Q&A: Who can come into the British throne

Honeymooners Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and her husband Prince William on a royal tour of Canada in July.

Prince William's glittery marriage to Catherine Middleton captured a worldwide audience earlier this year.

Only improving until at once, some girl carried to the Duke and Duchess Cambridge would not have loved an same good to come into British throne. Reigns dating back centuries edict that the crown passes to the eldest Word and are only given active an daughter as there are none sons.

Totally these exchanged at a assembling by the leadership from 16 Commonwealth areas in Perth, Australia, wherever they nem con accorded to improve the successiveness finds.

Why accepts this switch happen nowadays?

The issue features been talked about in the Britain for a lot of yrs -- and switches accept comprised advised earlier -- just them asks an act as by parliament and the understanding from the 15 early regions where the British royal family are the head of country to alter the decrees of succession.
Princesses to become average share of throne

Consecutive Britain governments accept miscarried to find democratic time to argue propositions to modify the law. A spokesman at Britain Prime Minister David Cameron's agency said it let much been thought of while "as well thorny and elaborated to care with quickly."

The wedding of William and Catherine incoming April delivers added the issue back into centre. David Cameron referred immediately to the couple in his lecture to state leaders Friday, saying the successiveness finds were "obsolete."

"The thought that a younger son should get monarch alternatively of an older daughter only for he's a man... this way of supposing is at odds with the advanced states that we have all become," he said.

So what has cost agreed?

The leaders of the 16 Commonwealth states that have Queen Elizabeth II II because head of state unanimously accorded that sons and daughters of the British monarchs wish accept an like correctly to the throne. They too agreed that a future the British monarch can marry a Roman Catholic -- something that is presently illegal.

What was the historical base for the older rules?

The tradition of favouring the male heir -- anticipated male primogeniture -- becomes back a lot centuries and can be seen in the extensive family tree of British monarchy.

But a key law which rules the way the British monarchs are selected is the 1701 act as of village which has its roots in the religious strife of the eld. The official the British Monarchy website explains that the act was designed to protected the protestant succession to the throne.

Imperial commentator and other editor of the global Who's Who, Richard Fitzwilliams, explained that this has been a divisive issue always as the English Tudor King Henry VIII split with the Catholic Church in Rome in the 16th Century, passing to decades of religious persecution.

The Act of village appointed that no Roman Catholic or anyone married to a Catholic could agree the English crown. This is now to be improved so that an heir to the throne can still be monarch even if they marry a Catholic.

The the British Monarchy site gives two models of the current royalty who were bumped off from the business line of succession because they married Roman Catholics -- George Windsor, Earl of St Andrews, and Prince Michael of Kent.

How are William and Catherine affected?

The changes mean that if the couple begin a family and the first born is a girl, she wish eventually become queen. Previously, a younger son would have accepted precedence. However, this could be a lot years in the future. Prince Charles is first in line to the throne when Queen Elizabeth II dies, and his son William would ascend after his reign.

David Cameron's speech makes it clear that the new rules are not retroactive , so Prince Charles's eldest sibling, Anne, won't be in line to the throne in front of her younger brothers Andrew and Edward.

It also means that any heir born to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge can marry a Catholic and retain the crown.

What isn't changing?

The British sovereign is also head of the Church of England -- part of the Anglican church - and retains the title Defender of the Faith. David Cameron said at Friday's Commonwealth meeting that "the monarch must be in communion with the Church of England because he or she is the head of that church." This would currently bar a Catholic holding the crown.

Prince Charles caused controversy in 1994 when he said in a TV interview that he would rather be seen as "defender of faiths" to include Catholic subjects of the sovereign which he described as "equally as important as the Anglican ones or the protestant ones." He came on to list other faiths as also being equally important.

What happens next?

David Cameron explained in his speech to Commonwealth leaders that "for historic reasons" the Britain legislation needs to be published first but the necessary measures aspiring implemented at the like time across the Commonwealth.

A spokesman for his office said the changes will be presented to UK MPs in the next session of parliament but added that they enjoy cross-party support.

However, the process is a complex one. The Downing Street spokesman said that in accession to the Act of Settlement, many other archaic laws will have to be amended -- these include the Bill of Rights 1689, the Coronation Oath Act 1688, the Acts of Union and the Royal Marriage Act 1772.

Each of the 15 other Commonwealth members will then have to amend their own legislation.

So which countries are affected?

The Commonwealth consists of 54 independent states, most of which have ties to the Britain, but Queen Elizabeth II is head of state to only 16 of them including the Britain. Those nations are Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu.