I am the rightful heir!

Just reading this story about an Australian who may be the 'rightful King of England' (found via Tom Watson and Bloggerheads) and I think I've noticed a slight problem with the story. It's probably a mistake in the reporting, which doesn't really give full details of his lineage and why it gives him the right to claim the throne, but it seems to rely on a historian claiming that Edward IV was illegitimate and therefore, not a rightful King.

Now, the evidence as reported in the story does seem quite convincing on first inspection, it's just that in terms of who holds the throne nowadays it's completely irrelevant whether Edward IV was illegitimate or not, as the current Queen's claim to the throne doesn't come through the line of Edward IV. As this family tree (pdf file) from the royal website shows, Henry VII, the first of the Tudors claimed the throne as a descendent of Edward III - his only relation to Edward IV was that Henry married his daughter, Elizabeth of York. None of the House of Tudor, House of Stuart or House of Hanover/Saxe-Coburg-Gotha/Windsor claim their right to the throne as descendents of Edward IV, so even if he was illegitimate, it doesn't have any bearing on the current monarch.

Of course, as history has shown on many occasions, just being the 'rightful' heir doesn't mean you get to be King or Queen as any Jacobite could tell you.