The Unofficial British Royal Family Pages

Monday 28 June 2004

Queen of Where Else?

This week’s column began innocently enough. Actually, it wasn’t even supposed to be a column. No sooner had I decided what to write about than an e-mail appeared in my inbox. After reading last week’s column – “The Thin Blue Bloodline” – Roger e-mailed me to ask if Queen Elizabeth II is in the line of succession to any other European throne. 

I had a few inklings, but nothing substantial to go by, so I told Roger I would check into it and post the answer at the end of my next column. Roger, in the meantime, wrote to Buckingham Palace to see if they had the answer. The response – “We don’t know.” – sent me spinning into a frenzy of excitement and research, which brings me to today’s column… the long attempt to answer to Roger’s short question.  

To begin with, one of Queen Elizabeth II’s many titles is Duke of Normandy (yes, I said duke), although the title only applies to her in the Channel Islands. The title harkens back to William, Duke of Normandy, who we know best as William the Conqueror. After he won his claim to the English crown in 1066, his descendants were both monarchs of England and dukes of Normandy – that is until England lost everything except the Channel Islands to France in the early 13^th century. I mention this both as an interesting aside and to eliminate in advance any potential misconception that, through this title, the Queen is actually a pretender to the duchy of Normandy. 

That little detail aside, how do we begin to determine if the Queen is in the line of succession to any other European throne? One way is to study the lineage of each of the spouses of the British monarchs (or almost monarchs) who are direct ancestors of Elizabeth II. (For reasons that are too numerous to name, I am only going as far back as James VI of Scotland and I of England.) It’s important to remember that not all British monarchs are direct ancestors of the Queen – for example, the Queen is not a descendant of either George IV or William IV – nor have all her direct ancestors been monarchs – George III’s father, Frederick, Prince of Wales, never became king, nor did Queen Victoria’s father, Edward, Duke of Kent.   

Keeping in mind that I am certainly not a professional genealogist, my method was to study (to a reasonable extent) the ancestors and descendants of both the paternal and maternal line of the spouses to determine probable existing connections. Given the limited amount of time and other factors, I do not claim that I am exactly correct in my assessments and assumptions or that I have researched each and every possibility (because there are virtually endless possibilities). Instead, I give you my honest attempt at an answer, in semi-chronological order. 

The best I can figure is that the Queen’s strongest claim – at least in terms of the line of succession – to any other throne is in Denmark, where she actually has at least two strong connections. In 1589, James I of England married Anne of Demark, daughter of Frederick II of Denmark. Although both Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and Elizabeth II are descended from Frederick II, any right Queen Elizabeth might have to the succession thanks to this relationship is likely to be so watered down it would be virtually impossible. In any case, she has a more recent claim through Edward VII’s wife, Alexandra of Denmark, whose father, Christian IX of Denmark, was the great-great-great grandfather of Queen Margrethe. This makes Queen Elizabeth and Queen Margrethe third cousins once removed. If this connection does indeed give her a valid place in the line of succession to the Danish throne, I would imagine her place is very low on the list. 

Skip over a few generations that don’t directly apply to this situation and you get to the Georges, most of whom married minor German princesses who didn’t bring a whole lot in the way of major royal houses.  

Although Sophia Dorothea of Brunswick-Celle was George I’s wife, she was not the first Hanoverian queen of Britain, as George had divorced her before ascending to the throne. Regardless, she was still the mother of George II and, in that way, provides Elizabeth II with a more significant – albeit very distant  – claim to another royal house: Prussia (or, if you like, Germany). Sophia Dorothea’s maternal grandmother was the daughter of Magdalene Hohenzollern of Brandenburg – herself the daughter of John George Hohenzollern, Elector of Brandenburg, who is the direct ancestor of the last German emperor (king of Prussia), Frederick William IV. Since the connection is several hundred years old and the monarchy in Germany was dissolved during World War I, it’s reasonable to assume that it would be a cold day in hell before Queen Elizabeth ever got anywhere near that particular throne. 

Roger pointed out another possibility related to George II through his daughter Anne, the Princess Royal (d. 1759), although technically passed on to Elizabeth II through her grandmother, Queen Mary (Princess May of Teck). Anne married Willem IV, Prince of Orange, who is the direct ancestor of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. Thanks to Queen Mary’s ancestry through Anne and Willem’s daughter, Wilhelmina Caroline, Elizabeth II is also Willem’s descendant. This complex relationship is just one example of the many distant familial connections that can be easily overlooked. 

Without going blind studying each and every one of the various branches of the seemingly endless numbers of minor German royalty, my understanding is that the next three female Georgian ancestors of Elizabeth II brought little to the table. George II’s wife, Caroline of Brandenburg-Anspach, and George III’s wife, Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, actually sandwiched in the more interesting of the three women – Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, wife of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and mother of George III. To be specific, it is Augusta’s bloodline that is interesting. Although she was never queen herself, Augusta has the distinction of being both great grandmother to Queen Victoria and great aunt to Prince Albert. Frederick II’s son (Augusta’s brother) was Frederick III of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg – the direct ancestor of Prince Albert (of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha) through Albert’s mother. Therefore, Victoria and Albert’s direct common ancestor was their great-great grandfather, Frederick II of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Augusta and Frederick III’s father. But, as we know, Victoria and Albert were also first cousins through her mother, Victoria of Saxe-Coburg, and his father, Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, who were siblings.  

Although this particular aspect of Elizabeth II’s family history really means very little in terms of Elizabeth II’s position in the line of succession to another European royal house, it does make one point crystal clear – Elizabeth II is related as much to herself as she is to anyone else (I say with tongue in cheek). In all honesty, however, I think this is the essence of our attempts to understand and make sense of the complexities of the British and European royal houses. It’s the knowledge that centuries of inter-marriage among all the various royals has forged a virtually unbreakable blood bond that means each monarch may have not only more than their primary claim to their own throne, but distant claims to other thrones as well.  

While Queen Elizabeth II is about as unlikely to ascend to any other royal throne as I am, it’s at least fun to consider the possibilities. 

Thanks again, Roger.

Until next week,

- Tori Van Orden