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New Princess More Than The Spare To The Heir

New Princess More Than The Spare To The Heir

When Henry VII's army defeated and killed Richard III on Bosworth Field in 1485, leaving him to be rediscovered in a Leicester car park centuries later, the Tudor dynasty was vulnerable.

There was no heir.

Today, his ultimate successor, Elizabeth II has plenty of potential legitimate heirs.

:: Follow the live blog for updates on the Duchess of Cambridge and the birth of her second child

The need for heirs and spares is not critical but her grandson and his wife are no more or less thrilled to be parents, a second time, than any others lucky enough to have an addition to their family.

Henry VII married Elizabeth of York, in order to heal the rift of the Wars of the Roses and they had a son as heir, called Arthur.

This was not enough.

They needed a ‘spare’ second son, who they called Henry, just to be sure of the dynasty’s security.

As it turned out, the heir, Prince Arthur, died and the spare became one of England’s most infamous kings, Henry VIII.

He too was obsessed with descent and, in the end, none of his three legitimate heirs would survive to have children.

It was down to another of Henry VII’s ‘spares’, his daughter Margaret Tudor, to provide the surviving line by marrying the king of Scots.

Her great grandson, James VI became Elizabeth Tudor’s heir, as James I of England.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have now welcomed their second child, which many refer to as their ‘spare’.

But, the monarchy is in a very different place from that faced by the Tudors, five centuries on.

Their second child is just that.

Like the second child in so many families, she is the result of a loving relationship and there may be three, four or more children in the years to come.

What matters is that Prince George of Cambridge will have the benefit of a nursery companion.

It will be of little import to him that this sister will stand in the wings, should succession turn out not to be his.

The succession of second sons in our history, in the time when sons took precedence over their sisters, was common.

This has been the case even recently.

The Queen’s father and grandfather, George VI and V respectively, both had elder brothers.

George VI’s elder brother, Edward VIII could not keep his Governments’ support and abdicated, while George V stepped up as heir when his elder brother, Albert Victor Duke of Clarence died of influenza at the age of 28.

Queen Victoria’s father, Edward Duke of Kent, was not the second but the fourth son of George III.

The spare is often a very different character than the heir, just as all children differ from one another.

Prince Harry has had to carry very different pressures in his upbringing from those of his elder brother and perhaps this has given him the freedom to be the extrovert and commanding spirit that made him the excellent leader of soldiers he has proved to be.

The Queen had a younger sister who was less a country-woman but more of a sophisticated city-dwelling art lover.

But, as a pair, they were a strong family unit in the nursery, just as the two sons of Prince Charles have proved to be.

Prince George of Cambridge was born after the Succession to the Crown Act of 2012.

His sister takes precedence in the Line of Succession immediately after him, no matter if the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge happen to have further children that are princes.

This change does little to affect the lives of these children but, by instinct, just as any loving partners might wish to have more than one child, if nature and opportunity make this possible, so the Duke and Duchess will be thrilled with the new life in their arms.

Today the Windsors are totally free of the uncertainty Henry VII faced with a new dynasty at the end of the 15th century.

There are plenty of heirs.

What matters is the love of two parents for happy and thriving children, as with any family in the kingdom.