Elizabeth the Sixth

This stinker from a Times article comparing the British and Japanese monarchies:

Elizabeth II is England’s fifth female monarch.

That makes the present Queen our sixth female monarch, not including Lady Jane Grey or the Empress Matilda.
Unless of course they mean monarchs of The United Kingdom… but since the Act of Union was in 1707, that would mean the list only numbers three, which would be doubly wrong.
Don’t worry – I’ve already written in.
The Times makes no such embarrassing errors regarding the number of female monarchs in the Japanese monarchy – it correctly reminds us that woman are barred from succession to the Crysanthemum Throne, something I have complained about before. Then, I argued that this law, at the very heart of a country’s political system, served to demean women and should be abolished. Looking at the list above, I might also point out to the Japanese that the reign of a woman often co-incides with some of the most successful periods in British history. Why not give it a try?

6 Replies to “Elizabeth the Sixth”

  1. woman are barred from succession to the Crysanthemum Throne
    Quite right. The annoying thing is that if that latest sprog hadn’t been a boy they would have abolished it already. A discussion of the principles is all very well, but a constitutional cirsis is unbeatable for forcing change.

  2. Since when did a monarch’s right to reign have to be based on merit? I thought that was the whole thrust of your argument against it – that merit has nothing to do with it.

  3. So then the Japanese don’t need to be convinced of women’s track record of merit as monarchs.
    I think inheritance should be based on value or merit as human beings – of which some would say that women have more than men, but certainly not less, when you average things out.

  4. First, I think the barring of women from succession implies a belief that the country would be worse off if they had a Queen/Empress instead of a King. So I think pointing out that women are usually successful as monarchs is a good way to negate that pre-conception.
    Second, surely the point of inheritance – certainly a hereditary monarchy – is that it has nothing to do with merit.

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