Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, Explains the British Line of Succession

The British line of succession can be confusing—so Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh took it upon herself to draw a royal family tree for students at Brockhill Performing Arts College in Kent earlier this week.

The family tree she drew focused on Queen Elizabeth, her four children (King Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward), and the heir to the throne, Prince William, the Prince of Wales.

Queen Elizabeth was represented with a sad face, and everyone else got smiley faces. Charles was labeled with "KC," for King Charles, and Sophie's husband, Prince Edward, was labeled with "Ed." The numbers next to Anne, Andrew, and Edward didn't correspond with the line of succession; rather, they indicated their birth order.

When Princess Anne was born, she was third in line to the British throne, but she dropped in the order of succession after the births of her younger brothers. In 2013, the Succession to the Crown Act passed, which stated "In determining the succession to the Crown, the gender of a person born after 28 October 2011 does not give that person, or that person’s descendants, precedence over any other person (whenever born)."

Prince Edward, therefore, is 13th in line to the British throne, ahead of his older sister Anne, who is 16th in line. And, because Sophie's daughter, Lady Louise, was born in November 2003, she falls behind her younger brother, James, Earl of Wessex, in the line of succession. (Louise is 15th, and James is 14th.)

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