GOTHA is an independent directory of royal and noble families. It is not affiliated with, and does not represent, the Almanach de Gotha or its publishers.

Head of the House of Windsor: King Charles III

Since 8 September 2022 the reigning sovereign of the House of Windsor has been King Charles III, who became King on the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II [1]. Unlike several non-reigning houses covered by GOTHA, there are no rival claimants here: succession to the British throne is regulated by Act of Parliament [3]. This page summarises the King's life, his heir and the line of succession, using only the sources listed at the end.

Birth and early life

Charles Philip Arthur George was born at Buckingham Palace on 14 November 1948 at 9.14pm, the elder son of the future Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh [1]. He was christened on 15 December 1948 in the Music Room of the Palace by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher [1].

His mother was proclaimed Queen on 6 February 1952, on the death of her father, King George VI [1]. As heir to the throne, Charles then took the traditional titles of Duke of Cornwall, under a charter of Edward III of 1337, and, in the Scottish peerage, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron Renfrew, Lord of the Isles and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland [1]. Aged four, he attended his mother's coronation at Westminster Abbey on 2 June 1953 [1].

Prince of Wales

In 1958, while he was a pupil at Cheam School, the Queen created him Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester; he was nine [1]. He went on to Gordonstoun in Scotland, where his father had studied, with two terms in 1966 at Timbertop in Australia [1]. Before his investiture he spent a term at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, learning Welsh [1]. He was invested as Prince of Wales by the Queen at Caernarfon Castle on 1 July 1969 [1], and took his seat in the House of Lords on 11 February 1970 [1].

For decades the Prince of Wales took an active part in public life. The Royal Household states that over forty years he helped found more than twenty charities, including the Prince's Trust and the Prince's Foundation [1].

The King

Charles became King on 8 September 2022, on the death of Elizabeth II [1]. He was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 6 May 2023 [2]. The King is head of the House of Windsor, which took that name in 1917 under George V [4]. Like other members of the Royal Family with the style of Royal Highness, he does not in principle need a surname; descendants of Elizabeth II who need one use Mountbatten-Windsor, under a declaration of 1960 [4][6].

The heir: William, Prince of Wales

The King's elder son, William, was born at 9.03pm on 21 June 1982 at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London; his brother Harry was born on 15 September 1984 [1][5]. The Royal Household describes William as "heir to the throne" [5]. On his father's accession he also became Duke of Cornwall [5]. He is married to Catherine, Princess of Wales, and they have three children: Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. Their official residence is Kensington Palace [5]. See the pages for William and Charles III.

The line of succession

Succession to the throne is regulated not only by descent but also by Parliamentary statute, resting on the Bill of Rights of 1689 and the Act of Settlement of 1701 [3]. The Succession to the Crown Act 2013 ended male-preference primogeniture for people born after 28 October 2011, so that a younger son no longer overtakes an elder daughter [3]. The same Act removed the disqualification of people who marry a Roman Catholic. The changes came into force across the sixteen realms in March 2015 [3].

According to the monarchy's website, the first places in the line of succession are [3]:

Under the 2013 Act, Princess Charlotte stands ahead of her younger brother, Prince Louis [3]. See the GOTHA line of succession to the British throne.

Licence: contains material adapted from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). This article is released under the same licence. Its sources are summarised or briefly quoted.