For the first time in 70 years, the royal line of succession shifted up one spot with
the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Where does that leave everyone standing?
We'll explain it, family by family.
Anne, Princess Royal, is the only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II.
With her mother's passing, she's now 16th in line for the throne.
She actually sits behind all three of her brothers in the line of succession, even though
she's older than both Prince Andrew and Prince Edward.
How can that be?
It's because Anne was born quite a while before the Succession to the Crown Act of 2013, which
changed the longstanding rules that brothers were always placed before their sisters in
the royal line.
Parliament voted the act into law just before the birth of Prince George, replacing the
Royal Marriages Act of 1772, which also prohibited royals from marrying Roman Catholics.
Even now, a king or queen of the U.K. cannot be Catholic, but they can marry people who
practice the Catholic faith.
Anne's son, Peter Phillips, is 17th in line.
Phillips is a businessman, having worked for Jaguar and the Royal Bank of Scotland before
taking on his current position as managing director of SEL UK, a sports management company.
His two daughters, Savannah and Isla Phillips, are 18th and 19th.
Princess Anne's daughter, Zara Tindall, is 20th in the line of succession.
Like her mother, Tindall is an accomplished equestrian, even winning a silver medal in
the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Her children, Mia, Lena, and Lucas Tindall, are 21st, 22nd, and 23rd, respectively.
Queen Elizabeth's youngest son, Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, is at lucky No. 13 in the
line of succession.
He's expected to take the title of Duke of Edinburgh following the death of the former
holder of that title, Prince Philip, and his brother King Charles III's ascension to the throne.
According to Express, it was widely believed that Edward would've achieved dukedom at his
wedding in 1999, like his older brother, Prince Andrew.
But Edward was given the lesser title of Earl of Wessex, a place that doesn't even exist anymore.
Edward actually personally requested that title.
He was all set to become the Duke of Cambridge, but changed his mind after watching "Shakespeare
in Love," in which a character held the Earl of Wessex title.
Since Wessex doesn't technically exist anymore, there's no higher title involving the region.
Edward's son, James, Viscount Severn, is 14th in line.
He's also just 14 years old.
His parents opted not to give him and his sister "his" or "her royal highness" titles
because, as his mother Sophie told the Times in 2020,
"We try to bring them up with the understanding that they are very likely to have to work
for a living."
Edward's 18-year-old daughter, Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor, holds the 15 spot in
the line of succession.
According to The Telegraph, she began studying English at the University of St. Andrews in
September 2022.
She only makes a select few appearances as a royal in an official capacity.
Queen Elizabeth's second-eldest son, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, is eighth in line to
the throne.
It's very unlikely he'd ever come close to being king, but if he were to somehow reach
the top of the succession ladder, it's not clear what would happen.
He stepped back from his royal duties in 2019, after a disastrous BBC interview in which
he opened up about his ties with convicted sex offender and alleged trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
"Could I have avoided ever meeting him?
Probably not.
And that's because of my friendship with Ghislaine."
According to The Times, Andrew's reprieve from royal duties was once thought to be temporary,
but by May 2020, the royal family decided he would retire from public life for good.
Prince Andrew's eldest daughter, Princess Beatrice, is ninth in the line of succession,
just after her father.
Beatrice has enjoyed some freedom that other royals haven't: Namely, she could marry whomever
she wanted without Queen Elizabeth's approval.
But that didn't stop the late queen from giving her approval, anyway.
According to Express, Elizabeth allowed Beatrice's then-fiancé, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, to attend
her Christmas gathering at Sandringham in 2019, a few months after the duo got engaged.
Previously, Meghan Markle was allegedly the only other outsider who'd been let in before
a wedding took place.
Typically, the festivities are for those with royal blood and their spouses only.
After Covid-19-related delays of their previously scheduled wedding, Princess Beatrice and Mapelli
Mozzi married in a private ceremony in 2020.
Beatrice and Mapelli Mozzi's one-year-old daughter, Sienna Elizabeth Mapelli Mozzi,
is 10th in line for the throne.
She will also be a countess, because her father is an Italian count.
Andrew's younger daughter, Princess Eugenie, actually sits a spot behind her one-year-old
niece, at No. 11 in the line.
Even though she's a good way back in the royal line, Eugenie has endured quite a bit of media
scrutiny in her life.
She told Vogue she and her sister had each other to lean on, saying,
"There was a horrible article that had been written about Beatrice and she got really upset.
[...] She had a bit of a wobble and cried.
I was looking after her.
