Talk:Act of Settlement 1701

As a result of the Act of Settlement, several members of the British Royal Family who have converted to Roman Catholicism or married Catholics have been barred from their place in the line of succession. These cases are a major part of the potential interest for nnon-historians. Wetman 20:50, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Such decisions are made by the Prime Minister, whose own religion (if any) may be in conflict with the Church of England. This situation is rendered possible because, on the one hand, religious tests have never applied to public offices such as the Prime Minister (and under contemporary anti-discrimination laws it would be illegal to do so), while on the other hand, such a religious test not only is but must be applied to the monarch.

I was under the impression that the Appointments Secretary who advises the Prime Minister on appointments of bishops and the like must be an Anglican, and that the Catholic Relief Act specifically forbids a Catholic from advising the monarch as to appointments within the CofE. Also the Queen is immune from prosecution and the appointment of a prime minister is one of the royal prerogatives which the courts historically have held to be outside the scope of judicial revieq. The Queen could refuse (in theory) to appoint a non-anglican as Prime Minister and there's nothing anyone could do about it in the courts. - Chrism 18:22, May 23, 2004 (UTC)

The Queen could in theory refuse to to appoint anyone for any reason. But to do so would be a revolutionary act and cause a crisis. James II and Edward VIII learnt the consequences of such behaviour. Iain Duncan-Smith and Charles Kennedy are Roman Catholics; Michael Howard is Jewish; Neville Chamberlain was Unitarian; Ramsey MacDonald and Alec Douglas-Hume were Scottish, while David Lloyd George was Welsh and disestablished the Church in Wales. There has been no suggestion that any of them would be unable to be Prime Minister on religious grounds; the usual practice is to finger a convenient CofE cabinet minister to be responsible for bishops. --Henrygb 16:00, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Does this mean that if the duke of Bavaria and his wife converts to protestantism, the duke will be the rightfull heir to the British throne??

No. Three reasons at least:

the Jacobites lost
he is not the heir of Sophia Electress of Hanover
the spouse's religion at accession doesn't matter - it is the religion at marriage which counts --Henrygb 16:00, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC)

only Protestant descendants of Sophia, dowager Electress and dowager Duchess of Hanover, who have not married a Roman Catholic, can succeed to the English Crown.

So can such a Protestant descendant who marries a Muslim or a Jew succeed to the crown? Or a Protestant married to a Greek Orthodox priest? Michael Hardy 02:44, 27 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Yes, so long as the descendant remains in communion with the Church of England. --Henrygb 11:48, 27 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I have been looking for a list of the cousins of George I who were 'passed over' because they were catholic - does anyone know who they were?

If the Queen and all her descendants die leaving no heirs the succession goes 'back up the tree' as it were, and this allows us to come up with an order of succession in which we list descendants in order and then go back up the tree when we run out. According to the general rules of succession as we all understand them this is an open-ended process, and provided we know the genealogy we can keep going and come up with a very long list of people, getting ever more distantly related to the present Queen as we go. But the Act of Settlement restricts all this to the descendants of one historical figure. Hypothetically speaking, if I was to wipe out all living descendants of Sophia, and I know there must be an enormous number by now, am I right in saying that no one would be entitled to succeed to the throne? We wouldn't be able to find a descendant of, let's say, Sophia's uncle, and give them the throne, because the Act means that she is the cut-off point. (I'm aware that all this is very poorly worded, but hopefully you'll get the gist of what I'm talking about.) What would happen in such a situation? — Trilobite (Talk) 12:42, 17 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Looking around I've found this list which lists 4583 people, and appears to be a comprehensive list of all Sophia's descendants as of 2001. It says nothing about what happens if the end of the line is reached, however. — Trilobite (Talk) 12:58, 17 Feb 2005 (UTC)

What about EU legislation? There is a UK - EU law contradiction.

I wonder if this Act would stand or fail in the EU supreme court?

It could probably justified on the grounds that its a legitimate restriction under the Equal Treatment Framework Directive (article 4 clause 2) - a religious body (in this case the CofE) can require its officers (in this case the Supreme Governor) to be an adherent of that religion. - Chrism 12:19, Feb 18, 2005 (UTC)