Hold
the press! Stand by for a huge constitutional change in Australia –
that’s if 259 of the possible 737 known heirs and heiresses to the
Australian throne are caught up in some horrible holocaust. Prince
Frederick of Denmark is 260th in the line of succession, just after his
mother, Queen Margrethe 11. Frederick and Mary’s child, due in October,
will be 261st and if he or she succeeds we’ll at least have a
half-Australian head of state replacing the British-German incumbent.

All
this is pure fantasy – but underscores the idiocy of the current system
which puts all the known legitimate non Roman Catholic descendants of
the Electress Sophia of Hanover as possible heads of state of Australia.

The
list includes the kings of Norway (61st), Romania (82nd), the Empress
of all the Russias (143rd), and the Swedish king (230th).

There
are even more surprises. The Duke of Edinburgh is there somewhere along
with such household names as the Archduchess of Austria, Princess
Christina Maria of Lowenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg, Prince Georg
Friedrich of Prussia who is also the claimant to the thrones of Germany
and Prussia, Princess Marie Alexandra of
Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg and Hereditary Prince Gustav
of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg. They all have a common link to the
Electress of Hanover and strange to say, there’s not one Australian
among them – but then the three closest claimants aren’t Australians
either. For those who aren’t up on such matters, that’s Charles,
William and Harry. As Joh Bjelke-Petersen could have said: goodness me!