Subject: A More Glorious Revolution
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Posted on: 2019-11-29 12:38:34 UTC

In 1688, the Parliament of England overthrew its second king: ousting the Catholic James II, it invited in his daughter and son-in-law to take the throne as Mary II and William III. Not long thereafter, it instituted new laws to ensure that no Catholic could ever take the throne. The trigger for all this was the birth of a son, James, to the king, who supplanted his sisters in the line of succession.

Let's imagine a different Glorious Revolution: rather than straight up kicking out the king, Parliament bullied him into changing the law of succession. Now, the eldest child of the monarch would take the throne, male or female. Prince James was no longer Crown Prince, but sat third in line to the throne.

The House of Stuart

King James, brother to Charles II, would have remained king for over a decade after his historical ousting. During this time, his eldest daughter Mary died, leaving her sister to take the throne after James.

  • 1. James II (b. 1633, r. 1685-1701)
  • 2. Anne (b. 1665, r. 1701-1714) - Daughter

The Jacobite Return

Surprise! The Jacobites get the throne after all. James "the Old Pretender" and his children get exactly the titles they claimed in real life. Presumably Bonnie Prince Charlie's Catholicism was overridden by politics, otherwise I assume there would have been another revolution.

  • 3. James III (b. 1688, r. 1714-1766) - Son of James II (#1)
  • 4. Charles III (b. 1720, r. 1766-1788) - Son

The Cardinal's Reign

Henry Stuart was a Catholic cardinal, which would have made for an interesting couple of decades.

  • 5. Henry IX (b. 1725, r. 1788-1807) - Son of James III (#3)

The Abbess Queen

At this point the succession has to jump clear back to the children of Charles I. His daughter Henrietta had seven children, but only the youngest, Anne, had children. Anne's son became King of Savoy, and began the historical Jacobite claim line, but her daughter Marie Adelaide was older - and her oldest surviving child was Louis XV of France.

Louis died in 1774, long preceeding Henry IX. His daughter Louise Elisabeth predeceased him, leaving the claim to her son Ferdinand, Duke of Parma. He predeceased Henry IX by five years, bringing us to:

The Portugese Line

Now the line jumps back to Louise Elisabeth, and goes to her youngest daughter Maria Luisa. She married the King of Spain, and died in 1819. Her daughter Carlota Joaquina married the king of Portugal, dying in 1830; her daughter wound up exiled to Brazil, but returned before her accession as:

The current heir to Her Majesty Queen Mary V (in actuality the Duchess of Ansola) is her daughter Elena, followed by Elena's son Enrique. And that, I think, is entirely fair.

(As far as gender balance goes: of the 12 monarchs listed in this line, 7 are male, 5 female. That's pretty good, actually!)

hS

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