Happy Birthday to Queen Elizabeth!

Happy Birthday to Queen Elizabeth, who appears to be hale and hearty at the age of 84. It's so fascinating to me to contemplate her life and legacy - she's been the Queen of England since 1952, my entire lifetime and then some, and for the majority of the British people she's the only Monarch they've ever known. By comparison, the President of the United States when Elizabeth became queen in 1952 was Harry Truman, and we've had 11 additional heads of state since then. This line of thinking leads to the uncomfortable question of when Prince Charles will ever get to be King.

Being the heir apparent is a strange and awkward role - the only way for Prince Charles to fulfill his career destiny is for his mother to die. And given the longevity of the Queen's female ancestors (Queens Victoria, Alexandra and Mary all lived into their 80s, and the Queen Mum famously lived to be 101), Charles could still have a long wait in front of him. If the Queen lives as long as her mother, Charles won't inherit the throne until 2027, when he will be 79 years old. Queen Victoria's eldest son and heir, who also had a decades-long wait before becoming King at age 59, is reported to have said something along the lines of "I don't mind praying to the eternal father but I must be the only man in the country afflicted with an eternal mother." I can't help wondering if Prince Charles feels the same.

Then there's Prince William. Recent rumors that he and his girlfriend Kate Middleton may be getting married soon have revived talk about the possibility that the Queen would somehow bypass Charles and name William as the next King. All credible evidence says that the chances of that happening fall somewhere between remote and "when hell freezes over." There are all kinds of traditional and historic reasons why I believe it would never happen, not the least of which is the sorry spectacle of the way things played out after King Edward the 8th abdicated back in 1936. That was the last time they messed around with the succession and it wasn't pretty. Finally, there's this: Does anyone really think Prince William would want to be king while his father is still around?