# Britons; what are you expecting when Charles becomes King? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 2, 2022, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britons-what-are-you-expecting-when-charles-becomes-king/957061 "2022-01-02T02:19:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britons-what-are-you-expecting-when-charles-becomes-king/957061/281 "2022-01-15T06:44:30Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Only Catholic? What about any other Protestant Church It’s okay to be Protestant, non-Anglican, so long as you “join in communion” with the C of E. The statute was drafted to ensure Lutheran George of Hanover could become king. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britons-what-are-you-expecting-when-charles-becomes-king/957061/282 "2022-01-15T06:46:42Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > The statute was drafted to ensure Lutheran George of Hanover could become king. Did he stay Lutheran, or converted he to Anglican? ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britons-what-are-you-expecting-when-charles-becomes-king/957061/283 "2022-01-15T07:01:30Z")
He remained Lutheran, and retained power over the Lutheran Church in Hanover, but he also worshipped in Anglican churches and was in good standing with the Anglican Church. The churches weren’t regarded as being sufficiently different to exclude him from the British throne, although it was still a source of criticism and dissatisfaction in Britain at the time. In a way, it’s similar to the situation with the Presbyterian Church in Scotland. The British monarch must swear to uphold the Presbyterian Church as well as the Anglican Church – though he is not the head of the Presbyterian Church because it is not governed by a single head, but by a General Assembly. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britons-what-are-you-expecting-when-charles-becomes-king/957061/284 "2022-01-15T13:48:33Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > The question was asked of government lawyers, and their consensus was that the succession could not be delayed, but the baby would nevertheless become king immediately on birth, so there would be a new queen for a short period who would then be replaced at the moment her brother was born And then when little King Whatzit the First of His Name kicks off from some childhood illness? Back to Queen Elizabeth (unless she’s had a male child already)? Would the list of monarchs then go: Queen Elizabeth II King Whatzit I Queen Elizbeth II … Or would she then be Queen Elizabeth III? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britons-what-are-you-expecting-when-charles-becomes-king/957061/285 "2022-01-16T02:44:17Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > Is it. What evidence is that? I’d recommend _Princes at War: The Bitter Battle Inside Britain’s Royal Family in the Darkest Days of WWII_ by Deborah Cadbury as a good start. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britons-what-are-you-expecting-when-charles-becomes-king/957061/286 "2022-01-16T21:01:53Z")
Or if George VI’s wife died (ie if the Queen Mother died - but she obviously wasn’t known as that at the time), and he remarried and had a son. That son would have jumped ahead of his elder sisters in the line of succession. Not terribly likely, but definitely not beyond the bounds of improbability. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britons-what-are-you-expecting-when-charles-becomes-king/957061/287 "2022-01-16T21:05:55Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Does this mean that nobody is _ever_ a just-plain-heir(ess)? There are heirs presumptive and heirs apparent, but either way they progress from that status directly to Monarch without a pause as “heir” en route? Pretty sure it’s only for titles that are passed down by gender as well as age. Heirs for property and money are different. That just means they inherit stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britons-what-are-you-expecting-when-charles-becomes-king/957061/288 "2022-01-16T21:06:40Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Or if George VI’s wife died (ie if the Queen Mother died - but she obviously wasn’t known as that at the time), and he remarried and had a son. That son would have jumped ahead of his elder sisters in the line of succession. Not terribly likely, but definitely not beyond the bounds of improbability. Which is exactly the scenario which triggered the Glorious Revolution and the ouster of King James II. By his first wife, he had two daughters, Mary and Anne, who were good Protestants. So even though James was Roman Catholic, the succession was set for Protestants. Then his first wife died and he re-married to a Roman Catholic. Who then got pregnant. And the baby was a son. Who automatically became the heir apparent, bumping Mary and Anne down in the succession. And it was clear that James would raise his son as a Roman Catholic. Took a while for all that to work out, but the net result was that James and his family fled England, and were repaced as monarchs by Mary and her husband William. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2022, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britons-what-are-you-expecting-when-charles-becomes-king/957061/289 "2022-01-17T08:26:23Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Then his first wife died and he re-married to a Roman Catholic. Who then got pregnant. To be precise, she had two children who died in infancy. Then there was a gap of eleven years before the pregnancy that produced a baby boy, at a time of increasing fractiousness about James’s policy towards Catholics, and the arrival of large numbers of French Protestant refugees from Louis XIV’s repression. So the staunchly Protestant (including James’s daughter Anne) started/affected to believe the pregnancy wasn’t even real (or if real, that it was time to bring in the Protestant alternative of William and Mary, to ensure there couldn’t be a Catholic duccession). When the baby was born the rumour was spread that he was a ringer, smuggled in in a warming-pan (hence the custom thereafter that a representative of Parliament had to be present at royal births, to ensure no hanky-panky - latterly, just to be in the building, until the practice was finally dropped). ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2022, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britons-what-are-you-expecting-when-charles-becomes-king/957061/290 "2022-01-17T08:46:39Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > When the baby was born the rumour was spread that he was a ringer, smuggled in in a warming-pan (hence the custom **thereafter** that a representative of Parliament had to be present at royal births, to ensure no hanky-panky Actually, there were a number high government officials and noble ladies present at the birth of James’ son, and James published their sworn testimony that the birth was genuine. > **[Depositions taken the 22 of October 1688 before the Privy-Council and Peers...](https://books.google.co.za/books?id=vsA_AAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false)** The rumours continued nevertheless… ---
