It is all well and good to try to undo historical wrongs. However, doing so can have unintended consequences if one is not careful.

In this case, it could upset the entire line of succession to the British throne, and even lead to the replacement of Elizabeth II by an extremely distant German cousin.

Gordon Brown is considering repealing the 1701 Act of Settlement as a way of healing a historic injustice by ending the prohibition against Catholics taking the throne.

But doing so would have the unforeseen consequence of making a 74-year-old German aristocrat the new King of England and Scotland.

Without the Act, Franz Herzog von Bayern, the current Duke of Bavaria, would be the rightful heir to the British Crown under the Stuart line.

The bachelor, who lives alone in the vast Nymphenberg Palace in Munich, is the blood descendant of the 17th-century King Charles I.

"If it [the Act] goes then the whole Catholic line is reinstated," said Prof Daniel Szechi, a lecturer in early modern history at the University of Manchester.

"Franz becomes the rightful claimant to the throne. We would just exchange one German family for another one."

The law in question dates back to the era following the Glorious Revolution, when efforts to keep the Catholic descendants of the deposed King James II from regaining the throne resulted in the selection of the House of Hanover to replace the House of Stuart. Could a change in the law result in a restoration of the claims of the Stuart Clan?

Indeed, the Act of Succession ought to be amended to remove the bar on Catholics from the line of succession or the throne. However, a better vehicle than that currently under consideration obviously needs to be found.

Posted by: Greg at 10:21 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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