Royal Genealogical Diversions

As I write this I have just witnessed the splendour, pomp and ceremony of His Majesty King Charles III's coronation. He finds himself as the person at the centre of this spectacle by virtue of being the senior genealogical heir of the Electress Sophia of Hannover, granddaughter of His Majesty King James VI and I, upon whom's descendants the throne was settled by the Act of Settlement 1701. He is, of course, also the most senior genealogical heir of each of the ten generations in between him and Electress Sophia, meaning he is the senior genealogical heir of at least 11 of his ancestors. I decided to try to identify as many as possible of his ancestors for whom he is the senior genealogical heir, and here present a total of 88 such ancestors. The ancestors in slightly smaller type are ancestors who he is not the senior genealogical heir of but who are the parent or parents of an ancestor for whom he is the senior genealogical heir. At every step I have also added explanations fo...

The Act of Settlement 1701 was passed during the reign of HM Queen Anne to ensure a protestant succession to the throne. The succession was settled on Her Majesty’s nearest protestant relative, the Electress Sophia of Hannover, a granddaughter of HM King James Vi and I, and on the heir of her body. The Electres, being the wife of the Elector of Hannover, was no longer considered a British citizen, and so the Sophia Naturalization Act 1705 was passed to give her and her descendants in perpuity, other than Catholics, the right to British citizenship. In 1947 HRH Prince Friedrich of Prussia successfully acquired British citizienship, having renounced his German citizenship. This prompted the British government to pass the British Nationality Act 1948, which came into effect on 1 st January 1949, and which repealed the Sophia Naturalization Act 1705. Despite the repealment of the act, those descendants of Electress already born by 31 st December 1948 were deemed to have already acquired ...