# Queen Elizabeth II is Not the Second Queen Elizabeth.. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 26, 2012, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-elizabeth-ii-is-not-the-second-queen-elizabeth/620068 "2012-04-26T22:26:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-elizabeth-ii-is-not-the-second-queen-elizabeth/620068/41 "2012-04-27T17:41:44Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > /snip/ Prince Charles and his sons and brothers belong _by male lineage_ to the same royal house as the King of Norway, the Queen of Denmark, and the pretender to the Greek throne: the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg. Aboput seven generations back the Glucksburgs were a family of the minor Danish nobility with a shirttail relationship to the Danish royal house a dozen generations before. **By an odd concatenation of events his fourth son became King of Denmark and set about creating a Danish cottage industry of exporting monarchs**. I think you left something out here - who’s the object whose 4th son had subjects? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-elizabeth-ii-is-not-the-second-queen-elizabeth/620068/42 "2012-04-27T21:37:29Z")
> [@Nawth\_Chucka](#): > > I think you left something out here - who’s the object whose 4th son had subjects? Sorry. [Him](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Wilhelm,_Duke_of_Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Gl%C3%BCcksburg). ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-elizabeth-ii-is-not-the-second-queen-elizabeth/620068/43 "2012-04-27T22:10:49Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > Sorry. [Him](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Wilhelm,_Duke_of_Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Gl%C3%BCcksburg). That is…not a flattering picture. Lord help me, I’m waiting for him to say, “Giggity!”. Sorry, back to topic. Has male-only primogeniture come and gone during the history of the monarchy in England? ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2012, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-elizabeth-ii-is-not-the-second-queen-elizabeth/620068/44 "2012-04-29T22:14:56Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > The historians probably just decided arbitrarily that the Norman Conquest was a good place to start… “William the First was the first of our kings, not counting Ethelreds, Egberts & things…” 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-elizabeth-ii-is-not-the-second-queen-elizabeth/620068/45 "2012-04-30T21:59:11Z")
> [@Nawth\_Chucka](#): > > That is…not a flattering picture. Lord help me, I’m waiting for him to say, “Giggity!”. > > Sorry, back to topic. Has male-only primogeniture come and gone during the history of the monarchy in England? LOL I tried to leave your question for the English-history experts who would know for sure what they were talking about, but no one has stepped up. _To the best of my knowledge_, male-precedence primogeniture has been the rule for succession by inheritance ever since the Norman conquest. Male-only primogeniture (“Salic law”) inheritance, as practiced in France, Hanover, etc., was never seriously contemplated in England, and strict gender-neutral primogeniture (as adopted by the Scandinavian countries) is a modern invention. That said, the other two means of becoming King (named by Parliament, and conquest) have come into play more than once, and there were at least a couple of monarchs who attempted to bestow the throne by will – but it didn’t “take”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-elizabeth-ii-is-not-the-second-queen-elizabeth/620068.md?page=2)