**Author:** ![Kimera757](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimera757/32/3765_2.png) [@Kimera757](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimera757)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2022, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britons-what-are-you-expecting-when-charles-becomes-king/957061/291 "2022-01-17T15:19:28Z")
I think she would still be Queen Elizabeth II (though the notion of her stepping down is, I think, totally wrong). Vlad III (the Impaler, aka Dracula) was king three times, and history records him as Vlad III, not Vlad III, IV, and V. (It would have been even more confusing if some of his rivals had been named Vlad.) ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2022, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britons-what-are-you-expecting-when-charles-becomes-king/957061/292 "2022-02-06T14:53:08Z")
Today marks the Platinum Jubilee - the 70th anniversary of QEII’s ascension to the throne. If she can just hang on for another decade or two, Britons could be spared the embarassment of Charles the Bozo taking her place. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2022, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britons-what-are-you-expecting-when-charles-becomes-king/957061/293 "2022-02-06T15:41:09Z")
Well, Liz just elevated Camilla. That should set everybody off for a few years. > **[Camilla will be Queen: Elizabeth II uses Platinum Jubilee message to elevate...](https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/05/uk/queen-elizabeth-ii-platinum-jubilee-accession-day-gbr-intl/index.html)** > > Britain's Queen Elizabeth II has used the historic milestone of her Platinum Jubilee to redefine the future of the monarchy, calling for the Duchess of Cornwall to be known as Queen Camilla when Charles becomes King. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britons-what-are-you-expecting-when-charles-becomes-king/957061/294 "2022-02-15T15:37:44Z")
A new bio targets Charles for his support of health quackery: > **[Charles, The Alternative Prince: An Unauthorised Biography (Societas): Ernst,...](https://www.amazon.com/Charles-Alternative-Prince-Unauthorised-Biography/dp/1788360702)** > > Charles, The Alternative Prince: An Unauthorised Biography (Societas) \[Ernst, Edzard\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Charles, The Alternative Prince: An Unauthorised Biography (Societas) The back story here is that the author, Edzard Ernst blames Charles and his supporters for forcing him out of his job at the University of Exeter in 2011. Ernst, who was chair of a department of complementary and alternative medicine (and a critic of sCAM) was targeted after he lambasted a draft report commissioned by Charles that urged the National Health Service to adopt alternative medicine as supposedly being cost-effective. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2022, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britons-what-are-you-expecting-when-charles-becomes-king/957061/295 "2022-02-16T08:13:08Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > So the staunchly Protestant (including James’s daughter Anne) started/affected to believe the pregnancy wasn’t even real (or if real, that it was time to bring in the Protestant alternative of William and Mary, to ensure there couldn’t be a Catholic duccession). Birtherism. Older than we thought. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2022, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britons-what-are-you-expecting-when-charles-becomes-king/957061/296 "2022-06-26T19:47:08Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > If she can just hang on for another decade or two, Britons could be spared the embarassment of Charles the Bozo taking her place. > **[Charles Took $3M in Cash Stuffed In Bags From Sheik](https://www.thedailybeast.com/prince-charles-accepted-dollar3m-in-cash-stuffed-into-bags-and-suitcases-from-sheikh)** > > Plus, Andrew tries to ride it out, even as a victim of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell says the photo of him with Virginia Roberts Giuffre makes her “shake” in terror. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2022, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britons-what-are-you-expecting-when-charles-becomes-king/957061/297 "2022-06-26T19:56:45Z")
Brings new meaning to the term “investiture”. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2022, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britons-what-are-you-expecting-when-charles-becomes-king/957061/298 "2022-06-26T21:55:13Z")
The Queen is riding horses again, at 96 years old. She must be in pretty good condition. Here’s hoping for another 5 years. William looks to be a better choice for King than Charles. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2022, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britons-what-are-you-expecting-when-charles-becomes-king/957061/299 "2022-06-26T22:13:25Z")
A bit more detail on the “cash in bags” story, from a bit more of a mainstream source (the BBC), based on a _Sunday Times_ article: > [@](#): > > **The Prince of Wales accepted a suitcase containing a million euros in cash from a former Qatari prime minister, the Sunday Times has reported.** > > The paper says this was one of three cash donations from Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim totalling three million euros. > > Clarence House said donations from the sheikh were passed immediately to one of the prince’s charities and all the correct processes were followed. > > There is no suggestion the payments were illegal. > > [According to the Sunday Times](https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/charles-accepted-1m-cash-in-suitcase-from-sheikh-j2pgnfsgx), Prince Charles received the three cash donations in person from the former prime minister between 2011 and 2015. > > It is claimed that on one occasion the money was handed over in a holdall at a meeting at Clarence House. On another, the paper reported the cash was contained in carrier bags from the department store Fortnum and Mason. That said, there has apparently been some activity in the Prince’s charities which appears to be of a quid-pro-quo nature: > [@](#): > > Donations to Prince Charles’s charities have come under scrutiny in recent months following allegations that one of them offered a Saudi donor help to secure a UK honour and citizenship. > > The Metropolitan Police said earlier this year that it is [investigating the claims about the Prince’s Foundation](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60404077) under the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925. > > The foundation is understood to be offering its full co-operation and Clarence House has said that Prince Charles had no knowledge of the alleged offer of honours or citizenship on the basis of donation to his charities. > > Michael Fawcett, the prince’s former valet and chief executive of the foundation, resigned in November as the charity investigated the claims. > **[Prince Charles 'accepted a suitcase with 1m euros', report claims](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-61941113)** > > Clarence House says the correct processes were followed with the Qatari sheikh's charitable donations. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2022, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britons-what-are-you-expecting-when-charles-becomes-king/957061/300 "2022-06-26T22:18:40Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > a better choice for King You don’t choose kings. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britons-what-are-you-expecting-when-charles-becomes-king/957061.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britons-what-are-you-expecting-when-charles-becomes-king/957061.md?page=16)