Absolute Primogeniture
On 28 October 2011, during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth, Australia, it was announced that British Prime Minister David Cameron's proposed changes to the royal succession laws in the 16 Commonwealth realms had received unanimous support of the other realms' prime ministers. The alterations would replace male preference primogeniture — under which sons take precedence over daughters in the lines of succession — with absolute primogeniture for descendants of the current Prince of Wales; end the ban on marriage of dynasts to Catholics; and limit the requirement for those in line to the throne to acquire permission of the sovereign to marry. However, the requirement for the sovereign to be in communion with the Church of England would remain. The Queen, Elizabeth II, is said to support the proposed changes.
If this system of primogeniture were applied during the reign of Victoria, whose successor in fact was her second child and first son Edward VII, then Princess Victoria, Princess Royal would be the queen and the throne would be inherited by her eldest child and so on.
- Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India
- Victoria, German Empress and Queen of Prussia, eldest child of Queen Victoria
- Wilhelm II, German Emperor and King of Prussia, eldest child of Princess Victoria
- William, German Crown Prince, eldest child of Kaiser Wilhelm II
- Wilhelm of Prussia, eldest child of Prince William, Crown Prince
- Felicitas of Prussia, eldest child of Prince William
- Friederike Thyra Marion Wilhelmine Dorothea von der Osten, eldest child of Princess Felicitas
Friederike is not considered a pretender to the British throne as this alternative line of succession is only a presumed line if absolute primogeniture took effect during the reign of Queen Victoria. Next in line is her eldest child, Felicitas Catharini Malina Johanna von Reiche.
Read more about this topic: Alternative Successions Of The English Crown
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“It is in the nature of allegory, as opposed to symbolism, to beg the question of absolute reality. The allegorist avails himself of a formal correspondence between “ideas” and “things,” both of which he assumes as given; he need not inquire whether either sphere is “real” or whether, in the final analysis, reality consists in their interaction.”
—Charles, Jr. Feidelson, U.S. educator, critic. Symbolism and American Literature, ch. 1, University of Chicago Press (1953)