When Queen Victoria died on January 22, 1901, her second-born child and eldest son Albert became king.

Under British law, it is the first-born son who inherits the crown - not the first-born child.

At the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting yesterday, British Prime Minister David Cameron won support to change the rule, so the first-born child can become monarch, regardless of sex.

But what if the change had been made years ago?

Queen Victoria's eldest child, daughter Victoria, would have become Queen.

And a 52-year-old homeopathic doctor from Halle in Germany would be our current Queen.

Friederike Thyra Marion Wilhelmine Dorothea von der Osten is sixth in the line of first-born children descended from Queen Victoria.

As such, she is Queen Victoria's eldest great-great-great-greatgranddaughter, Queen Elizabeth's third cousin twice removed and about 330th in line to the British throne.

Her daughter, a marketing manager in Berlin who celebrated her 25th birthday yesterday, would be the next in line.

Both women have been tracked down by _The Weekend West _and given their first media interviews about their ancestry.

"I have always been aware of my place as a descendant of Queen Victoria and that, if different succession rules had been observed, I could have had a right to the British throne," Dr von der Osten said. "From time to time, I discussed this with my mother.

"As a young girl, my mother met the Queen Mother but, as far as I know, she had no further contact.

"I have never met any of the members of the British royal family."

But it is all hypothetical.

"I cannot imagine the crown itself or the British people would vote for a change that would see a German-educated person in the role," she said.

Princess Victoria was born on November 21, 1840 and was her mother's heir apparent until the birth of her brother Prince Albert - later Edward VII - a year later. She was the first eldest daughter of a sovereign to be given the honorary title of Princess Royal.

Prince Albert's accession to the throne means Princess Victoria is the last first-born daughter to have been "overlooked" for the crown. But had Princess Victoria become Queen, she would have reigned for only 195 days. She died of breast and spinal cancer on August 5, 1901.

She had become engaged to Prince Frederick William of Prussia when she was only 14 and they married three years later. Following the death of his childless uncle and his father, the prince became Emperor Frederick III of Germany in 1888. But he reigned for only 99 days before succumbing to throat cancer.

Their eldest son was Wilhelm II, who became the last German emperor and king of Prussia and was blamed for starting World War I. Historians have a mixed view of his role in German political life in the lead-up to World War I but he was considered an ineffectual war leader and was known to troops on the Western Front as Kaiser Bill. After losing the support of the army, he abdicated in 1918 and fled to exile in the Netherlands. He married Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, whose maternal grandmother was Queen Victoria's half-sister.

Wilhelm II co-signed the abdication declaration with his eldest child, Crown Prince Wilhelm. The Crown Prince returned from the Netherlands in 1923 after promising not to engage in German politics. He actively campaigned for the reinstatement of the crown, but he lived as a private citizen before dying from a heart attack in 1952.

His eldest child was Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, who died before his father and grandfather. While a student in Bonn, he fell in love with fellow student Dorothea von Salviati, but his father did not approve of a marriage to "a member of the minor nobility".

But the Prince was determined and renounced any rights to succession and married Dorothea in 1933.

Seven years later, the marriage was officially recognised and his two daughters were given the title of Princesses of Prussia.

Prince Wilhelm took part in the German invasion of France in 1940 and was wounded during fighting in Valenciennes and later died in hospital. Hitler was concerned at the outpouring of public sympathy for the prince and declared that, in future, all members of the former German royal houses would be banned from service in the military.

The eldest daughter, Princess Felicitas Cecilie Alexandrine Helene Dorothea of Prussia, was only six when her father died. In 1958, she married Dinnies von der Osten and had four children. She died last year aged 75.

Her eldest daughter, Friederike von der Osten, was born in Bonn on July 14, 1959. With the collapse of the Berlin Wall, she and husband Bernhard von Reiche moved to Leipzig. She has her own medical practice in Halle. If the succession rules were different, she would be Queen of England and Australia.

Her eldest of three daughters, Felicitas Catharine Malina Johanna von Reiche, would be her heir apparent.

"Yes, my two sisters and I grew up being aware of who we were," Ms von Reiche said. "There was no special point in time I can remember when our family told us. It always belonged to my family history.

"We have no monarchy any more in Germany. Germans are less interested in their former royal dynasties than other European peoples that still have a king or queen. That is why most Germans are not aware of my background, especially my connection to the English crown.

"Some of my friends know about my ancestors. Thanks to your calls, some of my workmates know now, too.

"When people find out, some will ask me about it and some won't. Their first reactions range from respect and insecurity to prejudice. But I am very easygoing about my family history, so most people treat me normally."

Ms von Reiche was born and educated in Munich. She studied media management in Cologne and graduated in International Marketing Management in Berlin. For the past year she has been working as marketing manager for a Berlin start-up online furniture company <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.sitzfeldt.com">www.sitzfeldt.com </a>.

She said that she had always been interested in history at school, probably because of her family history.

"I probably know more about the English royal family than I would if they were not my ancestors," she said. "But I am not an expert in English royal history. When my grandmother was still alive, she sometimes told us stories and anecdotes."