Yellow Fang
Legendary Member
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I was reading about Samuel Pepys recently, who lived in interesting times. King Charles I was beheaded. Then we had Oliver Cromwell, charming chap, much misunderstood. After him we had his son, Tumbledown Dick, who was not at all like his old man. He was persuaded to retire, and King Charles II was invited back. He had lots of children, but none of them legitimate. After him was his brother, King James II (of England), who, unfortunately for his career, converted to Catholicism. iirc he had two daughters by his first wife and two sons by his second. Normally his eldest son would have become King, but he was a Catholic, so Parliament invited King James's eldest daughter, Mary, to become co-monarch with her husband, William of Orange. They had no surviving children, so after they died, Mary's sister Anne became queen. She fell pregnant about 17 times, but all her babies miscarried or died in childhood. After she died, parliament jumped over dozens of next in line to find another Protestant, and George I became king. Meanwhile, King James II's eldest son, the Old Pretender, was languishing in France. His son, Bonnie Prince Charlie, made an attempt to take over the throne in 1745, but was unsuccessful. People have traced who would now be king or queen if there had not been a bar on Catholic succession. However, what I wondered was if Tumbledown Dick had not been forced to resign, who would now be our Lord Protector? He had eight legitimate children, so chances are he'd still have some descendants.
