70 years rule

@helenS I think she can resign and allow Chuck to take over as Chaz Three. Chaz one got his head chopped off. Chaz two was the merry monarch whose policies caused civil war in Scotland. Give Chaz 3 a chance to create mayhem. It's only fair!

@HarrietteSpeedy Thank you 🌷
Chuck?? Chaz???

@helenS The queen's big boy. Charles Windsor, Prince of Wales, Duke of Rothesay and all that.
Chooky Rossay in a Scottish accent.
Chuck or Chaz are diminutives of Charles.

@HarrietteSpeedy Thank you again! 🌷
I'll do my best to be born in Britain next time, so I can understand that lingo more easily. 😏

@helenS various lingos here. We are a heterogeneous collection of nations, regions and bits and bobs vaguely glued together by false history, shared weather and gloom.

@HarrietteSpeedy I was in a Welsh town called Aberystwyth (what a name!!) a couple of years ago (2015?), and some guy asked me nicely if I liked the coast, and I said "England is really a beautiful country!" – Icy silence, icy looks. First wrong thing I said. 😬

@helenS my son lived in Aberystwyth for 4 and a half years. That was definitely the wrong thing to say 🤣

@helenS Ooops!
As I say on my profile on another site’Wales is not in England’.
😀😅

@helenS Yes- England and Wales are vastly different countries. If you had said that in Scotland you'd be lucky to escape with only an icy silence. The four nations of the united kingdom are not always the best of friends! A thousand years of intermittent warfare tends to leave scars.

@OldBrit @TheSirfurryanimalWales Please accept my most sincere apologies 😏

@HarrietteSpeedy I had no idea it's so complicated. Later I had troubles to understand the definition of the "UK". I thought UK and Great Britain can be used synonymously. But apparently Great Britain=England+Scotland+Wales, and UK="Great Britain" + Northern Ireland. But I don't know if Jersey or Guernsey are a part of Great Britain, or the UK? 🤪

@helenS the Channel Islands are self governing Crown dependencies. So they are are separate, they have their own laws and taxation rules but are defended by the Crown.

@meJess Thank you 🌷
So it's even more complex... 😏

@helenS channel islands and Isle of Mann have separate governments, laws etc. They are like some other territories crown protected so we would go to war for them. Seems appropriate to say given we're in the middle of the 40th anniversary of the Falklands war.

@helenS we have dependencies like the Channel Islands and British Overseas Territories like Gibraltar. You can have a British Passport is you are a

British citizen
British overseas territories citizen
British overseas citizen
British subject
British national (overseas)
British protected person

Only the first one gives you the right to live in the UK.

@helenS I see somebody else has explained better than I could!
Historically, the English invaded Britain in the 5th or 6th centuries and gradually took over about half the island by warfare. Arthur may have been one of the original British resistance leaders who fought against the invading English.
The kingdoms and principalities merged into the various countries of England, Wales and Scotland- much warfare!

In 1603 James VI of Scotland added England to his dominion - hence the United Kingdom.
In 1707 Scotland and England merged their parliaments to become Great Britain (Lesser Britain is Brittany in France)
In 1801 Ireland united with Great Britain to become Great Britain and Ireland
In 1922 the Catholic majority part of Ireland broke away to become the Irish Republic, while Northern Ireland voted to remain with Great Britain

@OldBrit Thank you for explaining this to me! 🌷
@meJess Thank you for clarifying! 🌷
@HarrietteSpeedy Thank you for your historical analysis! 🌷
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@helenS Amusing thread. Her Maj could choose to stand down and appoint Charles as regent, as George III did when he was deemed to be mad. However she has apparently decided not to and to remain, in the official dialect, “Queen Regnant”.

Another interesting statistic is that Elizabeth is, allegedly, the third longest reigning monarch of all time, anywhere. She will overtake someone from Thailand next week, but has nearly two years to go before she overtakes Louis XIV of France. He became king when he was 4!

@helenS two ways I believe under our loose and largely unwritten constitution.

First she could abdicate (essentially renounce her throne). Exactly as her uncle Edward VIII did in 1936. However I think the memories of that run deep in her majesty. It put her unprepared father on the throne through WW2 and arguably shortened his life with the stress etc of suddenly being monarch. Also it made her heir apparent overnight.

Her fervent belief is the job is for life and you have duties as monarch or an hier. See how she stripped Harry of title and privilege. If you don't work then you're outcast in her view.

So I feel it highly unlikely she'll abdicate.

Secondly a regency. That is when someone rules in place of a living monarch who can't. Examples in history are when young princes came to the throne before age of maturity. But they are clouded in scandal.... Richard III for example.

Closer example to today's situation is George III who whilst a long reigning monarch was incapacitated through some mental illness for many years, either porphyria or bipolar (scholars argue that). In that case his Queen and the Prince of Wales acted as monarch under a regency act passed through Parliament.

A regency where Charles becomes Prince Regent in the Queen's place would be to me more likely. At the jubilee he took the salute at the trooping the colour, he recently read the queen's speech at the state opening of Parliament. So in some ways he is already doing this but Queen still deals with the weekly audience with the pm and signing all legislation etc. If she couldn't do that that is when a regency would be enacted I think and Charles would take over all duties.

@helenS she could abdicate.
It was Edward VIlI abdicating that eventually led to her being Queen.
But she has always made it clear she won’t.