Friday, 15 Nov 2024

Princess Beatrice bombshell: Why wedding sparked fears royal could lose claim to throne

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Beatrice and her now-husband, nicknamed Edo, tied the knot at All Saints Chapel in Windsor Great Park, just a short walk from the Yorks’ Royal Lodge Home and a short drive from Windsor Castle. Buckingham Palace released two photographs yesterday, which showed the newlyweds emerging from the chapel and a socially distanced snap with the Queen and Prince Phillip, but no sign of the father of the bride, Prince Andrew. However, it was confirmed that Andrew walked her down the aisle.

The princess wore a vintage dress she borrowed from the Queen for her special day, as well as a diamond fringe tiara the monarch wore on her own wedding day in 1947.

The wedding, which had around 20 guests, had to be postponed from its original May date, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

As the Duke of York’s daughter, Beatrice is currently ninth in line to the throne, but her marriage to the British-Italian property tycoon sparked fears she could lose this.

There was speculation Edo, whose heritage is Italian nobility, may have to face historic royal bias against Catholicism.

The Act of Settlement 1701 dictated that no monarch could be Catholic or married to a Catholic, and that anyone who marries a Catholic would be struck out of the line of succession.

If Edo was Catholic, it may have raised a question, but these fears were later allayed as the Duke of York confirmed to Express.co.uk that Edo is Anglican, although details of his Anglican baptism were not confirmed.

What’s more, his parents Allessandro and Nicola “Nikki” Burrows, now Williams-Ellis, were married in the Church of England.

However, due to the Succession to the Crown Act 2013, it turns out Beatrice’s claim would have been unaffected anyway.

The 2013 law changed the rules on royal succession and allowed the monarch or anyone in line to the throne to marry a Catholic.

This law also changed the rules on male primogeniture, meaning that Princess Charlotte is the first royal daughter to come above her younger brother in the line of succession.

Nevertheless, if Edo had been a Catholic, it would have been a landmark moment for the Royal Family, because Beatrice would have been the first royal to marry a Catholic and not had their claim to the throne taken away.

Several royals who have previously married Catholics were struck out of the succession and then later had their plane in the line of succession reinstated.

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When the Queen’s cousin Prince Michael of Kent married Baroness Marie Christine von Reibnitz in 1978, he forfeited his right to the Crown.

He was reinstated to the line of succession in March 2015 when the Succession to the Crown Act came into force, and is currently 48th in line to the throne.

Another royal, the Earl of St Andrews ‒ the elder son of the Queen’s cousin Prince Edward, Duke of Kent ‒ was also excluded from the succession for marrying a Catholic and was reinstated in 2015.

However, the Duke of Kent himself managed to avoid this, because his wife Katharine, Duchess of Kent, converted to Catholicism after their marriage.

There is still some religious discrimination in the law, as anyone in line to the throne cannot convert to Catholism themselves and their children must be raised in the Anglican faith to retain their succession rights.

The reason there was a question over Edo’s religion was his rich Italian heritage.

His father, Alpine skier Conte Alessandro Mapelli Mozzi, was born in Sottoriva, in the Vicenza region of northern Italy.

The family’s ancestral home is the Villa Mapelli Mozzi, situated north of Milan and a short distance from Lake Como in the historically Catholic nation.

The villa, which dates back to 1770, remains the property of the Mapelli Mozzi family, and houses a collection of fine art and frescos.

Edo’s father has the nominal title of Conte, or Count, however he cannot claim the title in the UK due to a law that prevents foreign nobility claiming titles without a special warrant.

The title is not recognised in Italy anymore either, as the country abolished the aristocracy in its tumultuous post-war period.

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