Act of Settlement 1701

With the Act of Settlement (Engl. basic Regulation), the English Parliament in 1701 created the new foundation of the Protestant succession to the throne in the Kingdom of England. As succession regulation of Act of Settlement is valid today in the UK.

The Act of Settlement stipulates that after the death of Anne, the last Protestant heir to the throne in the House of Stuart ( and later Queen 1702-1714 ), the right of succession to the throne - while bypassing the hitherto valid succession line - Sophie of the Palatinate or their Protestant descendants should go. Sophie of the Palatinate was a daughter of Elizabeth Stuart and the closest living Protestant relative of the royal family. It was further stipulated that all those of their descendants lose their right to the English (or British today ) throne who marry a Catholic partner. This all Catholics were excluded from the English and later British throne, which was the main objective of the law after decades of political crises and unrest.

The provisions were linked directly to the person Sophie, but went with this Act of Parliament, the royal dignity in the wake of the Guelphs over, had married into the Sophie, so therefore the House of Hanover was established for the English monarchy. Since Sophie died in 1714 shortly before the death of Queen Anne, ascended to their son Georg Ludwig as George I to the throne of Great Britain. Since George and his successors retained their German titles and territories that existed until 1837 and a personal union between Great Britain and the former electorate of Hanover.

The Royal Marriages Act of 1772 added these provisions later: This specifies that the members of the royal family need the consent of the monarch for a marriage. Since 2008, initiated by the then Labour government under Gordon Brown, on a change in the Act of Settlement spoken. On 27 October 2011 the Commonwealth realms agreed that reform in accordance with the Statute of Westminster. In future female offspring to be the male equivalent and marrying a Catholic should not exclude from the succession. The parliaments of all 16 Commonwealth countries where the Queen of England or the British king is head of state must approve this amendment yet.

The original document of the Act of Settlement (see picture) is now in the Central State Archive of Hanover within the Lower Saxony State Archives.