The royals love nothing more than weird archaic rules that kinda don’t make sense in the modern world, and that includes asking the Queen’s permission to marry.
Yep, if you’re high up enough in the order of succession, you need to run your significant other by Her Majesty—meaning Prince Harry and Prince William both got the Queen’s permission before proposing to Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton, respectively.
So….what does this mean for the future? The Express published an interesting report revealing that once Prince Charles becomes King Charles (and everyone moves up the line of succession), all the royal grandchildren will have to get his permission to marry. Or, almost all.
When Charles is King, the next six people in line to the throne will be (in order): Prince William, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis, Prince Harry, and then Harry’s son Archie. Meanwhile, The Succession to the Crown Act 2013stipulates that that these six people have to get permission from the monarch before marrying. Ahem:
“A person who (when the person marries) is one of the 6 persons next in the line of succession to the Crown must obtain the consent of Her Majesty before marrying.”
To put it simply: Archie will have to ask for the monarch’s permission to get married due to being sixth in line to throne, while his little sister Lilibet will not due to being seventh. Of course, if Lilibet decides to get married when Prince William is King, she’ll also need to get her uncle’s permission due to moving up to #6.
You might be thinking that Archie and Lilibet’s position as the children of non-working royals precludes them from having to ask for permission, but nope! They’re right there in the line of succession, which means the rules apply. And if they don’t ask? Then “that the person and the person’s descendants from the marriage are disqualified from succeeding to the Crown.”
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