Sunday 29 March 2009

Henry VIII & Those Pesky Catholics

Probably the most famous English King is Henry VIII. When you consider that he was a bad tempered, ginger haired bloater with gout it is credit to him that he managed to get one wife, let alone six of them and when he wasn't attending the execution of a number of the aforementioned wives, he was picking a fight with the Pope.
Luckily, with the exception of Sarah Ferguson perhaps, the modern day Royals are less ginger haired and sweaty but the decision to keep the Catholics away from the Throne continues to this day or rather yesterday because Gordon Brown has decided that they are again worthy of marrying into our Royal Family.
In a sop to the Queen who is reportedly not much of a fan of Brown and has been questioning his recent financial decisions, Mr Brown has revisited the decision which stems from the Tudor Kings decision to poke two fingers to the Vatican and set up his own in the 16th Century.
The other countries in the Commonwealth would have to agree to the decision and if Gordon hasn't been sent to a small island in exile before then, he is due to put the decision to the vote in a Commonwealth Summit meeting in November.
As the ruling monarch also takes on the role as leader of the Church of England, the King or Queen must be Protestant so no Catho's will be able to claim the top job which involves waving at the plebs and appearing on the back of coins.
Also up for discussion is the order of succession which presently means that older sisters are overlooked in favour of male siblings as Brown look to overhaul the laws governing the Royals which he called 'highly antiquated'.
What isn't up for discussion is the law that says the Royals must come from a shallow gene pool of others with a hereditary line to the throne and not any of us commoners. Hopefully that will be added to the agenda before the November meeting because as evidence that that particular law can lead to all sorts of negative consequences, Ladies and Gentlemen, Prince Edward.

3 comments:

Nog said...

I must agree that a king is a king.

I have never understood the thinking behind "progressivizing" the rules of succession. What does it matter if it is the oldest child (gender neutral primogeniture) or salic primogeniture?

I'll tell you, a big PR bump.


-Nog

Falling on a bruise said...

When i become European President, i'm going to get rid of the lot of them anyway Nog. This comes up every few years but the Queen has been mumbling about Gordon Brown so this is his way of tryign to get her back on side. Won't matter, he is out first chance the voters get anyway.

The Fez Monkey said...

Where the hell is Oliver Cromwell when you need him, eh?

Ook ook