Princess Diaries: What do you MEAN Nicholas is next in line for the throne of Genovia!?
TLDR at the bottom.
Okay, so I've been thinking about The Princess Diaries, specifically Mia and Nicholas, specifically, how they're related to each other.
We know Nicholas is related to Mia through a shared how-ever-many-greats grandfather, King Chavelier of Genovia.
And we know King Chavelier is Nicholas's 3x-great-grandfather specifically, but we don't know how many times great he's Mia's great-grandfather.
The simplest answer, is of course, that Chavelier had children, who had children, who had children, and so on, all at roughly the same time, and so he is also Mia's 3x-great-grandfather, making them 4th Cousins.
Buuuut there's a lot of factors we dont have, so at the closest, Chavelier could have been Mia's great-grandfather- the father of her grandmother's husband, Rupert (as we know Clarisse married into the Genovian royal family) and that would make Mia and Nicholas 2nd cousins 2x removed.
Since Phillipe had Mia pretty young, we'd assume Chevalier had Rupert, and Rupert had Phillipe when they were each older. We could assume Rupert wasn't first born- maybe had an older sister, or just some one who abdicated- and we already know Phillipe had an older brother, Pierre, who abdicated, so that works in the favor of having children older, and especially if an older sibling of Rupert's was like, a GOOD 15 or 20 years older than him, they could have had children while Rupert was a child, and grandchildren while he was having children, putting more generations between Chavelier and Nicholas if his line is from an older sibling. Infact that could even bump up his claim to the throne over Mia's, if say. Chavelier actually said he want it to go to his theoretical older daughter, and Mia's theoretical male ancestor usurpt the throne/some one usurts it for him and put him there, against those wishes.
I mapped it from Mia and Nicholas's perspective just to check it works both ways.
But I personally think that's a bit to lop-sided without offical birthdays, and it could just as easily go the other way.
Mia's line could be from strictly older siblings until her uncle Pierre abdicated, leaving it to his younger brother and then herself. This would mean her line had time to get longer than Nicholas's, even if it was just by one generation.
SO of course there could be more generations between Mia and Chavelier than Chavelier and Nicholas. He could be Mia's 4x great grandfather, to Nicholas 3x, even, making Mia and Nicholas 4th Cousin 1x removed
And Chavelier could even be her 5th great grandfather, but this chart doesn't go that far and this all illustrates the idea well enough anyway.
And while I still kinda subscribe to the idea that if two people can glance at a family tree and find a common ancestor in under 10 seconds, they're too closely related to be kissing,,,, theyre cute and fake, and it's still really not even my point because what I was really curious about to begin with is:
What do you MEAN Nicholas is next in line for the throne?
If we assume 1 to 2 children from ever dependent, there should still be like, a few cousins between the throne and Nicholas.
If we take the Chavelier-is-Mia's-1x-great-grandfather rout, we know Peiree either had no children or took them out of the line of succession (are the mentioned the seconds movie? Either way theyre out and stay out so covered)
And that would then have to mean, Nicholas is the unambiguous oldest child of only older children/older male children all the way up the line. Easy enough I suppose, but I guess it's odd it's only Nicholas (or his uncle, as we know) bidding for the throne.
But if we take the Mia's-4x-great-grandfather route, mia's the oldest Child of oldest children until her uncle Pierre, there's still so many cousins that should be in Nicholas's way.
Like, there's just no way Chavelier's children (assumes minimum of 2) and Phillipe and Pierre are the only sets of siblings in all those generations. Not in a royals family were youre trying to keep a bloodline going.
Again, even if both Mia and Nicholas are unambiguous only children of oldest siblings of oldest siblings all the way up to Chavelier's children where Nicholas's ancestor was a second child, that still, assuming a bare minimum 1-2 children per family,
Like, okay, assume their an even 4th cousins
Mia's has no younger siblings in line for the throne, and Pierre took himself and his decent out.
But Rupert had no siblings? His Royal parent had no siblings? We know his Royal grandparent had at least one in this scenario, that would be Nicholas' ancestor.
If we assume all the generations in blue have passed of old age, that's still a bunch of cousins that should be alive and ahead of Nicholas for the throne.
Like literally between 8-18 ish if we're assuming 1 to 2 children ever generation. And even if not ever single cousin had a child, still, there should be a few cousins ahead of Nicholas.
And I'm going to bring the Von Troken in now. They seem to think if Mia's abdicated, they get the throne. But they state their family (I'm assuming the Barroness's family, as her husband says SHE'LL be on postage stamps, meaning she's be the queen, and ne the one ruling).
But we don't know when the Renaldi took over the throne. Was Rupert's royal parent a renaldi? Was Chavelier? The only way we'd have a definite yes he was is if he's Rupert Renaldi's father.
But it all really doesn't matter, because where the Von Trunken did actually, or only thought they had a legitimate claim to the throne right behind Mia's its no longer true 5-6 years later in the second movie.
And THAT makes me think of Clarisse's line to Mia's mother in the first movie
"If Amelia refuses to accept the throne, then Genovia will cease to exist as we know it."
I'm sorry, but some sketchy shit was definitely happening in Genovia.
And I think what was happening, was Viscount Mabrey was plotting a political coup with the Von Troken before they even knew about Mia.
I think the Von Troken couldn't have kids, the Prime Minister (or ambassador??) sitting next to Mia at the fancy dinner in the first movie, makes a toast to them and says "may you always be baron" and it could just mean the obviously "I hope you good luck hold and you stay up as baron/I hope you bad luck holds and you never climb high" but it could have also been a really low blow to them not being able to produce an heir even if they did ascend to the throne.
I think Mabrey offered to help them get ride of the competition for them if they made Nicholas their heir, while he still thought they had a better claim to the throne than Nicholas, and then some time inbewteen Movies, found a way to oust them and bump Nicholas ahead.
Because really before King Rupert dies, his oldest son abdicates, and then his second dies within a year in a "tragic accident"?
Maybe Mabrey and Pierre were friends, so Mabrey convinced him to abdicate for the church, to get him out of the way.
But Phillipe? Right there and ready to rule? Had to go quick. Wouldn't have to worry about Clarisse, she only holds the throne for her hiers, get ride of them, she's out.
I bet those cousins that should be ahead of Nicholas were meeting odd fates well before Rupter and Phillipe passed, or where being bribed to sign off their birthright in the line of succession, maybe.
Like, it's suspicious. It's weird, that's all I'm saying.
TLDR:
1) While I think, if you can glance at a family tree and find a common relative before the 1200s, you're too closely related to be making kissy face, they're fake and cute and their kids should be fine, so whatever.
2) there is no way, even if they're as close related as Not Disgustingly Possible, they're still far enough apart, that there should be a decent amount of people ahead of Nicholas in line for the throne, so probably the Van Trunken and Lord Mabrey were committing political assassination to get Baroness Von Trunken on the trone, and make Nicholas her heir. And something happened between movies that ousted the Von Trunken as nessisery to Lord Mabrey's plan.