Which legislation, passed in 1701, banned Roman Catholics from the British throne?
Succession to the British throne Succession to the British throne Succession to the British throne is determined by descent, sex (for people born before October 2011), legitimacy, and religion. Under common law, the Crown is inherited by a sovereign's children or by a childless sovereign's nearest collateral line. The Bill of Rights 1689 and the Act of Settlement 1701 restrict succession to the throne to the legitimate Protestant descendants of Sophia of Hanover that are in "communion with the Church of England". Spouses of Roman Catholics were disqualified from 1689 until the law was amended in 2015. Protestant descendants of those excluded for being Roman
Act of Settlement 1701 of whom Sophia was the youngest daughter. However, in 1701, Sophia was the senior Protestant with a legitimate claim to the English throne; Parliament passed over senior living representatives of lines which included Elizabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Orléans; Louis Otto, Prince of Salm, and his sisters; Anne Henriette, Princess of Condé; Benedicta Henrietta, Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg; and Sophia's sister, Louise Hollandine of the Palatinate because they were all Roman Catholic. Since the Act's passing the most senior living member of the Royal Family to have married a Roman Catholic, and thereby to have been removed from the line of succession,