So what would have to happen under the english rule system for both a King AND Queen to sit concurrently?

Question

So what would have to happen under the english rule system for both a King AND Queen to sit concurrently?

Answer 1

This is not going to happen. The reigning monarchy is HEREDITARY,so the person who is in line of succession is the one who rules.The current hereditary monarch is Queen Elizabeth II; since the reigning monarch is a queen,no one can have a title higher than she,so that is why there is no King.Philip is Prince Consort. The Queen's parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Consort did not share reigning powers.King George VI was the hereditary monarch who reigned; Elizabeth, later known as The Queen Mother, only took on the business of monarchy, along with her daughters, the current Queen and Princess Margaret, as Counselor of State, when the King was operated on for lung cancer and was recuperating. Counselors of State are generally the six people who are next in line to the throne,but Elizabeth,The Queen Mother, has served the country so well during World War II,that it was deemed necessary to have her take on the more important role as counselor along with her daughters. Elizabeth,Queen Consort, usually held a supporting role and ran charities,sat on school boards,met with politicans and heads of state,but did not do the same job as her husband;her role was a supporting role.

Answer 2

For this to happen, there would have to be a much wider throne. As using a new throne would upset the traditionalists, I cannot see this happening in the near future.

Answer 3

Almost every reigning King in the past has been allowed to give his wife the title Queen Consort, and she is usually just referred to as "Queen Mary", "Queen Elizabeth" (who was later the Queen Mother), etcetera. Prince Charles is expected to be only the second or third King to not make use of this usual privilege for Camilla.

To have a reigning King along with a Queen Regnant, something like the Glorious Revolution of 1689 would have to happen again. That resulted in Queen Mary II and King William III becoming joint sovereigns, but all the other answerers so far are wrong about the reason why that happened.

Parliament had deposed James II for his overt Roman Catholicism, and invited his Protestant daughter Mary as the next in line to become Queen Regnant. She was married to William, of high rank in the Netherlands, and said she would only agree to be Queen if Parliament made William a proper King with her, and not just a consort. Parliament decided to agree to that, rather than to ask the next heir in line after Mary. In fact, Mary died first, and William ruled on as sole King, whereas if he had only been Mary's consort, the next heir in line would have succeeded on her death.

Every other ruling Queen who was married has asked for some lesser title for her husband, or for none, but there is nothing to stop some future ruling Queen asking Parliament to make her husband a King Regnant with her, and threatening to abdicate if they won't. Then it would be up to Parliament to choose, and they would be completely free to choose.

Answer 4

and interesting question which raises some anomalies in the Royal circles .. King George the 6th married Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyons and she was 'crowned' Queen Elizabeth (but no numerical number) and they 'shared the throne.

William 1 and Mary were both joint rulers

the possibility is remote but could arise if there was a union of two crowns by marriage, the UK royal would take precedence ..

there are a number of other occasions when the female has been given the title Queen, without numerical title .. so as I said your question is interesting and anomalous

Queen Alexander, Queen Mary (wife of George 5th) etc., etc.,

Answer 5

We did have that at one point... William and Mary I think but I don't know how it happened.

Answer 6

A situation like that will never happen. There could only be one monarch on the throne. A legitimate male heir comes before a legitimate female heiress regardless of age.

The line of succession to the British Throne is an ordered list of the people in line to succeed to the throne of the United Kingdom. The succession is regulated by the Act of Settlement 1701, which limits it to the heirs of the Electress Sophia of Hanover, as determined by male-preference primogeniture, religion, and legitimate birth:

- A person is always immediately followed in the succession by his or her own legitimate descendants (his or her 'line'). Birth order and gender matter: older sons (and their lines) come before younger sons (and theirs); a person's sons (and their lines), irrespective of age, all come before his or her daughters (and their lines).

- Anyone who is Roman Catholic, becomes Roman Catholic, or marries a Roman Catholic is permanently excluded from the succession; this provision removing "papists" from the succession has never been tested.

- A person born to parents who are not married to each other at the time of birth is not included in the line of succession. The subsequent marriage of the parents does not alter this.

A queen consort is the title given to the wife of a reigning king. Queens consort usually share their husbands' rank and hold the feminine equivalent of their husbands' monarchical titles. Most of the time, however, they have no real power.

A King consort is a title given in some monarchies to the husband of a queen regnant. Nowadays, it is a symbolic title only, the sole constitutional function of the holder being similar to a queen consort, namely to produce an heir to the throne. Spain, Portugal, England and Scotland have all had kings consort; however, since the rank of king normally outranks that of queen, in most monarchies the queen's husband is given the title of prince or prince consort instead.

Answer 7

If you mean as co-monarchs, like William & Mary were, it would require an act of Parliament to recognize them both.  British law currently only recognizes singular heirs to the throne - even at the time, William and Mary were and exception.

Answer 8

The wife of a king is called a Queen Consort but she does not sit on the throne, only the monarch does that.

For both the King and the Queen to sit on the throne, they would have to rule as co-sovereigns.

In the English/Irish/Scottish monarchy, this happened when the Parliament dismissed the King and appointed his elder daughter and his closest adult male relative, his nephew/son-in-law as joint King and Queen.   The dismissed king was James II and his successors were Mary II and William III (using their English numbers).

It could only happen again if there was a vacancy on the throne and the Parliaments of each of the 15 or so kingdoms who share the British monarch as their monarch too, were to invite a couple to be the joint monarchs.   This situation can not happen in the normal tun of events as only one person inherits.

Answer 9

King is a higher rank than Queen therefore if the next monarch is female her husband will not be made a king as he out rank her - instead he is made a prince or duke.  Someone mentioned King William III and Queen Mary I - King William III was Stadtholder of Holland (Place-holder) - Queen Mary was the blood heir to the english throne so I am unsure as to why he was allowed to use King title.

Answer 10

A King and a Queen Consort DO sit concurrently, for a true joint monarchy Parliament would have to agree, It has happened once. William II and Mary II (William and Mary) ruled jointly until the death of Mary II, after which William III ruled alone until his death.

This was prior to the Act of Settlement and therefore it could not happen nowadays without a change to the law.

Answer 11

For a King and Queen to sit on the throne at the same time then a male has to be next in line to the throne as the bloodline is the highest rank. Therefore if a female(queen) being the highest rank her husband will be a prince, a male(king) his wife will bw a Qeen. Currently the British royalty will have Kings and Queens for the next few generations, Charles, william etc

Answer 12

I think the Queen's parents were referred to as King George and Queen Elizabeth.  Then after he died she simply became Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother. Usually she would be referred to as the dowager queen, but not liking that, she styled herself as the Queen Mother.