Is it true that Charles being divorced cannot become king? If he still can inherit the throne when did they change the rules?

Six answers and none has hit the point yet - and this question has been asked endlessly in the past few weeks. The answer is to do with the changing views of the Church of England. One result of King Henry VIII declaring independence from the pope is that the British monarch is Supreme Governor of the Church of England. In 1936, it still held the view that divorce is impossible and that it would not perform remarriages of the divorced. For the church's own Supreme Governor to have been married to a divorced woman would have put him and the church in an impossible position. Truth be told, "the establishment" wanted King Edward VIII off the throne anyway - he was a Nazi sympathiser, a playboy, a womaniser, totally uninterested in the duties of being king, and left secret papers lying around. The fact that Wallis Simpson was divorced did Britain a huge favour. So he abdicated and then married her. The Church of England has revised its views since and in 2002, decided that it would permit remarriage of the divorced in church, and issued guidelines for priests as to when this is appropriate. Any priest who doesn't agree with this is free to turn down remarriages of the divorced, but anyway - it is no longer banned. So Charles and Camilla were perfectly free to marry in church and it is no longer a bar to the throne. Though in fact they didn't - the Queen's view is rather more traditionalist and she would not have come to the wedding if it had been in church. So they had a civil wedding and a service of blessing afterwards, which the Queen did go to. The fact that Charles is divorced was never a problem - he was a widower as Diana had died 8 years before the wedding. The phrase used is of having "a former spouse still living", which he didn't.

No, and it has never been true that divorce disqualifies from being on the British throne.

People get confused by this because of what happened with King Edward VIII. But the facts there are that the monarch is Supreme Governor of the Church of England, at the time the Church was totally against divorce (or rather, remarriage of the divorced), and it would have looked wrong for the Supreme Governor to go against the Church's own beliefs. The back story on THAT is that Edward was totally unsuitable to be king, and the "powers that be" had been agitating for months to get him to go. He wasn't interested in the royal duties, left secret papers lying about, and had Nazi sympathies. Once he declared he wanted to get married to a divorced woman, the Prime Minister and the Archbishop of Canterbury must have thought Christmas had come early! Then they could allow it to become public (up until then, the British public had no idea of what was going on as the papers agreed not to breathe a word) and put it to him straight - you can have Mrs Simpson or the throne, but not both.

Another little fact which was true at the time and was repealed in 1953 (so that Charles and Camilla could do this - I remember this being asked at the time in the press because some journalist had noticed that the Marriage Act 1836 contains this, and failed to notice that the entire Act has been repealed!) was that members of the royal family could not marry in a civil ceremony. Therefore it was a real choice - he can remain king, but then he cannot marry Mrs Simpson as the Church would refuse and he couldn't get married anywhere else.

Things have moved on now that the Church of England has changed its mind and accepts divorce. It allows its clergy to refuse to perform remarriage for reasons of personal belief and conscience, but it is no longer a blanket ban. I have no doubt that when Charles and Camilla wanted to marry, Archbishop Rowan Williams would have been perfectly happy to do it but the fly in the ointment was the Queen, who is rather more traditionally-minded than him and wouldn't have come to the wedding. So they took the traditional Church of England route - marry in a register office, and have a service of blessing afterwards which the Queen would come to.

No, it's not true. There never was a law or rule stating that the monarch couldn't be divorced or couldn't be married to a divorced person.

Members of the public are often confused about this because of the Abdication of the Queen's uncle, King Edward VIII, in 1936, so he could marry a divorced woman. The problem there was severe social disapproval of divorce at the time and the Church of England's refusal to countenance the religious remarriage of divorced people. Since the monarch holds the title of Supreme Governor of the Church of England, the general view was that a king or queen regnant couldn't be divorced and couldn't be married in a non-religious civil ceremony. The fact that Mrs. Simpson had been divorced twice and simply wasn't a suitable candidate to be queen consort made matters worse.

In the many years since, attitudes have changed. A great many British have been divorced, three of the Queen's children have, and even the C of E dropped its blanket opposition to the remarriage of the divorced at its Synod of 2002.

He can become a king if he is divorced. Some rules were changed in the 1950s, but attidues are quite different since the 1930s, currently a third of British marriages end in divorce.

No. Charles will be the next monarch. He received permission from monarch and the Church to remarry. There are NO laws that prohibit a divorced royal from inheriting the throne.

Some people get confused by what happened with Edward VIII; there was more than Mrs. Simpson to call for an abdication. Edward VIII was not properly carrying out his constitutional duties as required. He also was demonstrating an unwillingness to work with Parliament. He frequently claimed illness to get out of performing royal duties only to be spotted out and about with Mrs. Simpson.

Mrs. Simpson was a two-times divorced woman who showed history of using men to ascend the social ladder. She was not seen as staying with the King and it would have been a great embarrassment to the monarchy to be divorced by such a person.

How did that work out for Henry VIII?

As I recall, he was divorced and kept the throne...

A Prince of Wales does not 'inherit' the throne; he acceedes to it.

No, there is no rule against a divorced person becoming king, he will be king when his mother dies,the church blessed his marriage.

You obviously don't know anything about the way the succession works. It would take far too long to explain to you even in simple terms. I suggest you conduct further research on the matter. Pay special attention to the reign of Henry VIII, which might prove interesting to you.

Henry VIII was never officially divorced, he tried to have 2 of his marriages "annulled", but the Catholic church in Rome would not let him so he broke from Rome and started the Church of England.

Two of his wives he had beheaded for treason, one died in childbirth and one outlived him before he could destroy her because of her Protestant beliefs.