WI, Brittish royal family killed during ww2?

What if the Brittish royal family was killed during ww2, lets say that the bomb that fell on the castle fell were they were. So the King, Margret and Elizabeth are all dead. Who is next in line?

Would Brittain go as far as to bring back the Edward VIII that abdicated a few years previous
 

Nick P

Donor
The next in line would be Henry, Duke of Gloucester. He was the third of George V's sons being born in 1900 and OTL died 1974. This has an interesting knock-on in that his son William died in an air crash in 1972. The cause has been suggested as Porphyria which is the hereditary illness that affected King George III.

After Henry it would be George, Duke of Kent who OTL died in 1942 while on active service with the RAF. That wouldn't happen this time.
 
There's lots and lots of minor Royals who could step up. Abdicated Edward had no way back unless a pro-fasc**st coup installed him as a puppet...
 
The next in line would be Henry, Duke of Gloucester. He was the third of George V's sons being born in 1900 and OTL died 1974. This has an interesting knock-on in that his son William died in an air crash in 1972. The cause has been suggested as Porphyria which is the hereditary illness that affected King George III.

After Henry it would be George, Duke of Kent who OTL died in 1942 while on active service with the RAF. That wouldn't happen this time.

But William has a son, who in this scenario becomes King Richard IV.
 
About the only way I can see Edward getting back on the throne is him being a puppet after a successful unspeakable sea mammal
 
What if the Brittish royal family was killed during ww2, lets say that the bomb that fell on the castle fell were they were. So the King, Margret and Elizabeth are all dead. Who is next in line?

What date in WWII? War on Germany was declared on September 3, 1939.
 
What date in WWII? War on Germany was declared on September 3, 1939.

I was thinking during the Blitz when a bomb actually fell on the Royal castle and when i read about it the first time and saw queen Elizabeths quote about seeing the east enders in their eyes i thought Elizabeth II, not her mother
 
Okay, then, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester. His eldest will probably NOT die in a plane competition, because as heir, he won't be allowed to compete because of the danger. The Duke of Kent will probably be recalled from active duty and survive to sire more children with Marina. Gloucester and his wife might make an effort to have more children. Hitler will make more of an effort to obtain custody of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor; if he succeeds, Parliament will specifically pass legislation barring them from the throne (there were already rumors about the Duke, the Duchess, and their pro-Germans views), on top his renunciation of it in 1936.
 
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Okay, then, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester. His eldest will probably NOT die in a plane competition, because as heir, he won't be allowed to compete because of the danger. The Duke of Kent will probably be recalled from active duty and survive to sire more children with Marina. Gloucester and his wife might make an effort to have more children. Hitler will make more of an effort to obtain custody of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor; if he succeeds, Parliament will specifically pass legislation barring them from the throne (there were already rumors about the Duke, the Duchess, and their pro-Germans views), on top his renunciation of it in 1936.

The Duke of Windsor is already out of the line of succession. Part of the deal surrounding the abdication was that he was required to renounce his rights to the crown and all royal titles not just for himself but for any heirs too - in effect, he was stripped all the way down to a commoner before being given the title of Duke of Windsor by George VII as a new creation. There is no need for new legislation as it was all dealt with at the time - His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act, 1936. It's one of the peculiarities of the British constitution that the monarch has enormous powers in theory, but very few in practice - he couldn't even give up the job without parliament's approval (the king abdicated on 10 December but it was of null effect until he gave Royal Assent - as king - to the bill a day later).

As to what happens, we get King Henry IX, the British get slightly more pissed off and determined to finish things, but otherwise the course of the war probably doesn't go much different.

The really interesting thing will be the immediate aftermath. The death of the king, queen and both of their daughters would normally require a spectacular funeral complete with a lengthy lying in wait and Westminster Abbey full of dignitaries. This is obviously going to be problematic in wartime! If the Germans have any sense they will make a big deal of declaring a 72 hour moratorium on air raids in the London area to allow the funeral to proceed in peace - I would think this would certainly be Goebbel's advice (he would be more aware than most of how big a propaganda disaster this could be), but Hitler might give in to the temptation that so many high value targets in such a small space would represent.

The question then becomes what the British do - stage a scaled-down funeral quickly and run the risk of appearing scared, stage a full scale funeral somewhere safer (Edinburgh would be an interesting choice propaganda wise) or just go "Screw you" and set up a full blown service in Westminster Abbey and move virtually the whole of Fighter Command to the south of London. Churchill would be tempted to go for the latter, but I suspect wiser heads would prevail and we'd get some form of the second.
 
Parliament would pass the "special" legislation for Hitler's benefit. An eff-you to you and your little dog to him from parliament. I know what Edward did when he abdicated, but Hitler was planning on reinstating him if England could be overcome.

The funerals are going to be traditional war-time funerals. AFTER the war, there will be this tremendous memorial service which will show how they lived and died as 'normal' people who died during the Blitz. That's where you'll get the four day long line.....
 
I would assume that after something like this the"new" royal family would spend their time at some castle well removed from the possibility of an attack - at least the Queen and royal children, it would be necessary for the King to remain in London as a morale factor.
 
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