It’s set to be a bumper year for royal babies with the arrival of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank‘s first child, August, in February and Mike and Zara Tindall‘s son, Lucas, in March.
New additions to the royal family mean changes to the line of succession, especially as the Duchess of Sussex will welcome a baby girl this summer, and Princess Beatrice is pregnant with her first child, due to be born in autumn.
Currently ninth-in-line to the throne, Beatrice will soon become tenth when Meghan and Prince Harry‘s daughter is born. Therefore, Beatrice and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi‘s baby will be in the 11th position when he or she is born later this year.
Zara Tindall and her children’s places in line to the throne will also change when Beatrice welcomes her first child.
Princess Anne‘s daughter is currently 19th in the line of succession, while her children, Mia, Lena and Lucas are 20th, 21st and 22nd respectively.
However, they will each move one place down the line when Harry and Meghan’s baby girl arrives, and again when Beatrice gives birth to her first baby.
This means that Zara will become 21st in line, with Mia in 22nd, Lena in 23rd and Lucas in 24th.
Mia and Lena benefited from amendments made to The Succession to the Crown Act, which outlines that girls will not be overtaken by younger brothers.
All those born after 28 October 2011 have benefited from the new Act, including the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge‘s daughter, Princess Charlotte, who made history when her younger brother, Prince Louis, was born in 2018.
But the Earl and Countess of Wessex‘s daughter, Lady Louise Windsor, 17, who was born in 2003, remains below her 13-year-old brother, James, Viscount Severn, in the line of succession.
