An Australian aristocrat with a rival claim to throne will play a key role in King Charles' coronation. Photo / Getty Images
An Australian aristocrat with a rival claim to throne will play a key role in King Charles' coronation. Photo / Getty Images
When the King is crowned in Westminster Abbey next month, one aristocrat granted a ceremonial role at the coronation may be pondering whether he is in fact the rightful heir to the throne.
The Coronation Claims Office has confirmed the 15th Earl of Loudoun, the Right Honourable Simon Abney-Hastings (picture below left), is among those who have proven beyond doubt their historic and hereditary right to attend the ceremony.
Applicants were asked to provide evidence they were directly descendants of those who had performed similar roles at previous coronations.
However, many wrongly believed they had a hereditary right to attend, often based on some family fable, with around 10 per cent to 20 per cent of the applications being so poor they warranted no further investigation.
Roles under consideration largely involve the bearing of specific items such as a white wand, the Great Gold Spurs, or the Orb, or Sceptre.
However, according to one theory, the Earl of Loudoun, a 48-year-old Australian, has such close links he may even have had a right to be sitting on that Coronation Chair.
Some 20 years ago, Dr Michael Jones, a Medieval historian, uncovered a document in Rouen Cathedral that he claimed proved Edward IV was illegitimate and so not the rightful heir to the throne.
He unearthed records of the 100 Years’ War in France that show Richard, Duke of York, could not have sired Edward because he was 100 miles away from his wife, Cecily Neville, the Duchess of York, during the five weeks of her possible conception.
A Channel 4 documentary, Britain’s Real Monarch, instead suggested an archer was the real father of Edward IV.
As a result, the line of succession should have passed through to Edward’s younger brother George, Duke of Clarence.
The 2004 programme, based on Dr Jones’s book, Bosworth 1485: Psychology of a Battle, claims his direct descendent, the Earl of Loudoun, one of the oldest Scottish noble titles named after Loudoun in Ayrshire, may be the rightful king.
The Channel 4 documentary saw presenter Sir Tony Robinson, who played Baldrick in Blackadder and who was knighted by Prince William in 2013, say Edward IV’s ascension to the throne was “fatally flawed” because his mother had an “affair”.
When confronted at his home in New South Wales by Sir Tony 19 years ago, the late 14th Earl of Loudoun, who was born in Sussex but moved to Australia when 18 to work as a jackaroo - a sheep and cattle ranch hand - was surprised by the claims.
Mike Abney-Hastings, a republican and naturalised Australian, replied “Strewth!” when told he may have missed out on being king.
He later admitted the more he watched the documentary “the more I’m convinced they are right and I probably should be the King of England.”
Insisting he would never lay claim to the title, he added: “It’s bad enough being a Pom over here, let alone being a bloody titled one.”
He said after the documentary he became known as “King Mike” and his arrival at social gatherings often saw the assembled stand to sing God Save the King.
When the 14th earl died aged 69 in 2012, his eldest, Simon, took the title because he is directly descended from, and heir-general of, George, the 1st Duke of Clarence, brother of King Richard III and King Edward IV.
Dr Jones told The Telegraph: “I’m glad Simon will be attending the coronation. He has every right to be there. If you accept the charge made by some at that time, including some of his family, that Edward IV was illegitimate then the Earl of Loudoun could be king.”
Numerous historians have rejected the claims made in the documentary.
The current earl, who lives in Wangaratta in Victoria, has said he would choose a “bourbon and coke and a barbie” - barbecue - over a tea and scones served on silver trays.
He told the Australian newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, his family’s motto is “I Byde My Tyme”, adding: “Given the Abney-Hastings have had to wait six centuries to stake any claim, a little longer won’t make much difference.”
Earlier this year he was crowned “chieftain” of the day at Brigadoon, an annual Scottish music, dance and sports festival in Bundanoon in Australia.
Centuries-old traditions
Others with roles at the coronation are the Earl of Erroll, the Barons of the Cinque Ports, a group who represent the 14 South East England coastal towns, the Lord Great Chamberlain, Lord Hastings, the Bishops of Durham and Bath and Wells, the Dean and Chapter of the Collegiate Church of St Peter, the Lord Mayor of London, the Earl of Dundee, the Lord Lyon King of Arms and Heralds and Pursuivants of Scotland, and a member of the Walker Trustees, the Anglican Bishop of Edinburgh who previously performed the role of Usher of the White Rod.
“Those given coronation roles will be at the heart of this historic ceremony, but of course the entire nation will have its part to play in events up and down the country, in what promises to be a weekend to remember.”
