UK Royals Marriage: David Cameron Proposes Amendments To 1701 Act Of Settlement

By Francis X. Rocca
Religion News Service

(RNS) Future British kings and queens would be permitted to marry Catholics for the first time in more than three centuries under reforms proposed by British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Writing to his fellow heads of government in the British Commonwealth, in a letter published on Wednesday (Oct. 12), Cameron
outlined several proposed amendments to the 1701 Act of Settlement, which bars Catholics and the spouses of Catholics from the British throne.

In his letter, Cameron called the ban on Catholic royal consorts a "historical anomaly" which could not "continue to be justified."

Cameron did not propose lifting the ban on a Catholic becoming the monarch, who also serves by law as the "Supreme Governor" of the Church of England.

The approval of all 16 Commonwealth "realms," whose leaders will meet in Australia later this month, would be necessary for any changes in the law governing royal succession.

Cameron also proposed changing a provision of the law giving priority to male heirs to the throne.

"We espouse gender equality in all other aspects of life," Cameron wrote in his letter, "and it is an anomaly that in the rules relating to the highest public office we continue to enshrine male superiority."

Comments

[Funke Obisanya]

07:15 AM on 10/31/2011

The ACt of Settlement is an ancient law that still applies to all British Cirtizens and Citizens in the Dominions - the Commonwealth and the monarch. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/aep/Will3/12-13/2/section/I it does 4 things , It forbids a Catholic from taking the throne if a royal is a catholic they would have to renounce their faith and or just miss out. It forbid any protestant monarch from marrying a catholic and if they do they must give up the throne.It forbids an already Crowned Protestant monarch from mixing with the Pope and all things Papist (Catholic) if they do they MUST ABDICATE if they dont ALL CITIZIENS in Britain and the Dominions are absolved of their allegiances with such a monarch. ie no taxes etc Any Christian knows Romans 15v 1-7 that we including monarchs who are Christians are to obey the laws of the land and if they dont they face damnation Citizens who dont rebell against the forfeited crown i.e those who still are alleged with her also stand to loose their salvation as it would be NOT obeying the laws of the land.

Lizzie, Royal Borough of Greenwich.

[Thomas Minot]

04:28 PM on 10/14/2011

The tie between the Anglican church and the Monarch should be severed too,( the church dis-established).

[SimonBao]

08:48 AM on 10/17/2011

I can understand why someone might advocate for disentangling the Anglican church from the British Sovereign... but why would you advocate for disestablishing the Anglican church?

And why advocate for that here? It's a bit OT.

[Thomas Minot]

12:23 PM on 10/17/2011

First of all, the Anglican church is universal. As for disentangl­ing the Anglican church from the British Sovereign, well start there. (by the way, Charles is married to a divorced woman, and he will be the quasi head.) I have heard many C Of E leaders would actually like the church to be disestablished.

[Canadian on the border]

05:30 AM on 10/14/2011

why do all 16 have to agree, if only some agree then some may have a diffeent monarch

[SimonBao]

08:50 AM on 10/17/2011

If the nations of the British Commonwealth have different monarchs (and heads of state), they cease to be the British Commonwealth.

By definition, by design, by explicit intent, the nations of the British Commonwealth all have the same British Sovereign as their monarch and head of state.

[Funke Obisanya]

07:16 AM on 10/31/2011

infact all citizens are absolved of allegiences with such a monarch according to the act of settlement and so the commonwealth should not have agreed to it untill after the queen has abdicated

[Margaret Cadogan]

11:38 PM on 10/13/2011

Has the Catholic church determined that it's ok to marry a royal?

[Bob Metcalfe]

11:11 PM on 10/13/2011

Great idea, give them a wider choice of inbred idiots to marry :-).

[gevan]

10:39 PM on 10/13/2011

Throw out the Hanover descendants and bring back the Stewarts?

[KenInd]

11:28 PM on 10/13/2011

Not the Stewarts...the Stuarts.

[gevan]

05:48 PM on 10/14/2011

The first king of Scotland who succeeded to the throne of England was the grandson of Matthew Stewart, Earl of Lennox (1516-1571). Who, when, or why the spelling was changed is outside my scope of knowledge. The British think we Americans spell funny.

[SimonBao]

08:38 AM on 10/14/2011

The last Stuart monarch, James II, wasn't thrown out for marrying a Catholic, but out of concern he'd leave the realm with a Catholic heir, and leave the Anglican church with a Catholic supreme governor.

[gevan]

05:40 PM on 10/14/2011

Queen Anne was the last Stuart monarch. The Hanoverian succession was from Elizabeth, daughter of James I. The Stuart succession would pass through Henrietta, daughter of Charles I (James' son) and now resides with Francis of Bavaria (b. 1933) and would go to his brother Max (b. 1937), Max's daughter Sophie (b. 1967) who married a Liechtenstein prince. and finally her son Joseph (b. 1995).