The Rules Governing Succession
Will and Kate are expecting their first child in 2013, which has made succession an important political issue in the United Kingdom, and in the 15 other Realms that recognize Elizabeth Windsor as Queen.
In the United Kingdom, succession to the Crown operates on a mixture of the common-law principle of male-preference primogeniture and on statute laws like The Act of Settlement. The Crowns of Canada and the other Realms have inherited both sets of rules.
In November 2011, the Prime Ministers of the 16 Commonwealth Realms agreed in principle that each country should change its succession in two ways. First, male primogeniture would be replaced with equal primogeniture, so that the first-born child rather than the first-born son takes precedence in the line of succession. Currently, younger brothers overtake older sisters. Second, the provision in the Act of Settlement that prohibits marriage to a…
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