Saturday, February 16, 2008

Peter Phillips can't be king, on accounta he's marrying a Catholic

When the Princess Royal's son, Peter Phillips, marries his Canadian fiancee, Autumn Kelly, at St George's chapel in Windsor in May, he will give up any hope of being crowned king of England...

Peter Phillips is Princess Anne's son. (They live in England.)

Her Majesty's eldest grandson, who is 11th in line to the throne, has been forced to make the decision because Autumn was baptised a Catholic. It is a provision of the 1701 Act of Settlement, which enshrined the Protestant ascendancy, that monarchs and their heirs are forbidden to become or even marry Catholics.

In cases like these—you know, abdicating rights to thrones and all that—I always choose to look at the bright side. Like, you gotta know that the wedding will be a blast!