why is princess anne not in the line of succession

February 22, 2026

Princess Anne is in the line of succession, just very far down it now. She’s behind her younger brothers and all their descendants because of an old rule that used to favor sons over daughters.

Why is Princess Anne so low in the line of succession?

The core reason: old “men first” rule

For most of her life, succession to the British throne followed male‑preference primogeniture.

That meant:

The crown passed to the monarch’s children in order of birth.
But any son always jumped ahead of an older daughter.

Applied to Queen Elizabeth II’s children:

Charles (oldest son)
Andrew (younger son)
Edward (youngest son)
Anne (only daughter, but older than Andrew and Edward)

So even though Princess Anne was the Queen’s second child, she was placed behind Andrew and Edward in the line of succession simply because she was female.

At the time of her birth, she was third in line (after Charles and before any brothers). As Andrew and then Edward were born under that “men first” system, she kept getting pushed down.

Didn’t the law change?

Yes, but too late to help Anne. In 2013, the UK passed the Succession to the Crown Act 2013 , which made succession gender‑neutral for newer royals.

Now, birth order alone decides who comes first, regardless of sex.
This is why Princess Charlotte keeps her place ahead of her younger brother Prince Louis.

However, the reform only applies to royals born after 28 October 2011.

Because Princess Anne (and her brothers) were born long before that date, their positions were frozen under the old “male‑preference” rule. So she remains behind Andrew and Edward, even though she is older.

Where is Princess Anne now in the line?

Over the decades, Anne has dropped as more children and grandchildren have been born to Charles, Andrew, Edward, and their descendants.

She started life very high up (third in line).
Today she sits around the mid‑teens to high‑teens (often cited around 16th–18th, depending on the exact date and who is counted).

Every new baby in the branches above her pushes her one place further down.

Why do people think she’s “not” in the line at all?

A few reasons make it feel like she’s not in the line of succession:

She’s now so far down that she realistically will never be monarch.

Her brothers and their children (and now grandchildren) fill the top of the list, so she’s rarely mentioned in “who’s next” graphics.
Online discussions and fan debates often focus on the idea that “Anne should be heir” because of her reputation as one of the hardest‑working royals, which can confuse people about her legal position.

In reality, she is absolutely still in the official line—just nowhere near the top.

Mini FAQ

So why is Princess Anne not ahead of Prince Andrew?

Because when they were born, the law said any son outranks an older daughter , so Andrew was automatically placed before her and remains ahead due to the limited scope of the 2013 reform.

Could the law be changed again to move Anne up now?

In theory, Parliament could rewrite the rules, but that would be a large constitutional and political step, and current reforms were deliberately applied only to those born after 2011 to avoid retroactively shuffling the entire line.

Bottom line:
Princess Anne is in the line of succession; she’s just far down because an older “men first” rule put her younger brothers ahead of her, and the modern, gender‑equal law doesn’t apply retroactively to her generation.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.