by the current Earl of Harewood.  (Note that several members of the Duke of Kent’s family have given up their places in the order of succession through their marriages to Roman Catholics or by their conversion to the Roman Catholic Church.) 

Most royal watchers are somewhat familiar with the succession up to this point.  But now it begins to get somewhat more obscure. 

Descendants of King Edward VII:  First come the descendants of George V’s sister, Princess Louise, Duchess of Fife.  The current Duke of Fife, his two children and their offspring, are still regarded by the Queen as members of the extended royal family.  After the Fifes come the descendants of Queen Maud of Norway, the grandmother of King Harald.  The Norwegian royal family is thus the most closely related foreign dynasty to the House of Windsor. 

Descendants of Queen Victoria:  At this point thing get more complicated, and I’ll create sub-groupings for each of Victoria’s children beyond Edward VII. 

1. Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh:  Alfred’s son, also Alfred, died young and had no descendants.  The elder daughter in the family was the famous Queen Marie of Rumania, from whom descends both the family of King Michael of Rumania (himself excluded due to his marriage to a Roman Catholic) and the former Yugoslavian royal family.  After a failed marriage to one of her German cousins, Prince Alfred’s younger daughter, Victoria Melita, married Grand Duke Cyril of Russia, and their son Vladimir was claimant to the imperial crown after the death of Nicholas II.  Vladimir was survived by his daughter, Grand Duchess Marie, and grandson George.  Marie claims to be heiress to the Russian Imperial throne, even though the Romanov dynasty imposed a male-only rule of succession in the 19^th century.  (If that rule is set aside, it would seem that the descendants of Nicholas II’s surviving sisters would then have better claims, and if the rule isn’t set aside then more distant Romanov cousins are the legitimate claimants.) 

2. Arthur, Duke of Connaught:  Victoria’s favorite son, and the longest surviving of his brothers.  His male line died out with his grandson.  His elder daughter, Margaret, married Crown Prince Gustav of Sweden.  (She died before he became king.  His second wife and queen was Lady Louise Mountbatten, Prince Philip’s aunt.)  The current Swedish Royal family is descended from Margaret of Connaught, King Carl being her grandson.  Margaret’s daughter, Ingrid, became Queen of Denmark, and was the mother of Queen Margrethe, also of Queen Anne Marie of Greece, and also their sister Princess Benedickte.  Because of this both the current Danish royal family and the rising generation of the former Greek royal family rank relatively high in the British succession.  The Duke of Connaught’s younger daughter, Patricia, renounced her royal status at the time of her marriage and became Lady Ramsay.  “Princess Pat’s” son, the late Captain Alexander Ramsay of Mar married Lady Saltoun, the chief of the Frasers, and left three daughters and several grandchildren. 

3. Leopold, Duke of Albany:  Leopold was Victoria’s hemophiliac son, and died when his children were quite young.  His son, Charles Edward, became Duke of Saxe-Coburg after the death of his cousin Prince Alfred of Edinburgh (the Connaughts didn’t want it).  WWI left Charles Edward on the wrong side of the family rift.  He ultimately became a member of the Nazi Party, and was imprisoned after WWII.  There are currently numerous members of the Saxe-Coburg family, but they are the least known branch of British royal descendants.  One of Charles Edward’s daughters, Sybilla, did marry into the Swedish royal family and was the mother of King Carl.  (But he ranks more highly in the British order thanks to his grandmother, as noted above.) 

The better known member of the Albany family was the late Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone.  (Her husband was Queen Mary’s brother, and a member of the Cambridge line of descent from George III.)  Her daughter, Lady May Abel-Smith, remained close to her Windsor cousins.  Lady May Abel Smith’s family consisted of three daughters, and her grandson is Tory M.P. Ian Liddell-Grainger. 

Having accounted for the descendants of Victoria’s sons, the line continues with the descendants of her daughters: 

4. Victoria, Empress Frederick of Germany:  The eldest child of Queen Victoria, she married Crown Prince Frederick of Germany.  They reigned briefly as Emperor and Empress of Germany before his early death.  Their eldest son was “Kaiser Bill”, a.k.a. Wilhelm II of WWI.  The succession thus includes the eligible descendants of the German imperial family.  “Vicky’s” daughter, Sophia, married Prince (later King) Constantine of Greece, and so many of the extended Greek royal family also come into the British line at this point.  (The younger generation of Greek royals ranks higher thanks to Queen Anne-Marie, as noted above.  The current Duke of Edinburgh and the late Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, did not descend from Constantine I, but from his brothers.) 

