Hi! I hope my question isn't too hypothetical and I apologize in advance for my poor english.
Do you think monarchy could survive if heir to the throne remove himself of line of succession or got removed? For example if Prince Andrew was born first and parliament decided that he have to be remove because of the things he did or if Princess Catharina Amalia decided that royal life isn't for her and she prefer be a lawyer. Do situation like that happened in the past?
PS:I love your podcast. It is my comfort show :)
Just to address the point about the podcast, that is very sweet of you. Thank you!
It's tricky to answer. Most monarchies that I know of don't have a formal, standardised procedure to renounce yourself from the line of succession. There would need to be a new Act of Parliament in the UK and I imagine any country where succession is outlined in law would have a similar situation. That makes it a bit tricky to answer because you couldn't really just decide not to be heir to the throne and leave. It's also very hypothetical. Andrew was accused of raping trafficked children. There are few things someone could do that would be more morally objectionable than that. But there could be any number of reasons why someone might be removed. And finally, I don't really know how things would go in the Netherlands or Norway or Monaco. I don't know what their red line is and in a country where abdication is more normalised anyway then it might not seem as jarring as it would be in the UK. So it's not an easy question to answer.
But one thing I will say, something I've said before on the podcast I think, is that the British monarchy in particular is an institution that has existed in some form for other 1000 years. There was a brief flirtation with a Republic, after which we brought the monarchy back and have kept it for over 350 years. People view the monarchy as an archaic, stagnant institution because it's old, but you don't survive this long without adapting. Nothing about the monarchy should work. It's madness that we have no single, codified constitution. It's madness that we can't easily remove our head of state. And yet it does work. I think if somebody was removed from the line of succession in the UK it would be because they needed to be and so there would probably be widespread relief from the public. As long as it didn't drag in everyone else in the family then I can't see why it wouldn't be survivable. And I just don't see the latter scenario happening so it kind of feels like a moot point. Someone like Amalia has been raised from birth to know she'd be Queen, to support the monarchy as an institution, to know what doors are closed to her and what doors she has open that other people don't have. And she has been brought up in an era when royals have more freedom than they've ever had before so Amalia has the space to carve out a role for herself that she's happy with and to spend some time doing her own thing. Plus she comes from a monarchy where abdication is the norm so she knows she will get a reprieve at some point. I can't think of any current heir who doesn't seem to know the deal and be happy with their lot in life.
