Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Royal family pondering

61 replies

Jollywren · 07/09/2022 16:14

Just a pondering. Purely from an aristocratic onlooker pov (I'm not but if I was ....!)

Kate was a commoner by birth. So her kids are now only half royal. If they then marry someone ordinary too then the same in subsequent generations you get to an ordinary family with one royal ancestor - William- ( except in this case they will have kept the chain of office / power of monarchy throughout ) But are they now really royal in the sense the current queen is? If they aren't is that problematic? I know that's why previous royal generations kept marriage within their own extensive royal European circles.....

OP posts:
BMW6 · 07/09/2022 16:26

Catherine Middleton is not the first commoner to marry into our royalty.

Elizabeth Woodville, Anne Boleyn and I think so was the Queens mother off the top of my head.

Royal status isn't diminished by it. In fact its very beneficial genetically.
You gain status marrying into Royalty. Royalty doesn't lose status by marrying outside it.

Jollywren · 07/09/2022 16:32

Thanks BMW6. I think what I mean is if that's not an anomaly now, that if they are free to marry at will for love if George marrys someone with similar to Catherine's heritage and then so does their offspring the royalty becomes so diluted ?

OP posts:
heatissweet · 07/09/2022 16:37

the royalty becomes so diluted ?

I see what you mean but it's not like a real thing or special powers Grin

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Numbat2022 · 07/09/2022 16:41

When you marry into royalty you magically become royalty. Your children are born royal. So there is no dilution of royal blood because marrying someone royal makes you royal.

Also, royals have always married commoners throughout history - it was only really due to land and power deals across Europe that royals married royals in the relatively recent past. There have always been mixed marriages.

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 07/09/2022 16:41

I don't think royal blood is like homeopathy, where it gets progressively more diluted the more common blood gets added.

The reason previous royal generations kept marriage within their own extensive royal European circles was because there were enough relatives to go round. After WW1 there weren't, so the surviving royal families started marrying commoners.

Antarcticant · 07/09/2022 16:53

It used to be the case that royals would usually only marry other royals, and that led to various genetic issues due to severe inbreeding. It's better (if we must have a royal family) that they should marry outside royalty.

Whataretheodds · 07/09/2022 16:55

George, Charlotte and Louis are not considered less Royal because their mother was a commoner.

William is not considered less Royal because his mother was a commoner

The Queen was not considered less Royal because her mother was a commoner.

powershowerforanhour · 07/09/2022 16:58

They're not thoroughred racehorses or kennel club registered poodles- there's no studbook.

NC12345665 · 07/09/2022 17:00

the royalty becomes so diluted?

There's no such thing as royal blood. The very first King in history was just a commoner. So modern-day royalty are descended from a commoner who one day decided he had magical blue blood and was chosen by God to rule.

Nekomata · 07/09/2022 17:01

Maybe I dreamt it, but I'm pretty sure when they did the DNA testing of Richard 3, they found that there was a break in the male lineage.

It's all a load of bollocks really, but royal families persist.

DurhamDurham · 07/09/2022 17:03

the royalty becomes so diluted ?

Grin they are just people like the rest of us you know, they aren't specially made to be Royal. No superpowers or blue blood!

upinaballoon · 07/09/2022 17:04

Antarcticant · 07/09/2022 16:53

It used to be the case that royals would usually only marry other royals, and that led to various genetic issues due to severe inbreeding. It's better (if we must have a royal family) that they should marry outside royalty.

As a child once said, "Miss, kings used to marry their cousins and the babies came out crazy."

BMW6 · 07/09/2022 20:08

powershowerforanhour · 07/09/2022 16:58

They're not thoroughred racehorses or kennel club registered poodles- there's no studbook.

That's a really great way of explaining it 😁

Damnautocorrect · 07/09/2022 20:47

Whataretheodds · 07/09/2022 16:55

George, Charlotte and Louis are not considered less Royal because their mother was a commoner.

William is not considered less Royal because his mother was a commoner

The Queen was not considered less Royal because her mother was a commoner.

I thought Diana had better lineage than Charles?

Antarcticant · 07/09/2022 20:49

Damnautocorrect · 07/09/2022 20:47

I thought Diana had better lineage than Charles?

The Spencers are an old and very aristocratic family; their ancestry is littered with titles and peerages, but they're not actually royal.

Konfetka · 07/09/2022 20:51

But Diana wasn't a Spencer.

Antarcticant · 07/09/2022 20:53

Konfetka · 07/09/2022 20:51

But Diana wasn't a Spencer.

What do you mean? Before her marriage, she was Lady Diana Spencer, daughter of John Spencer and Frances Spencer.

semideponent · 07/09/2022 20:58

You do know that HM and her family actually have the same colour blood as the rest of us?

Konfetka · 07/09/2022 21:00

Frances Spencer was her mum and her real dad was James Goldsmith.

EdithWeston · 07/09/2022 21:01

Konfetka · 07/09/2022 20:51

But Diana wasn't a Spencer.

?????

Even if you think her mother was unfaithful, her father never repudiated her so surely yes she is.

People case being royal when they are the DC of spare younger brothers and daughters as the connection to the Crown becomes more distant. I don't think people really regard Samuel and Arthur Chatto as Royal, even though they are great-grand-children of a monarch. Or James and Marina Ogilvy, though of course they're undoubtedly Posh.

Being Royal is rather more closely allied with the succession, and so the great-grand-children in the direct line are more clearly Royal, and will pass it on as the line of succession changes.

Antarcticant · 07/09/2022 21:01

Or is there some conspiracy theory that Diana was illegitimate, is that what you are getting at, @Konfetka ? Not heard it myself, if so.

Antarcticant · 07/09/2022 21:04

Ah, x-posted. Well, we'll never know for sure but it doesn't sound hugely likely.

StolenWillowTree · 07/09/2022 21:08

There really is no such thing - in the olden days the King was whoever was best at fighting battles. The concept of Blood Royals and right of royalty by blood only really lasted for a few hundred years. When Bolingbroke deposed the rightful King Richard II he broke the concept of the Divine Right of Kings and the idea that Kings were inherently special and anointed by God (albeit they were cousins so same lineage).

Henry VIII had a very weak claim to the throne via his mother being descended from an illicit liaison between John of Gaunt and another woman; he became King basically because everyone else was dead, and he'd won a big battle. (And then used a lot of violence and murder, not to mention a tactical marriage, to keep his throne.)

After Queen Anne died the throne skipped over something like 50 people who were directly in line and had a "blood claim" to the throne and basically roped in a German who would otherwise have been extremely far down the line of succession (his mother's mother was the younger child of James I) to become King, because the Act of Settlement law banned Catholics from taking the throne.

IcedPurple · 07/09/2022 21:10

Jollywren · 07/09/2022 16:32

Thanks BMW6. I think what I mean is if that's not an anomaly now, that if they are free to marry at will for love if George marrys someone with similar to Catherine's heritage and then so does their offspring the royalty becomes so diluted ?

What do you mean 'diluted'? There's no such thing as 'royal blood'. Take a blood sample from a 'royal' and it's not going to be any different from that of Wayne or Sharon who work at Tesco.

And if George were to fall in love with Sharon who works in Tesco, then their babies would be 'royal' too. Assuming the concept still exists then.

StolenWillowTree · 07/09/2022 21:10

semideponent · 07/09/2022 20:58

You do know that HM and her family actually have the same colour blood as the rest of us?

Unless they really are lizards (some lizards have green blood) if you want to continue down the conspiracy theory path!

Swipe left for the next trending thread