And then about an hour later, I had a wobble and started crying and Bea was there for me."
Eugenie's son with husband Jack Brooksbank, August Philip Hawke Brooksbank, is 12th in
line for the throne.
Vanity Fair reports that Eugenie and her husband chose for August not to be raised with a royal
title because of her treatment in the press.
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, the younger son of King Charles III, is now fifth in line
for the British throne.
Yes, there is some alleged strain in his relationship with his family.
Plus, he and his wife, Meghan Markle, very famously gave up their "royal highness" titles
and stepped back from their duties as working, senior members of the royal family in 2020.
Yet Harry could still become king.
That is, if some bizarre circumstance prevented the four people in front of him from reigning.
The Sun describes the most likely circumstance: If Harry's father and brother died or gave
up the throne before his nephew, Prince George, turned 18, Harry would take on the title of Regent.
He wouldn't be king; he'd only serve on behalf of the king, and only until George was old
enough to reign as king himself.
Like his cousin Eugenie, Harry was convinced to forgo some of the trappings of royal life
because he wanted to avoid what he saw as potentially dangerous, even life threatening
media scrutiny.
He told Oprah Winfrey that he could anticipate what happened to his mother, Princess Diana,
happening to himself and Meghan.
"My biggest concern was history repeating itself."
Harry and Meghan's son, 3-year-old Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, is sixth in line for
the throne.
His royal title is something of an unresolved matter, though.
Express reports that he did get a courtesy title: Earl of Dumbarton.
But in his parents' bombshell Oprah interview, Meghan alleged Archie was robbed of a royal
title, which they claimed was because of his being mixed race.
"They didn't want him to be a prince, or a princess, not knowing what the gender would
be, which would be different from protocol."
CBS News notes that the only royals automatically born with a title are the children of monarchs
and their grandchildren born to sons.
That protocol dates all the way back to 1917, under King George V. Presumably, Archie would
automatically be given a "prince" title now that his grandfather is king.
Harry and Meghan's one-year-old daughter, Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, is after
her brother in line, at spot No. 7.
Her name is a combination of Queen Elizabeth II's childhood nickname, Lilibet, and the
name of Harry's mother, Diana.
King Charles' elder son, William, Prince of Wales, is almost assured to be the next king
of the United Kingdom.
You might think having such a high-ranking position would give someone lots of power
and autonomy, but as it turns out, there are tons of things William can't do.
"I take duty very seriously.
I take my responsibilities very seriously."
According to Insider, he was required to get Queen Elizabeth's approval before proposing
to his now-wife, Kate Middleton.
He also can't vote or express political views, something that got Meghan Markle in trouble
when she guest-edited Vogue.
That was also a thorny issue for William's dad, King Charles, when he held the Prince
of Wales title.
"I do realize that it is a separate exercise, being sovereign."
Nor is William supposed to eat seafood, because of the elevated risk of food poisoning, according
to Woman & Home.
Reportedly, he does allegedly occasionally sneak sushi.
It's also a no-no for William and Kate to engage in any public displays of affection,
though they can do other seemingly normal things.
E! notes that they cook dinner, walk their dog, and take their children to school.
Speaking of William and Kate's children, their eldest child, Prince George of Wales, is now
second in line for the throne.
It'll probably be quite some time before the 9-year-old ascends to the title of king, however.
The royal family has numerous rules in place to ensure the line largely stays intact.
Business Insider notes one example in which senior members of the royal family aren't
supposed to travel on the same plane together in the event of a crash.
It's worth noting, though, that rule is unofficial and can be broken.
Because Prince William's children are all so young, it isn't exactly feasible to put
them on separate planes at the moment.
William and Kate's 7-year-old daughter, Princess Charlotte of Wales, is third in line for the throne.
She's the first royal to actually benefit from the Succession to the Crown Act of 2013,
putting her ahead of her younger brother in the line of succession.
According to Us Weekly, Charlotte has fully embraced her role as a princess.
A source told the magazine,
"Charlotte knows she’s a princess and already has a toy tiara, which she loves wearing."
Fourth in line for the throne is Prince Louis of Wales, William and Kate's youngest child.
Or you might call him by his full title, His Royal Highness Prince Louis of Cornwall and
Cambridge, which is very similar to his siblings' titles.
It's not particularly likely Louis will ever be king, especially after his brother and
sister start having children who will then leapfrog him in the line of succession.
But he does seem to love the spotlight.
His reactions to the events of his great grandmother's Platinum Jubilee celebration became the story
of the weekend for many.