The marriage of Kaiser Wilhelm’s daughter, Victoria Louise, to the Duke of Brunswick (Hanover) advanced the current senior members of the House of Hanover in the British succession.  She was the grandmother of Prince Ernst.  Victoria Louise’s second son, George, was the second husband of Prince Philip’s sister Sophia, by whom he had several children.  Her daughter was the late Queen Fredricka of Greece, mother of former King Constantine and of Queen Sophia of Spain.  (Sophia, of course, gave up her place in the British succession upon her conversion to the Roman Catholic Church.) 

5. Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse:  The first of Victoria’s children to die, she left a son and four daughters.  The son, Grand Duke Ernest Louis, was the last reigning Grand Duke.  His elder son married his cousin Cecily, Prince Philip’s sister, and their family (except for a daughter who died of natural causes in 1939) was killed in an airplane crash in 1937.  George’s surviving brother, Louis, had no children.  Two of the younger daughters were the Grand Duchess (St.) Elizabeth of Russia, and the Czarina Alexandra.  Ella and Alix were both murdered by the Bolsheviks ninety years ago.  And we now finally know that all of Alexandra’s children were murdered as well.  The other sister, Princess Irene, married her cousin Prince Henry of Prussia, and they have some surviving descendants. 

The eldest of the four daughters of Princess Alice was Victoria, who married Prince Louis of Battenberg and became the matriarch of the Mountbatten family.  Her eldest son, George, succeeded his father as Marquess of Milford Haven in 1921.  The family of the Mountbattens of Milford Haven currently includes the 4^th Marquess and his children, and his brother Lord Ivar Mountbatten.  In 2004 Ivar Mountbatten was chosen by his second cousin, the Earl of Wessex, as a godfather to Lady Louise Windsor. 

Victoria of Hesse’s second son was the late Earl Mountbatten of Burma.  It is worth noting that the descendants of Lord Louis Mountbatten (as well as the Milford Havens) thus actually rank ahead of the descendants of his sister, Princess Alice, in the British succession.  So, Prince Philip is actually outranked in the succession by the families of his cousins Countess Mountbatten of Burma and Lady Pamela Hicks.  The families of two of Philip’s sisters now also rank ahead of him in the order of succession, as – of course – do his own children and grandchildren. 

I find it fascinating that Queen Victoria personally attended the births of both her granddaughter, Victoria of Hesse, and of her great-granddaughter Princess Alice, the grandmother and mother of Prince Philip. 

6. Helena, Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Augustenberg: No living descendants 

7. Louise, Duchess of Argyll: No descendants 

8. Beatrice, Princes Henry of Battenberg:  The “baby” of Queen Victoria’s family married the brother of her niece’s husband.  (Got that?  Prince Henry of Battenberg was the brother of Prince Louis of Battenberg.)    Their son, Alexander Mountbatten, became the Marquess of Carisbrooke.  His only child was the Lady Iris Mountbatten.  She left one son, Robin Bryan, who is a municipal gardener in Canada with no legitimate offspring.  Princess Beatrice’s daughter, Victoria Eugenie, married King Alfonso XIII of Spain.  They were the grandparents of King Juan Carlos, but the Spanish royal family does not figure in the line of Succession because they are Roman Catholics. 

Having completed the descendants of Queen Victoria, I venture onward with… 

Descendants of King George III:  Queen Victoria’s father was the fourth son of George III, her elder uncles having left no legitimate issue.  (William IV had several illegitimate offspring with his longtime partner Dorothy Jordan.  See my February 2006 column: http://www.etoile.co.uk/Columns/Ken/060219.html).  Two of Victoria’s younger uncles, however, did leave descendants. 

Prince Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland:  Because Hanover did not allow women to succeed, Ernest became King of Hanover in 1837 while Victoria became Queen in the U.K.  His son, the blind King George V of Hanover, was the ancestor of the current Hanover dynasty, including the current Prince Ernst.  Because of the marriage of Ernst’s grandfather, Ernst August III, to Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia (noted above), the present day Hanovers have moved up the line of succession.   

Though now barred from the British succession by his marriage to Princess Caroline of Monaco, Ernst’s sons from his first marriage and his daughter with Princess Caroline remain in the line of succession. 

Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge:  Here, again, the legitimate male line disappeared in a couple of generations.  There were, however, two daughters.  First come the descendants of Augusta, Grand Duchess of Mecklenberg-Strelitz.  Second are the descendants of Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck, now consisting of the family of the Earl of Athlone (listed above in virtue of his marriage to Princess Alice of Albany) and the family of Queen Mary. 

None of George III’s daughters had surviving children. 

Descendants of Frederick Lewis, Prince of Wales:  George III’s brothers have no surviving posterity.  His sister, Augusta, married the Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel.  Their daughter Augusta married the Duke of Wurttemberg, and it has recently come to light that their descendants include the current Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.  Another of George III’s sisters, Caroline, married her cousin King Christian VII of Denmark. 

Descendants of King George II:  George II’s daughter Anne married William IV, Prince of Orange, and thus the Dutch royal family finds its place in the British succession.  (They also have a connection via the Wurttemberg line, above.)  The Grand Dukes of Luxemburg also descend from this marriage via Anne’s daughter, Caroline, but don’t figure in the succession because of their Catholic faith.  Another daughter, Mary, married Frederick II of Hesse-Cassel.  A third daughter, Louise, married Frederick V, King of Denmark.  I’ve not yet traced all the genealogical rabbit trails from these lines, except to say that both Mary and Louise were ancestresses of King Christian IX of Denmark, who was the father of Queen Alexandra, et al.  One great-granddaughter of Christian IX, Princess Astrid of Sweden, was the mother of the late King Baudoin and of King Albert of Belgium, providing a link to the current Belgian royal family.  (They too would be ineligible to succeed in Britain because of religion.) 

Descendants of King George I:  Princess Sophia Dorothea married Frederick William I, King of Prussia.  She was the mother of Frederick the Great, and ancestress of the later Prussian royal family descended from Frederick’s brother Augustus, which in turn became the German imperial family. 

Descendants of the Electress Sophia:  In addition to King George I, the only one of the Electress Sophia’s children to have descendants was her daughter, Sophia Charlotte, who married Frederick III, Elector of Brandenburg.  He became King of Prussia in 1701, and their son was Frederick William I noted just above. 

If nothing else, this essay has demonstrated the extreme complexity of the interrelationships of many of Europe’s royal families… and that just from their British connections!  What is striking at the end of this survey is that with the exceptions of Liechtenstein and Monaco, all of the current crowned heads of Europe are in some way descendants of the Electress Sophia, most via multiple lines of descent.  Some of these families are more closely related to the current British royals by other lineages, like the Danes or the Saxe-Coburgs (in the case of the Belgians), but they all descend from Sophia.  When the spectrum is broadened many of the displaced royal families of Europe also figure in the British line of descent from Sophia.  The major exceptions being the main lines of the great Catholic dynasties, the former royal families of Austria (Hapsburg), Italy (Savoy), France (Bourbon), Portugal (Braganza).  On the less grand end of the spectrum, the Bulgarians (Saxe-Coburg) are also not part of the British succession, though they – along with the Portuguese Braganzas – descend from a mutual uncle of Victoria and Albert.  (Remember that Victoria and Albert were first cousins, her mother being the sister of his father.)  

Besides these various royals and nobles, the succession also includes scores upon scores of lesser folk, apparently including some 600 U.S. citizens.  But even then, most of us don’t find our names on the list, though we may have some distant link to some royal at some point.  (A cousin of mine thinks we might be descended from an illegitimate daughter of James IV of Scotland.  But, most Scots seem to be possibly descended from an illegitimate child of one Stewart monarch or another.) 

When all is said and done, as many sources remind us, what really makes one a member of the British royal family (in contrast to being a mere number in the line of succession) is the personal decision of the current Sovereign.  Thus H.M. the Queen has continued to include distant cousins such as the Fifes, the Norwegian royals, the Abel-Smiths and Ramsays of Mar within the broad bounds of her extended family.  Meanwhile the German Saxe-Coburgs and some of the other more dodgy relations have long since been consigned to obscurity.  The real change over the past generation is that the traditional feedback loop of intermarriage among distant royal cousins has fallen by the wayside, which promises to make the succession far more diverse in coming generations (and the task of royal genealogists rather more difficult). 

Yours Aye,

- Ken Cuthbertson