On Fri, 30 Jun 2000, a message on this list read:

> George III descends from William of Orange who married a British Protestant
> (Stuart?) named Mary who had some claim to the British throne after Charles
> II was overthrown (pun intended); for having his son and heir baptized Roman
> Catholic.

In the interest of accuracy some errors need to be corrected.

George III did not descend from William of Orange, who died without issue.

And it was not Charles II who was overthrown.  He died peacefully, but had
had no legitimate children, and his brother James was crowned King of
England as James II.

It was this king, who had converted to Catholicism upon his marriage to
his second wife, who was overthrown when his Protestant son-in-law,
William, Prince of Orange landed in the south of England with a powerful
army, and marched triumphantly towards London, everywhere being hailed as
a deliverer.  The King fled to France, parliament declared the throne
vacant, and William and his wife Mary (the oldest daughter of James II)
were jointly proclaimed King and Queen.  Mary died five years later, and
William in 1702, when his horse stumbled and he was thrown to the ground.
Mary's younger sister, Anne, who like Mary was a child of James' first
wife and had been raised a staunch Protestant, succeeded to the throne as
Queen Anne, reigning 1702-1714.

Anne had borne her husband, Prince George of Denmark, 17 children, but
only one of them survived infancy, a son, William.  When he died at the
age of 12, Anne signed the Act of Settlement designating the Hanoverian
descendants of her great-grandfather (James I) as her successors, thus
eliminating any claim to the throne by the children of James' second
marriage.  The Hanoverian dynasty, which began with George I, is still on
the throne, though the present Queen's grandfather changed its name to
Windsor after Britain went to war with Germany in World War I.

Nick.