Hail Franz, King of Canada!

It's pretty clear that the monarchy will not survive here long after Queen Elizabeth leaves the throne. There must be a powerful republican, nationalist, egalitarian sentiment that would like to ditch the monarchy. Its size can't be estimated because there's a tacit agreement among everyone not to bring up the question while Good Queen Elizabeth is on the throne. Prince Charles however just won't do as monarch. The monarchy can't last as long as 25 years once Elizabeth leaves. It will be abolished the instant a Liberal Government in power determines that abolition would be to its electoral advantage.

If we could ditch Charles, the institution might have a fighting chance.

The recasting of our institutions to conform with notions of political correctness is one of the more annoying irritants of our time. But occasionally the process can have unanticipated consequences that are desirable to conservatives. We need to make the most of these moments.

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown is thinking of ending the three-century long ban on Roman Catholics becoming monarch. Historic as it is, the ban grates against modern notions of religious freedom. And as the Telegraph notes,

One of the complexities of any change would the question of whether or not to make it retrospective - a step which would move the Princess Royal ahead of the Duke of York in the line of succession.

If we're righting a historic wrong though, why stop there? If disallowance of Roman Catholics is illegitimate then the ousting of King James II was illegitimate in the first place, and the legitimate heir of the throne is whoever's at the top of the Stuart Succession. The division of Tories over whether to support James, or support the new monarch in order to protect the Church and England's independence divided both the Tory party and the church, and the divisions therein were a major contributor to the bleak generations of exile the Tories suffered after 1715.

We'll grandmother Elizabeth and let her stay on because everyone likes her.

The heir presumptive to the throne of England and Canada is Franz, Duke of Bavaria. He seems to be an accomplished and honourable fellow and his family has a distinguished history:

The Wittelsbachs were opposed to the Nazi regime in Germany, and in 1939 Franz's father Albrecht took his family to Hungary. They lived in Budapest for four years before moving to Somlovar Castle in late 1943. In March 1944, Nazi Germany occupied Hungary. On October 6, the entire family including Franz, then aged 11, were arrested. They were sent to a series of Nazi concentration camps including Oranienburg and Dachau . At the end of April 1945 they were liberated by the United States Third Army.

We play this up to Roman Catholics, puffing the monarchy as a powerful symbol of the end of discrimination against them. The law of primogeniture is being tossed aside too, so we hail this as a giant step for women's equality. Is it just a coincidence that people want to abolish the monarchy just after women and Catholics have become equal, we will ask.
Buying support from women and Catholics the monarchy's survival might be extended by 50 years. And one of Toryism's most disastrous defeats will have been avenged.