Who succeeds Edward VIII

Had he not abdicated and both he and his brother lived their OTL lifespans and had their OTL offspring, who would have been crowned in 1972?

I am guess it would have been Elizabeth.
 

Asami

Banned
Had he not abdicated and both he and his brother lived their OTL lifespans and had their OTL offspring, who would have been crowned in 1972?

I am guess it would have been Elizabeth.

Yes, provided that King Edward VIII did not have any children, and remained on the throne through the 1950s and 1960s; Elizabeth would become Queen.

The crown doesn't skip dead people.

So the Crown goes:

Edward VIII is now deceased.
Does he have any children whom may be sovereign? No.​
Are any children of George V alive? Yes.
Is Albert, Duke of York, the second eldest son of George V, currently living? No, he is not.
Does he have any children whom may be sovereign? Yes, two possible heirs.
Are any of these children alive? Yes, both Elizabeth and Margaret are living.
Are any of them male? No, neither one is male.
Then, who is the eldest daughter? Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh.
Has Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh done anything to disqualify herself from the throne (Married Catholic, renounced rights, etc?) No, she is elligible.

Therefore, Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh is now Queen.

Unless, by some unlikely event, Elizabeth renounced her right to succeed. But I doubt that would happen.

If Elizabeth had died of some accident in the 1960s, then Charles (age 24), her eldest son, would be Edward VIII's heir. With declining succession of Andrew (who would be 12), Edward (8) and Anne (22), in that order.

If all four of them were deceased, then the crown would default to Princess Margaret.

If she was deceased, the crown would default to David Armstrong-Jones (age 11), the eldest son of Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon. If he is deceased, then Margaret's daughter Sarah becomes Queen.

If all of Margaret's children are deceased, including Margaret herself, then the line of Albert, Duke of York is considered extinct, and the crown therefore passes back up to the next available geneological heir of George V.

Henry, Duke of Gloucester would become King, as he is still alive in 1972 (but dies in 1974). If he chose to abdicate (due to health reasons), His second son, Prince Richard, becomes King (as his eldest, William, is deceased by 1972.)

And this process continues as the crown goes down a line, and then back up a line. Inevitably, someone would be alive to take the throne, even if it was several dozen ways down the line of succession.

Remember, everyone who is a descendant of Sophia of Hanover is technically considered to be in the line of succession for the British crown. This means there are... quite a lot of people. Over 5,000 of them as of present day, in fact.

Think about how many legitimate children were born to George I, II, III, V, as well as Victoria and Edward VII. There's most certainly more than enough British or German men waiting to become King; or women to become Queen.

However--the Crown in 1972 DOES NOT ACCEPT ROMAN CATHOLICS. This means any descendant of the Electress of Hanover who is a Roman Catholic and disqualified from succession, gets skipped. Their children may be elligible, but they are not.
 
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Or to simplify - the heir to the British throne is the senior heir general of the Electress Sophia of Hannover (d1714) - subject to the following proviso - they must not be Roman Catholic or married to a Roman Catholic -anyone who was would be treated for the purposes of the succession as if they were dead.

There is an element of confusion over the eligibility of the children of someone who had forfeited their rights by conversion or by marriage to a Roman Catholic (the framers of the Act of Settlement certainly did not conceive of a situation where the children of a RC would be educated in the Church of England for example - their intent was the exclusion of the lot) - in modern terms the only Prince to marry a RC and forfeit his rights was Prince Michael of Kent whose children were included as both were brought up in the Church of England (he regained his place in the succession following the change in the rules a few years ago - as he never converted to RC remaining an Anglican).
 
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