How to read this UK royal family tree
Read the UK royal family tree from the top down, one generation to a row. The plate of a sovereign carries the years of the reign, and King Charles III has a double ring as the centre of the chart.
The chart follows the crown. It leaves out the other children of the earlier sovereigns, so of the nine children of Queen Victoria only Edward VII is drawn.6 The notes of each person name the marriages and children left out.
A broken marriage line is a divorce
Charles III and Diana divorced in 1996.
A silhouette is a living child
No photograph of a living child is shown.
Queen Victoria at the head of the British royal family tree
Queen Victoria reigned for almost 64 years, from 1837 to her death at Osborne House on 22 January 1901. She married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1840, and he died in 1861.6
Their eldest son, Edward VII, married Princess Alexandra of Denmark at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, on 10 March 1863.711 He succeeded his mother in 1901, was crowned on 9 August 1902 after an operation put off the coronation, and died on 6 May 1910.7
George V gives the family the name of Windsor
George V, the second son of Edward VII, became king on 6 May 1910. He had married Princess Victoria Mary of Teck at the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace, on 6 July 1893.812 In 1917 anti-German feeling led him to adopt the family name of Windsor, after the castle.8 Every sovereign after him on the UK royal family tree belongs to the House of Windsor.
Edward VIII abdicates and his brother becomes George VI
Edward VIII succeeded his father on 20 January 1936.13 He signed the Instrument of Abdication on 10 December, and the Act that ended his reign received Royal Assent the next day.9 As Duke of Windsor he married Wallis Simpson, an American divorced twice, at the Château de Candé in France on 3 June 1937.14
His brother Albert reigned as George VI and was crowned on 12 May 1937. He had married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon at Westminster Abbey in 1923, and their daughters Elizabeth and Margaret were born in 1926 and 1930.15 He died on 6 February 1952, and his widow lived as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother until 2002.16
Elizabeth II and her four children
Elizabeth II married Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey on 20 November 1947, the day he was made Duke of Edinburgh.1718 She succeeded her father on 6 February 1952 and died at Balmoral Castle on 8 September 2022, after the longest reign of any British monarch.17
Her children form the widest row of the British royal family tree. Charles was born in 1948, Anne in 1950, Andrew in 1960 and Edward in 1964.17 Anne has been the Princess Royal since 1987, and Edward Duke of Edinburgh since 2023.526 Princess Margaret married Antony Armstrong-Jones in 1960.19
Charles III, his two marriages and his sons
Charles III married Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul’s Cathedral on 29 July 1981, and their sons William and Harry were born in 1982 and 1984.2 The marriage ended in divorce in 1996, and Diana died in Paris in 1997.20 He married Camilla Parker Bowles at the Guildhall, Windsor, on 9 April 2005.3 He became King on 8 September 2022 and was crowned with the Queen on 6 May 2023.221
Prince William married Catherine Middleton in 2011 and became Prince of Wales on the accession of his father.4 Their children George, Charlotte and Louis were born in 2013, 2015 and 2018.22 Prince Harry married Meghan Markle in 2018 and was created Duke of Sussex that day.2324 Their children Archie and Lilibet were born in 2019 and 2021, and the couple stepped back as working royals in 2020.23 The families of the two sons fill the last two rows of the UK royal family tree.
The line of succession on the UK royal family tree
The line runs down the UK royal family tree from the King through his elder son. The Succession to the Crown Act 2013 ended male primogeniture for anyone born after 28 October 2011, so Princess Charlotte stands ahead of her younger brother Louis.1
| Place | Person | Relation to the King |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Prince of Wales | Elder son |
| 2 | Prince George of Wales | Grandson |
| 3 | Princess Charlotte of Wales | Granddaughter |
| 4 | Prince Louis of Wales | Grandson |
| 5 | The Duke of Sussex | Younger son |
| 6 | Prince Archie of Sussex | Grandson |
| 7 | Princess Lilibet of Sussex | Granddaughter |
| 8 | Andrew Mountbatten Windsor | Brother |
Sources1
What this British royal family tree records about living people
Fourteen people on the UK royal family tree are living. For them the chart records only names, years of birth, marriages and offices, and it marks no condition and no relationship line for anyone living or who died in 2000 or later. The living adults are shown in public domain photographs made by United States government offices, or in CC0 photographs from the Dutch agency Anefo and the Governor-General of New Zealand.
Questions about the UK royal family tree
Who is next in line to the throne
William, Prince of Wales, the elder son of Charles III, is first in line, and his son George is second on the UK royal family tree.
How Charles III descends from Queen Victoria
On the UK royal family tree he is her great-great-great-grandson, through Edward VII, George V, George VI and Elizabeth II.
People and sources
A page of its own lists all 28 people on the chart, each with a short note and the sources for it, and the 26 numbered sources this article cites. It also gives the credits of the portraits and this page as a reference in the APA, MLA, Chicago and Harvard styles, ready to copy.