Many centuries-old law related to primogeniture in Royal Family suspended

Female members of the Royal Family are to be specified parity with male in the laws of sequence to the throne, meaning if the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's first kid is a girl, she can turn into Queen even if following children are sons.

The historic legal modifications were approved collectively today by the 16 nations of which Queen Elizabeth II is ruler.

The 16 "kingdoms", counting the UK, Canada and Australia, also granted to scrap outdated regulations which forbid the spouse of a Roman Catholic from taking the throne.

The alterations were declared by David Cameron, the Prime Minister, at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, attended by the Queen, in Perth, Australia.

Mr. Cameron said the momentous regulations were "at unusual with the prevailing states that we have become".

Declaring the future alterations, he said: "Put basically, if the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were to have a little girl, that girl would one day be our queen."

The Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster and President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, greeted the modifications.

He said: “This will remove a point of unfair bias against Catholics and will be appreciated not only by Catholics but far more broadly.”

The alteration herald an end to more than 300 years of English legitimate custom under which the Crown approved to the oldest male successor.

Under the new laws of primogeniture, any male kid takes priority in the order of series over his sisters. That would have intended that any son born to Prince William would have become King even if he had an older sister.

Talking before the meeting in Perth, the Prime Minister said the laws are “obsolete and need to change”.

He said: “The idea that a younger son should become emperor instead of an elder daughter, just because he is a man just isn’t suitable any more. Nor does it make any wisdom that a potential Emperor can marry someone of any belief other than Catholic.

“The philosophy behind these regulations is false. That’s why people have been discussing about modification them for some time. We require getting on and do it.”

The Commonwealth summit was a “biggest instant to grab this issue and resolved it”, he said. “I’m very confident that we can go a contract in ethic and get on with altering these rules in all the states affected.”

The Queen, who reached in Australia this week, will attend next week’s Commonwealth meeting. Buckingham Palace has pointed out her endorsement for modifications in the succession regulations.

A Realms “working group” will now be recognized under the leadership of New Zealand to certify the essential legislation is acceptable to all countries and that the procedure is harmonized.

Mr. Cameron means to set up the legislation in the next meeting of Parliament.

The laws on the Royal succession are set down in numerous different pieces of legislation approved in the 17th and 18th Centuries, counting the Act of Settlement, the Bill of Rights, the Royal Marriages Act and Princess Sophia’s Precedence Act.