My fears on rushed new laws over Kate's baby, by Charles: Shake-up to let a daughter succeed to the throne 'has not been thought through', says Prince

The issue was given fresh significance by the announcement of the Duchess of Cambridge's pregnancy...

Hello Friends!

Prince Charles has expressed serious concern about the impact of ‘rushed’ Government plans to change ancient laws governing the Royal line of succession.

Friends told the Daily Mail that he believes altering the rules that give male heirs priority and bar members of the Royal Family from marrying Roman Catholics could have ‘unintended consequences’ that have not been properly considered.

He is understood to have raised a series of critical questions in a private meeting with one of Whitehall’s most senior mandarins last month.

Prince Charles has voiced serious concern about 'rushed' plans to change ancient laws governing the royal line of succession...

The Prince of Wales backs the principle of changing the law to ensure the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's first child becomes Queen if it is a girl, a move which has been discussed for several years, as long as it commands popular support.

But according to a well-placed source, he believes the potential consequences for the delicate relationship between the state and the Church of England, as well as for the rules governing other hereditary titles, have not been thought through.

In a meeting with Richard Heaton, permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office, the Prince is said to have raised concerns about what will happen if his grandchild is allowed to marry a Roman Catholic, as the Government proposes.

Church leaders have previously expressed concern that if a future heir to the throne married a Roman Catholic, their children would be required by canon law to be brought up in that faith.

Ultimately, that could lead to the constitutional nightmare of an heir to the throne, due to become the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, being a Catholic and therefore barred from being crowned.

According to the source, the Prince was told the situation could be resolved by negotiations with the Vatican if it arose - a response he is said to have found ‘unsatisfactory and unconvincing’.

He also raised questions about the potential impact of changing the rules of Royal succession for other titles that are currently passed down the male line. Already, several senior figures have raised the prospect of changing peerage law so that female heirs can succeed to the hereditary peerage.

Some daughters of the gentry are calling for equal rights to inherit titles, arguing that the new law will leave them ‘two steps behind’ the Royals. Such a move would cause turmoil in some of the country’s most aristocratic families.

The disclosure of the Prince’s reservations is a serious blow to the Government’s plans to change Royal succession law.

Though the issue was first raised by Tony Blair more than a decade ago, David Cameron struck an agreement with the 15 other countries where the Queen is head of state that the rules must be overhauled.

Mr Cameron told other Commonwealth leaders that in an age of ‘gender equality’, the 1701 Act of Settlement, which also bars members of the Royal Family from marrying Roman Catholics, is out of date and discriminatory.

There had been growing fears in Royal and Whitehall circles of controversy if the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have a daughter who would be overtaken in line for the throne by any future male siblings.

In Japan, the Chrysanthemum Throne was rocked by a public backlash over succession laws favouring men when Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako had a girl, Aiko, Princess Toshi, who is their only child.

The issue was given fresh urgency by the announcement of the Duchess of Cambridge’s pregnancy last month.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who is responsible for the issue at the Cabinet Office, immediately announced that the Government intended to rush through legislation using procedures usually reserved for anti-terror laws.

The change will need to be legislated for in all 16 Commonwealth realms - the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, Belize, St Christopher and Nevis, St Lucia, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Papua New Guinea.

The changes mean that for all descendants of the Prince of Wales, a younger son will no longer take precedence over an elder daughter in the line of succession.

David Cameron told other Commonwealth leaders that in an age of 'gender equality', the 1701 Act of Settlement, which also bars members of the Royal Family from marrying Catholics, is out of date and discriminatory.

Members of the Royal Family who marry a Roman Catholic will also in future be able to succeed to the Crown, and an ancient rule that means all descendants of George II are supposed to gain the consent of the Monarch to marry will also be scrapped and now apply only to the first six people in the line of succession.

The 1701 Act of Settlement means that only the Protestant heirs of Sophia, granddaughter of James I, can become King or Queen. It also gives precedence to male heirs.

The Act was drawn up in an era of religious strife to ensure the Protestant succession. But it has increasingly been condemned as discriminatory against both Catholics and women in the modern world. Autumn Kelly, wife of the Queen’s grandson Peter Phillips, renounced her Catholic faith so her husband could retain his place as 11th in line to the throne after their wedding in 2008.

Other Royals, including Prince Michael of Kent, the Queen’s first cousin, have given up their claim to the throne in order to marry Catholics.

Roman Catholics are divided on the reform, with some hoping it will ultimately lead to the total repeal of the Act of Settlement, which bars Catholics from the throne.

But former Tory minister Ann Widdecombe, a Catholic, has previously expressed concern, saying: ‘If we get rid of the provision that the heir to the throne and the Monarch can’t marry a Catholic, we will undermine the link between the Monarchy and the Church of England which will threaten the establishment of the Church, taking with it our last figleaf that we are a Christian country.’

Concerns about the rule of male succession were raised with the birth of the Viscount Severn to the Earl and Countess of Wessex. He was installed in the Royal line of succession ahead of his sister, Lady Louise Windsor, who is four years older than him. Buckingham Palace was said to have agreed that the time had come to launch a concerted effort to change the law, even though that will mean legislation having to be overhauled or introduced in countries across the world.

A senior Government source said: ‘The idea that the Government would move one inch on this without the Palace being on board is ridiculous.’

A Cabinet Office spokesman added: ‘We would never comment on exchanges between the Government and the Prince of Wales.’

A spokesman for the Prince of Wales said: 'Any change in the law is a matter for the Government. If and when the Prince of Wales meets with senior civil servants it is always documented properly in the Court Circular. Issues discussed in those meetings are private.'

The publication of the Succession to the Crown Bill last month revealed the complexity of the changes that will be required to ensure that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s child, due later this year, will be Monarch regardless of sex.

As well as the Act of Settlement, several other Bills, including the Treason Act 1351, which was written in Norman French and is one of the oldest laws on the statute book, will have to be amended to ensure that causing the death of a first-born daughter of the Monarch, as well as a son, will be considered treason.

Culled from The Daily Mail UK.

xoxo

Simply Cheska...