GREAT BRITAIN: Useful Privilege

The members of virtually every royal house, regnant or deposed, in Europe are related to Europe’s most prospering crown, Britain’s. Among them is Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover, who is descended from King James I’s granddaughter, the Electress Sophia of Hanover, and thereby legally entitled to ascend the British throne -provided that the 60-odd heirs who precede him all die. Last week, after a year of litigation, the British court of appeal ruled that Prince Ernest’s ancestry entitles him to an even more useful privilege: that of British nationality. By implication, the court’s decision, based on a law passed in 1705, would grant the same privilege, on application, to the present Kings of Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Greece, the Queen of The Netherlands, the descendants of the late Kaiser Wilhelm II and to some 400 other non-Roman-Catholic heirs, including the wives of an interior decorator in Amarillo, Texas and a lawyer in Springfield, Mo.