Royal Succession - Hypothetical Question

[WaldoMcFroog]

Hypothetically, there are two princes, 1st and 2nd in line to the throne. Their father, who is royal by birth, and the 1st brother die in some accident or other. The first brother has not left an heir.

Technically, the younger brother is now 1st in line to the throne. What would happen if he were suspected of being the product of an extra-marital affair by the non-royal wife of the father with another non-royal.

Hypothetically speaking, you understand, so please be careful how you answer...

[Stevee]

Before anything can be done.

There would have to be a challenge.

If there were a challenge and it proved that there was no blood line, the hypothetical 2nd heir would not be allowed to ascend to the throne.

[Ouisch]

Still got your doubts about Prince Harry, eh?  ;>

[WaldoMcFroog]

As I said in the question, it's merely hypothetical...

[kempie]

The key word here is legitimacy.

In your scenario the younger brother is illegitimate and would therefore not be able to figure in the line of succession. It is irrelevant whether or not the mother and/or biological father is royalty.

[jno]

hang on, you're legitimate if you're born to a married couple, aren't you?

[Peter Pedant]

There's ALMOST been a case.

In the house of lords there is something called a Writ of ******** I think. In the seventies Lord Londonderry's wife was er kissing Georgie Fame and so there was a divorce. But what of Lord Londonderry's little boy, the then Viscount Castlereagh? I regret he got deprived of his title and got a name like the rest of us - plain John Smith or something.

 

here's a bit from the belfast telegraph i kicked up:

A new book by his daughter, Lady Annabel Goldsmith, explodes the myth that her father died of a broken heart after the death of his wife and reveals the shame and humiliation he brought upon the famous household.

Her brother, the 9th Marquess, also plunged the family into scandal in 1970, when he cited singer Georgie Fame in a divorce action against his young wife, Nicolette. A year later, a blood test proved Fame was the father of her child.

The present Lord Londonderry styles himself Earl Vane and lives quietly in England. Nicolette committed suicide by throwing herself from Clifton suspension bridge, in Bristol, in 1996.

[kempie]

Illegitimate - Born to parents who are not married to each other.

If the mother is married to someone else how can the child be legitimate?

[jno]

I guess you must be right kempie and I'm wrong. And yet the word is traditionally used for the children of unwed mothers (and perhaps unwed fathers too) - if a couple is married and they are registered on the birth certificate as the parents, I'm not sure what the position would be, especially if the child in question declined to take a DNA test that might disinherit him. Maybe a case for the Writ of Asterisks Peter Pedant mentions.

[kempie]

Recent(ish) events have overtaken me.

In the UK the notion of b*****dy was effectively abolished by the introduction of The Children Act 1989 (which came into force in 1991), by virtue of introducing the concept of parental responsibility which ensures that a child can have a legal father even if that child's parents weren't married. However it was not until December 2003, with the implementation of parts of The Adoption and Children Act 2002, that parental responsibility was automatically granted to fathers of children born out of wedlock, and even then, only if the father's name appears on the birth certificate.