Daughters given equal rights to British throne under law changes

Thanks to a unanimous agreement by leaders of the 16 nations who consider the monarch of England their head of state, sons and daughters have an equal right to royal succession, that is if the individual governments of those nations also approve the change, which seems likely.

Under the agreement, the monarch is also free to marry a Catholic, although he or she must still “be in communion with the Church of England, because he or she is the head of that church,” according to British Prime Minister David Cameron. What any of this has to do with Jane Austen or Sherlock Holmes is debatable, although I do find it interesting.