# The reign of King Charles III of the United Kingdom **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 8, 2022, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-reign-of-king-charles-iii-of-the-united-kingdom/971232 "2022-09-08T18:05:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 61
**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 23, 2024, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-reign-of-king-charles-iii-of-the-united-kingdom/971232/1204 "2024-01-23T00:37:15Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > However Stephen’s younger son [William](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_I,_Count_of_Boulogne), Earl of Surrey by marriage, did survive into the next realm and received an enormous settlement. Thanks. I did not know about him. ---
**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 23, 2024, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-reign-of-king-charles-iii-of-the-united-kingdom/971232/1205 "2024-01-23T00:38:55Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > Edward would no longer be in the line of succession at that point, so, presumably, his heirs wouldn’t be, either The _Abdication Act_ specifically provided that any issue of the Duke of Windsor would not be in line for the throne. ---
**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 23, 2024, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-reign-of-king-charles-iii-of-the-united-kingdom/971232/1206 "2024-01-23T00:46:45Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > Ah the what-ifs of the heirs apparent that didn’t make it I think the biggest “what if” is if William Æthling hadn’t died in the White ship disaster, mentioned earlier. The Norman dynasty may have continued, so no Plantagenets, no Tudors, no Stuarts… not saying there wouldn’t have been other dynastic changes as time went on, but not those dynasties. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2024, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-reign-of-king-charles-iii-of-the-united-kingdom/971232/1207 "2024-01-23T01:54:45Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > I think the biggest “what if” is if William Æthling hadn’t died in the White ship disaster, mentioned earlier. The Norman dynasty may have continued, so no Plantagenets, no Tudors, no Stuarts Even after that William died another interesting prospect was [William Clito](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Clito), the son of Robert Curthose, former duke of Normandy, contender for England and eldest son of William the Conqueror. In terms of strict primogeniture he was in fact the legitimate heir. As long as he was alive Henry I successfully kept him at arms length. But he had a lot of sentiment and legitimacy on his side and Mathilda being female would have very likely trumped any other contender after Henry died. If he had managed to master Flanders, it would have been a rather different Anglo-Norman realm. Flanders was tightly organized (unlike Greater Anjou and Aquitaine, but similar to Normandy), very wealthy and throughout the Middle Ages very closely intertwined economically with England. It is plausible that this much more compact but also wealthier (for its rulers) realm might have better weathered the coming storm with the French monarchy. It certainly would have been a different look. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2024, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-reign-of-king-charles-iii-of-the-united-kingdom/971232/1208 "2024-01-23T03:55:31Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > the story of King Stephen and his sister in law Maud, Hoo, boy, what a tangled mess that was! [Sharon Kay Penman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharon_Kay_Penman) wrote a whole series of historical novels, the [Plantagenets Series](https://www.goodreads.com/series/87752-plantagenets), starting with those two and concluding with King Richard. Very good, but each volume is hella long. Recommended if you have plenty of spare reading time. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2024, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-reign-of-king-charles-iii-of-the-united-kingdom/971232/1209 "2024-01-23T04:00:40Z")
I first became aware of those two when I was reading the Brother Cadfael books. ---
**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 23, 2024, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-reign-of-king-charles-iii-of-the-united-kingdom/971232/1210 "2024-01-23T04:05:41Z")
Here’s a link to the _Abdication Act_. See s. 1(2) for the provision barring Edward’s issue, if any, from the throne. > **[ukpga\_19360003\_en.pdf](https://www.bailii.org/uk/legis/num_act/1936/ukpga_19360003_en.pdf)** > > 730 B ---
**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 23, 2024, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-reign-of-king-charles-iii-of-the-united-kingdom/971232/1211 "2024-01-23T07:39:36Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > If he had managed to master Flanders, it would have been a rather different Anglo-Norman realm. Flanders was tightly organized (unlike Greater Anjou and Aquitaine, but similar to Normandy), very wealthy and throughout the Middle Ages very closely intertwined economically with England. It is plausible that this much more compact but also wealthier (for its rulers) realm might have better weathered the coming storm with the French monarchy. It certainly would have been a different look. Interestingly chewy hypothetical - if such a Flanders had survived and not passed into Burgundian and therefore Habsburg hands… ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2024, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-reign-of-king-charles-iii-of-the-united-kingdom/971232/1212 "2024-01-23T07:40:16Z")
Stupid Flanders. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2024, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-reign-of-king-charles-iii-of-the-united-kingdom/971232/1213 "2024-01-23T08:17:19Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > William Æthling can I take time for a side issue?: How did you type that diphthong? ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2024, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-reign-of-king-charles-iii-of-the-united-kingdom/971232/1214 "2024-01-23T08:18:00Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > On that side of the family where I knew my relatives, my great-grandparents all emigrated from the same area - and there are multiple generations where a Brown married a Smith or a Chambers married a Brown. I had to stop adding people to the tree because I already have 800 something people in it - I’m probably at least a third cousin a couple of times removed to everyone who still lives in that town this is me …from Southrem Michigan to central Indiana I have at least 3-400 relatives … and a certain town where it was proven in the 90s that I was related to 65-75 percent of the town… and this has led to awkward situations even after when i finally got to move for good from the area … ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2024, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-reign-of-king-charles-iii-of-the-united-kingdom/971232/1215 "2024-01-23T08:19:28Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > William the Conqueror had no hereditary claim from the Anglo-Saxon kings. He was king by right of conquest alone. Wasn’t he Edward the Confessor’s cousin or something of that nature? Or does that just put him way too far down the order of succession for it to count? ---
**Author:** ![Mikkel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikkel/32/13151_2.png) [@Mikkel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikkel)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2024, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-reign-of-king-charles-iii-of-the-united-kingdom/971232/1216 "2024-01-23T08:41:47Z")
Personally I just hit the Æ-key, but I think it is hold down CTRL+SHIFT+& at once and then release and press A. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2024, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-reign-of-king-charles-iii-of-the-united-kingdom/971232/1217 "2024-01-23T08:46:09Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Wasn’t he Edward the Confessor’s cousin or something of that nature? Sorta - second cousins, once removed. Edward was the son of Emma of Normandy, who was William’s grand-aunt (sister of duke Richard II, William the Conqueror’s grandfather). So William’s blood relationship to Edward did not involve the line of the Anglo-Saxon kings, just the Norman dukes. More salient as far as William was concerned was that Edward had supposedly promised to make him his successor. But a lot of historians have speculated that if any such promise was ever made, Edward wasn’t particularly serious about it. He certainly didn’t take any concrete steps that we know of to announce or bring about such a dynastic change. ---
**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 23, 2024, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-reign-of-king-charles-iii-of-the-united-kingdom/971232/1218 "2024-01-23T09:36:07Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > can I take time for a side issue?: > How did you type that diphthong? On an iPhone, it’s very easy. \*Shift to turn on caps \*hold down the A \*options pop up for variants of A \*slide finger to Æ and release iPhone is great for typing in French or other languages with accents on letters. No need to change keyboards or mémorise ASCII codes. à â é è î ô ù just like that. ETA: although the spell-checker sometimes corrects to French spellings even when I’m typing in English and I don’t always notice it, like “mémorise” above. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2024, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-reign-of-king-charles-iii-of-the-united-kingdom/971232/1219 "2024-01-23T11:01:32Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > Now of course this is kind of silly, but did you see King Ralph? I noticed in the credits that Ralph’s son is listed as Ralph II. They should bring him back for RALPH BREAKS THE INTERREGNUM. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2024, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-reign-of-king-charles-iii-of-the-united-kingdom/971232/1220 "2024-01-23T14:10:58Z")
Æ æ is a ligature, not a diphthong, though it represents a diphthong in Latin. In Old English, it’s the single vowel /æ/. Holding down the Alt key, type on the numeric keypad: 0198 for Æ 0230 for æ I have all those codes memorized from 0192 À to 0255 ÿ and can type the special characters as handily as typing ordinary letters without breaking stride. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2024, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-reign-of-king-charles-iii-of-the-united-kingdom/971232/1221 "2024-01-23T18:10:31Z")
Just another perk of being the British monarch (for now): [National Archives censor files showing late queen concealed relative’s wealth | Monarchy | The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/21/national-archives-censor-files-showing-late-queen-concealed-relatives-wealth) ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2024, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-reign-of-king-charles-iii-of-the-united-kingdom/971232/1222 "2024-01-23T18:34:16Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Henry VI was not in direct line of succession, in fact he had to kill off a LOT of kids to make his throne secure Hmm. Henry VI was the only child and heir apparent of Henry V. He succeeded at nine months old. I’d be surprised if he personally killed anyone to make his throne secure. Do you mean Henry IV? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2024, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-reign-of-king-charles-iii-of-the-united-kingdom/971232/1223 "2024-01-23T21:19:42Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > Hmm. Henry VI was the only child and heir apparent of Henry V. He succeeded at nine months old. I’d be surprised if he personally killed anyone to make his throne secure. Do you mean Henry IV? Sorry, I mean Henry VII, the father of the famous #8 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-reign-of-king-charles-iii-of-the-united-kingdom/971232.md?page=60) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-reign-of-king-charles-iii-of-the-united-kingdom/971232.md?page=62)