Friday, October 14, 2011

We've Come A Long Way Babies

Former colonies now run the British crown:
"Sorting out the family inheritance can be a messy business. But it rarely requires an act of Parliament or involves consultation with the heads of Commonwealth governments.

But that is exactly what's happening in the case of the Royal Family, and if British Prime Minister David Cameron gets his way, the male bias would be eliminated when it comes to inheriting the throne."
Well, not quite:
"Cameron wrote a letter to Commonwealth leaders last month outlining his plan to change British law so that a male heir would no longer take precedence over his older sister.

But while that letter came to Prime Minister Stephen Harper for Canada's input, this country won't have any legal sway in the matter."
Oh well. How 'bout proposing it skip a generation. Back to sleep, now.

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9 Comments:

Blogger Dave in Pa. said...

"How 'bout proposing it skip a generation." And lose all that comic relief entertainment a future King Charles IV and Queen Camilla would provide?

BTW, the Japanese Parliament passed a similar law a few years ago, eliminating the male heir preference in their Royal Family. The Crown Prince and his wife have one child, a daughter. The other Prince's sons now don't count. So, decades from now, we'll see an Empress of Japan as the reigning monarch.

Back to sleep, now. :-)

October 15, 2011 10:44 am  
Blogger Louise said...

There's only so much comic relief one can take. Too much and it becomes farce. We're well into the farce phase already.

Chucky-pooh is in his sixties now and it seems only the female line in the House of Windsor are long-lived. Perhaps Queen Liz will outlive him, or at least live long enough that Chucky-pooh will be a drooling, doddering old man incapable of climbing the stairs in his palace or perhaps lost in its maze of hallways.

October 15, 2011 11:23 am  
Blogger Louise said...

I had to think for a second (oh, my head aches), Chucky-pooh will only be the 4th King Charles?! The Royals seem to have so few names to choose from, I would have thought there'd be more, but I guess that's right. Chucky-pooh 111 is the one you guys had some issues with, wasn't he.

When Wills gets to sit on the big chair, he'll be only the 3rd and only the 2nd native born Brit Will, if my brain's history gray cells are functioning properly.

October 15, 2011 12:10 pm  
Blogger Louise said...

And Chucky-pooh 1 lost his head to the big knife.

October 15, 2011 12:11 pm  
Blogger Dave in Pa. said...

I just did a quick Wiki check to refresh my memory and I was wrong. It was Charles II who lost the English Civil War and was beheaded. I guess the Royals considered the name unlucky and haven't used it again up till the present twit. So, the current Chuck would be Charles III.

I don't think his head is worth cutting off. Nobody would notice the difference, anyway. :-)

And it was George III with whom we Yanks had that serious difference of opinion.

BTW, I highly recommend the movie about George III, "The Madness of King George". It rightly won some major awards and was a historically accurate, excellently scripted and casted cinematic masterpiece.

October 15, 2011 1:29 pm  
Blogger Louise said...

I thought Chucky-pooh the 2nd was the one who was begged to come back to the big chair. Damn. I used to know this stuff, and all my history books are upstairs. I'm in my own basement.

October 15, 2011 2:08 pm  
Blogger Louise said...

This here Encyclopedia Britannia article (they gotta know their English history, right?) says about Charles II:

"Charles II, second son of Charles I and Henrietta Marie of France, was born in 1630. He spent his teenage years fighting Parliament's Roundhead forces until his father's execution in 1649, when he escaped to France."

And this here one, from the royal's own website (aren't they just so trendy) about Chucky-pooh I says:

"On 20 January, Charles was charged with high treason 'against the realm of England'. Charles refused to plead, saying that he did not recognise the legality of the High Court (it had been established by a Commons purged of dissent, and without the House of Lords - nor had the Commons ever acted as a judicature).

The King was sentenced to death on 27 January. Three days later, Charles was beheaded on a scaffold outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall, London."


After his head rolled, Jolly Old England was ruled by Cromwell, who screwed up, which led to the begging and pleading with his son, also named Chucky-pooh, to restore the monarchy. The period twixt the two is known as the Interregnum.

October 15, 2011 2:43 pm  
Blogger Louise said...

Oops. Forgot to link the Britannica article about Chucky-pooh II.

October 15, 2011 2:47 pm  
Blogger Louise said...

Did you know that I once worked with a man who was 268th in line to the Danish throne? At least that's what he told us.

October 15, 2011 2:49 pm  

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