What is Succession to the British throne?
The '''line of succession to the British throne''' is the order in which members of the royal family would come to the throne if the reigning king or queen died. At present the first in line is [[William, Prince of Wales]], and then Prince William's eldest child, [[Prince George of Wales]]. Traditionally, males came before females in the line of succession. However, the law changed on 26 March 2015, so at present, for people born after 28 October 2011 the succession is decided only by age: older children come before younger children. This system of inheritance is called absolute [[primogeniture]], as opposed to male-preference primogeniture. When someone who is in line to the throne has a child, that child comes after them and their older children, but before anyone else in the line of succession. Excluded from the line of succession are [[Catholics]] and illegitimate children. ==Line of succession== No official, complete version of the line of succession is maintained. The exact number, in more remote collateral lines, of the people who would be eligible is uncertain. In 2001, American genealogist [[William Addams Reitwiesner]] compiled a list of 4,973 living descendants of the [[Electress Sophia]] in order of succession without omitting [[Roman Catholics]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Reitwiesner|first=W. A.|title=Persons eligible to succeed to the British Throne as of 1 Jan 2001|url=http://www.wargs.com/essays/succession/2001.html|website=wargs.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050609073923/http://www.wargs.com/essays/succession/2001.html|url-status=live|archive-date=9 June 2005}}</ref> When updated in January 2011, the list included 5,753.<ref>{{cite web|last=Lewis|first=David|title=Persons eligible to succeed to the British Throne as of 1 Jan 2011|url=http://www.wargs.com/essays/succession/2011.html|website=wargs.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110517155140/http://www.wargs.com/essays/succession/2011.html|archive-date=17 May 2011}}</ref> The annotated list below covers the first part o