Royalty and Male Succession To The Throne

Factual Questions
21

[QUOTE=qwest]
…However, in matters related to the office of the Queen, resolutions are required from the House, the Senate and 100% of the provinces…
[/QUOTE]

But would changing the line of succession (while leaving the powers of the monarch intact) actually need a constitutional amendment? If an amendment is need then it would also be impossible for the Canadian monarch to abdicate since any children s/he had afterward would need to be excluded from succession.

[QUOTE=Captain Amazing]
When did the Emperors become monogomous?
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I think the Taishō Emperor was the last to have concubines.

[QUOTE=Slithy Tove]
But would they have married her off to the heir to a foreign throne if she’d had been in line for Great Britain’s, though?
[/QUOTE]

It’s highly unlikely she would’ve been married to the heir of Prussia if she was heiress apparent/presumptive at the time of her marriage. She most certainly would’ve married foreign royalty, but he would need to agree to live in the UK.

22

[QUOTE=Slithy Tove]
But would they have married her off to the heir to a foreign throne if she’d had been in line for Great Britain’s, though?
[/QUOTE]
I very much doubt it. Had the Princess Royal been her mother’s heir apparent, she’d have been married off to a tame German prince (some younger son) who’d have been naturalised as a British subject.

23

[QUOTE=Captain Amazing]
When did the Emperors become monogomous?
[/QUOTE]
The grandfather of the current emperor, Emperor Taisho, who was sick and mentally weak was the first (in recent times) to not have children by women other than his wife.

He was the son of a “lady-in-waiting” as consorts were called; which if I weren’t the enlightened male of the ‘00s, I would have to say is a cool sounding name – at least for the guys who had them waiting around.

Taisho’s father, the Emperor Meiji, was in turn the son of his father, an emperor and a lady-in-waiting.

Taisho did his duty, though, and produced an heir (Emperor Showa, known as Emperor Hirohito outside of Japan) and not just one but three spares. Unfortunately, Hirohito was only able to barely manage the heir and spare requirement, but was handicapped by the disqualification of his five daughters. In the meanwhile, Hirohito’s brothers fell down on their duties and only one of them produced males, none of whom continued producing possible successors.

The current Emperor has two sons, but as noted above, the oldest son, and Crown Prince has only one daughter (widely believed by people outside of Japan to be done in vitro) and between Masako’s (the Crown Princess) infertility and mental breakdowns, it was impossible to get any more children.

Akishino, the second son had had two daughters, and was seemingly content to stop there, but it’s thought that the Imperial Household Agency put more pressure on them to continue until they had a son. (There’s a gap in ages between the two daughters and the son, with his daughters born in ‘91 and ‘94, and then his son in ’06.)

Unfortunately, Japan doesn’t discuss these things openly so there’s little printed material to go on. They even claimed that even the doctors had no idea if the child was going to be a son or daughter until the birth, which in these days, seems “unlikely” as my wife’s ob/gyn agrees.

Back to the question of “ladies-in-waiting,” one of the older princes gave that as a suggestion of how to handle the succession crisis.

24

[QUOTE=TokyoPlayer]
This had caused a serious problem since there had not been any (obviously male) heirs in something like 31 years, until September 2006 when the second son of the current emperor gave birth to a son. This effectively stopped the movement to allow women to succeed to the throne.
[/QUOTE]

I’m idly curious about this “obviously male” part, in case there’s some obscure reference that’s going over my head. Was there some question about the sex of the child?

Also, I’m stunned that the second son of the emporer gave birth, and I’d love to hear the details of that! :smiley:

25

[QUOTE=MissGypsy]
I’m idly curious about this “obviously male” part, in case there’s some obscure reference that’s going over my head. Was there some question about the sex of the child?..
[/QUOTE]

Since only males cannot inheirit the Chrysanthemum Throne obviously all heirs are male. Plenty of females have been born into the Imperial family over the last couple decades, but only one male.

26

[QUOTE=RealityChuck]

[QUOTE=Giles]
It would be the same as far as William IV (who was king of the UK and of Hanover).
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Well, not really. The War of the Roses was argued in part over whether salic law (which prohibited inheritance through the female line) applied. The entire House of York based their claim because of a descendent through the female line (as well as a descendent through the male line, but lesser line than that of the house of Lancaster). So Richard of York’s claim on Henry VI’s throne would have been ignored, and Edward IV, V, and Richard III never become king.
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I was just talking about succession from George I, who was the first Hanoverian on the English/British throne. Clearly Salic law did not apply in England before then, since if it had, England could never have had queens regnant such as Elizabeth I.

27

[QUOTE=Cunctator]
I very much doubt it. Had the Princess Royal been her mother’s heir apparent, she’d have been married off to a tame German prince (some younger son) who’d have been naturalised as a British subject.
[/QUOTE]

Yes, that’s true. While Britain and Prussia/Germany were on generally friendly terms, no one on either side would have wanted to do something that would have lead to a a personal union of the two thrones. For a start, the British/German king-queen/emperor-empress would have needed to spend half their time in London, and half in Berlin, and they didn’t have royal flights in those days.

28

with the russian rules they were a backlash against catherine the great. they should have been changed and could have been changes by tsars following. until nich. ii there wasn’t an over-riding reason to do it. nich. ii should have done it, or at least given it a try.

29

[QUOTE=rocking chair]
with the russian rules they were a backlash against catherine the great. they should have been changed and could have been changes by tsars following. until nich. ii there wasn’t an over-riding reason to do it. nich. ii should have done it, or at least given it a try.
[/QUOTE]

Due to Romanov house law insisting on equal marriages being ignored by most dynasts since the Revolution (it became pointless once it became clear the Bolsheviks weren’t going away anytime soon) the current pretender (or at least the one with the greatest claim) is a woman; Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia.

30

[QUOTE=Giles]
I was just talking about succession from George I, who was the first Hanoverian on the English/British throne. Clearly Salic law did not apply in England before then, since if it had, England could never have had queens regnant such as Elizabeth I.
[/QUOTE]

IIRC, wasn’t George’s claim through a female?

31

[QUOTE=Guinastasia]
IIRC, wasn’t George’s claim through a female?
[/QUOTE]

Yes, twice over, via his mother, Sophia of Hanover, and her mother, Elizabeth of Bohemia.