History of British female monarchs

If the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have a baby girl, she will one day become only the seventh queen to be crowned in her own right in English history.

Mary Tudor, known as Bloody Mary, was the first woman to be crowned Queen of England, rather than through marriage to a king, taking the throne in 1553 as Mary I.

Although Queen Matilda briefly ruled during the Middle Ages, she was never crowned.

Lady Jane Grey was also proclaimed Queen in 1553, but never crowned. Her reign only lasted nine days before she was imprisoned and later executed by Mary I.

If William and Kate have a first born daughter, she will eventually follow in the footsteps of Mary I, Elizabeth I, Mary II, Anne, Victoria and Elizabeth II to become monarch.

Anne - Mary II's sister - who ruled from 1702, was the first sovereign of Great Britain after England and Scotland were combined into a single kingdom.

Mary Queen of Scots was Queen in Scotland from 1542 to 1567.