Simon Abney-Hastings, 15th Earl of Loudoun

The Right Honourable
The Earl of Loudoun
The Right Honourable; The Earl of Loudoun
Earl of Loudoun
	Coat of arms of the Earl of Loudoun
Tenure	2012–present
Predecessor	Michael Abney-Hastings,; 14th Earl of Loudoun
Born	Simon Michael Rawdon Francis Abney-Hastings; 29 October 1974 (age 47)
Nationality	Australian
Locality	Wangaratta, Victoria
Heir	The Hon. Marcus Abney-Hastings
Parents	Michael Abney-Hastings,; 14th Earl of Loudoun

Simon Michael Abney-Hastings, 15th Earl of Loudoun (born 29 October 1974), styled as Lord Mauchline until 2012, is a British aristocrat living in Australia who is the current holder of the ancient Scottish noble title of Earl of Loudoun. He might have become rightful king of England if the claims of the 2004 documentary Britain's Real Monarch were true; except George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, Loudoun's ancestor through whom the claim was made suffered attainder, which act included his issue and which was never reversed. The Kingdom of England ceased to exist on 1 May 1707, and the legitimacy of the successor British monarchy rests upon the authority of Parliament in the Act of Settlement 1701.

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.^[1]

Hereditary Governor / Patron - , Derbyshire
Patron - Ashby de la Zouch Museum
Patron - Friends of Loudoun Kirk
President - The Board of Governors, St Andrew's First Aid Australia
Patron - Melbourne Highland Games, Australia. (Formally Ringwood Highland Games)
Patron - Australian Monarchist League, Victoria Branch
Patron - Clan Campbell Society of Australia
Patron - Barnet 1471 Battlefields Society
Patron - Australia Day Council - Victoria. Australia
Protector - Order of St Thomas of Acre, Order of St Thomas of Acre
Kentucky Colonel 2022 - Highest Honor Commonwealth of Kentucky USA [1]
Esteemed friend of Loudoun Museum, Leesburg, Loudoun County, Virginia USA

The heir presumptive to the title is the present holder's brother, the Hon. Marcus William Abney-Hastings (b. 1981).

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.^[2] 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 1603 with the marriage of Margaret Tudor to James IV of Scotland.