Simon Abney-Hastings, 15th Earl of Loudoun
Simon Michael Abney-Hastings, 15th Earl of Loudoun, is a British aristocrat living in Australia who is the current holder of the ancient Scottish noble title of Earl of Loudoun. He would be the rightful monarch of England if the claims of the documentary's Britain's Real Monarch were true.Biography
The Earl of Loudoun is the son of Michael Abney-Hastings, 14th Earl of Loudoun, whom he succeeded in 2012. He resides in Wangaratta and Melbourne, Victoria.
The heir presumptive to the title is the present holder's brother, the Hon. Marcus William Abney-Hastings.Ancestry
Through his grandmother Barbara Huddleston Abney-Hastings, 13th Countess of Loudoun, he is directly descended from, and heir-general of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV and Richard III.Royal descent
In 2004, Britain's Real Monarch—a documentary broadcast on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom—repeated the claim that the Earl's father, as the senior descendant of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, was the rightful King of England. This argument involves the claim that Edward IV of England was illegitimate. The Earl, following his father's death, would have become the rightful monarch of England under this alternative path of succession, rather than Elizabeth II. This is a claim to the throne of England but not the whole of the United Kingdom, as the English line joined that of Scotland in 1503 with the marriage of Margaret Tudor to James IV of Scotland.
