Harry and Meghan’s daughter, Lilibet, added to line of succession on royal website seven weeks after birth
Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor was born on 4 June in California
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Your support makes all the difference.Almost two months after the birth of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s daughter, Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, the newborn has finally been added to the royal family’s line of succession online.
Lilibet was born on 4 June in Santa Barbara, California, and is eighth in line to the throne but until now had not been added to the official online list.
On Monday the update was made on the royal family’s website after the newborn’s omission was pointed out by royal commentators on social media.
Lilibet’s name has been added seven weeks after her birth, while her brother, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, was added to the list 15 days after he was born in May 2019.
On Friday, ITV Royal Editor Chris Ship suggested on the Royal Rota podcast that the royal family could be “making a point” by not including Lilibet in the line of succession.
“You have got to ask what has taken them so long,” he said. “All they have got to do is hit the paragraph button and put in a different number.
“They must have done it before. They did it for Archie. Clearly they did it for Louis when he was born. It does feel like to me, maybe they are making a point.”
The succession to the throne is regulated not only through descent, but also by Parliamentary statute, the royal family website explains.
“The order of succession is the sequence of members of the Royal Family in the order in which they stand in line to the throne,” it adds.
“The basis for the succession was determined in the constitutional developments of the seventeenth century, which culminated in the Bill of Rights (1689) and the Act of Settlement (1701).”
Currently, in the top spot in the line of succession is the Prince of Wales. He is followed by his eldest son, the Duke of Cambridge, and then by Prince William’s three children: Prince George, eight, Princess Charlotte, six, and Prince Louis, three.
The Duke of Sussex is sixth in line to the throne, followed by Archie and Lilibet.
Lilibet’s inclusion at number eight pushes the Duke of York into ninth place; he is then followed by his daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.
You can see the full line of succession here.
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