Evening star., 1937-04-30
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.
T WILL not, strictly speaking, be
Queen Elizabeth"

BY THOMAS r. HENRY.
TT WILL not, strictly speaking, be
Queen Elizabeth"
The wife of George the Sixth
L will be crowned as Queen Consort.
There is narrow, but very significant
difference.
A queen is an actual ruler, Inherit
Ing the throne by her own right, and
exercising all the political rights OF
royalty. Mary the First, the Bloody
Mary" OF history, was such queen.
She came to the throne because. after
the death of her brother, who left no
heirs, she was the eldest daughter of
much-married Henry the Eighth and
there were no male descendants.
She married SPANS Philip the Sec
ond, who later launched the Span
ish Armada against England. Her
marriage to Philip did not make him
king OF England. He was, for time,
the king -consort, but he had no execu-
tive power whatsoever. Mary pro-
ceeded to be queen, with vengeance
for all the wrongs she had endured.
She died childless and was succeeded,
In due form, by her younger sister,
Elizabeth, the sole remaining heir of
Henry the Eighth. Ehzabeths status,
socially and politically, was exactly
the same as that of king.
William and Mary.
The next episode is that of William
and Mary, which specifically seems
to be an anomaly. James the Second
abandoned" the throne-that is, he
fed from England before Parliament
had time to force his abdication. BY
precedent the crown should have gone
to his son, who had fled with his father.
He was Catholic and militant Protes-
tantism was in the saddle.
Parliament proceeded to exercise its
much disputed prerogative of elect
ing" ruler. 1t went only so far as
to offer the throne to the exiled King IS
Oldest daughter, Mary, herself a
Protestant and married to the Prot
estant Prince of Orange. William
exercised his prerogatives as a husband
He was the ruler of the Netherlands.
He refused to be merely prince con-
sort of England, and Parliament
conformed to his very human preju-
dice. William was elected" King
and Mary, Queen.
Her position was very different from
that of queen consort. An act of
Parliament, in order to be legal, had
TO have the signatures of both herself
and her husband. They were Joint
rulers, elected specifically as such.
Mary did not owe her status to having
married certain man. She was
Queen in her own right.
She died childless and was sue
ceeded by her sister, Anne, the wife
Of a Danish prince. Prince Georges
County, Maryland, is named for him
and is perhaps the poor mans only
memorial. He was prince consort of
England-a status far different from
that of William the Third His fat,
froWSy wife was Queen. Official docu-
ments bore her signature only. Prince
George was just Anne's husband,
whereas the Prince of Orange had
been equal royal partner.
Victoria Had Consort, Too.
So it was with Victoria. She be-
came Queen of England because, in
the absence of male heirs, she was
next in line of succession William
the Fourth. Her husband, the great
grandfather of the present King, was
only prince consort without any gov
ernlng prerogatlves whatsoever. He
was very popular man with the
English people, but it sometimes has
been said that the anomalous status
OF being just a Woman's husband
contributed to his untimely death.
In only one case, that of William
and Mary, has an actual royal couple
ruled England. 1t is almost incon-
celvable that such a situation ever
should arise again. 1t existed only
because Parliament willed that at
should be So-and the right of Par
lament to bring about any such sta
tus was source of trouble for a
century. The dispute hinged upon
the authority of Parliament to pass
over the strict line of descent-even
by single step, as in that case-and
set up somebody else as monarch.
S'Oet' SiiN SOtA anu 81 oliOSOll Vi N1dI >
ill-fated father staged unsuccessful
rebellions which enlisted a great deal
OF popular support. Bonnie Prince
Charlie was an idol in Scotland and
northern England, and readers of
Anthony Adverse" will recall the
stubborn refusal of followers of the
Stuarts to submit to those whom they
considered illegitimate rulers.
There is, in fact, fine legal point
as to whether a monarch of Great
Britain comes to the throne solely by
right of birth, or by election. With
very few exceptions the right of the
next in line of succession has been
unquestioned, but these exceptions
may constitute evidence that the elec-
ton procedure is merely telescoped
In the coronation formaHties.
Days of John Recalled.
One precedent dates back to the
accession of that evil King john
John is an unlucky name in the an
mails of British royal families-whose
signature was forced to the Magma
Charta and who supposedly put out
the eyes of his little nephew, Arthur
of Brittany, with a red hot iron,
because the child threatened his right
to the throne.
Richard the Lion-hearted had died
childless. John was his only surviving
brother. Arthur was the eldest child
of a dead elder brother. There was a
fine dispute as to which was next in