When they wed, Gabriele Thyssen was a Roman Catholic and Karl Emich a British dynast, as a legitimate descendant of George II of Great Britain (through his granddaughter Augusta of Wales (1776-1813), ancestress of Karl Emich's mother, Eilika of Oldenburg) at which time a provision of the Act of Settlement 1701 stipulated that in the event the British crown is to devolve upon an heir married to Roman Catholic, that heir is permanently disabled from succeeding to the throne, which would pass instead to the next Protestant in the order of succession who had not been married to a Roman Catholic. The Succession to the Throne Act, 2013, repealed that marital restriction (also embodied in the Bill of Rights 1689), with retroactive effect, as of 26 March 2015.