MANY a peer of England is more anciently British than the royal family. The first of the present ruling house was George I (1714), a Hanoverian. After Victoria's death and her son's accession to the throne, the line became known as Saxe-Coburg; in World War I King George V changed the family name from Saxe-Coburg to Windsor. Queen Elizabeth II is the fourth and probably the last Windsor to sit on the throne: three-year-old Prince Charles, the heir-apparent, is a member of the House of Mountbatten, his father's family, which Anglicized its name from Battenberg.

This chart shows the line of succession as it is today. If Prince Charles dies or abdicates without heirs, his little sister Anne will inherit the throne. Next in line after Anne: the new Queen's sister, Princess Margaret. Thereafter, the succession goes through the late King George VI's brothers, nieces and nephews: first, to the Duke of Gloucester, and his sons William and Richard; then, to the children of George, Duke of Kent, who died in World War II when his R.A.F. flying boat crashed in Scotland. They are: Edward, now Duke of Kent, Michael (whose godfather was Franklin D. Roosevelt) and Alexandra. Last of all in direct succession is George VI's only sister, the Princess Royal, and her family: George, seventh Earl of Harewood (rhymes with Gar Wood), sometime opera critic for the left-wing New Statesman and married to a Viennese pianist, their year-old son, and his younger brother, the Hon. Gerald Lascelles (rhymes with tassels), who once shocked the court by falling in love with a bonny barmaid, reduced the shock by not marrying her.

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