Get our daily royal round-up direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

An Aussie forklift driver believed by some historians to be the rightful King of England has died, aged 71.

Mike Hastings became a household name after TV researchers revealed his family was cheated out of the crown in the 15th century.

A Channel 4 team found documents suggesting Edward IV was illegitimate, so his younger brother George, the Duke of Clarence and Mike’s ancestor, should have been king.

It said that Edward's father Richard of York was fighting the French at Pontoise when he was conceived, while his mother Cecily was 125 miles away at Rouen, allegedly in the amorous arms of an English archer.

If true, the crown should have passed on to Edward's younger brother George, the duke of Clarence, who was a direct ancestor to Hastings.

Republican Mike was born into the aristocracy as the 14th Earl of Loudoun, but he moved to Australia in 1960.

Hastings showed little interest in pursuing his claim to the monarchy when interviewed in 2005, citing the intense public scrutiny endured by the royals.

However, he joked: “I reckon I might send Lizzie a bill for back rent. The old girl’s family have been living in my bloody castle for the last 500 years.”

His son Simon, now 15th Earl of Loudoun, is also in no hurry to seize the throne.

“It’s something I’ll have to look into,” he said before his father’s funeral in Jerilderie, 460 miles from Sydney.