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After 70 years of waiting, King Charles III is now on the British throne following the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II. Game of Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon is currently on TV and full of the theme of royal succession for the Iron Throne.
The opening episode saw Princess Rhaenys Targaryen skipped despite being the daughter of a firstborn heir to the King, just for being female.
Instead, Viserys I was crowned following the death of Jaehaerys I and she has since been known in House of the Dragon and the book Fire and Blood it’s based on as “The Queen Who Never Was”.
Interestingly, in real life the same thing would have happened to Queen Victoria had British succession law skipped female heirs in the same fashions, something that like the Iron Throne, the House of Hanover does.
When Queen Anne Stuart died heirless in 1714 after a tragic 17 pregnancies, the Act of Settlement 1701 excluded all Catholic pretenders to her next Protestant one.
This was her second cousin, King George I, who didn’t speak English. He became the British monarch and remained the Electorate of Hanover in Germany.
This was the same for his successors George II, George III, George IV and William IV. Now George IV and William IV were the first and third sons of George III and neither of them had legitimate heirs.
Next in line was William IV’s next younger brother Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, but he had died in 1820, so his only child Victoria was now heir to the throne. However, it wasn’t that simple.
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Yes, Victoria became Queen as the British line of success did not skip female heirs of the next male heir. As a result, her like goes all the way down to Queen Elizabeth II and now King Charles III.
However, the House of Hanover’s line of success is like that of the Iron Throne in House of the Dragon, passing on females. As a result, Queen Victoria did not become Electorate of Hanover. Instead, that went to George III’s next youngest son, Ernest Augustus, who became King of Hanover upon the death of his older brother William IV in 1837.
Had the British monarchy had this German line of success that is the same as the Iron Throne, Ernest Augustus would have been crowned King of Great Britain and Ireland after William IV in 1837 and Victoria would have been “The Queen Who Never Was”.
This would mean that the current Head of the House of Hanover would be the British King today, not Charles III. So who is he? Well, the Hanover monarchy was abolished after its annexation by Prussia in 1866 but the line goes right down to a man alive now called Prince Ernst August of Hanover.
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Today Prince Ernst is the head of the House of Hanover and married to Princess Caroline of Monaco, the daughter of Grace Kelly, but they have been separated since 2009.
The 68-year-old European Royal is the senior male-line descendant of George III to this day and continues to claim to be a Royal Prince of Great Britain and Ireland – a title bestowed upon his father by the United Kingdom in 1914.
He has been part of some controversies in his life and most recently sued his son for selling Marienburg castle.
So, in another world with Iron Throne and German succession laws, he would presumably have been crowned King Ernst August of the United Kingdom today.
Today Prince Ernst is the head of the House of Hanover and married to Princess Caroline of Monaco, the daughter of Grace Kelly, but they have been separated since 2009.
The 68-year-old European Royal is the senior male-line descendant of George III to this day and continues to claim to be a Royal Prince of Great Britain and Ireland – a title bestowed upon his father by the United Kingdom in 1914.
He has been part of some controversies in his life and most recently sued his son for selling Marienburg castle. So, in another world with Iron Throne and German succession laws, he would presumably have been crowned King Ernst August of the United Kingdom today.
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