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Now with the British monarchy turning out to be just a rubber stamp rather than a seat of power, the question of who will be king after Queen Elizabeth II isn’t an issue that is likely to create much of a frenzy among commoners or even the royal family, for that matter, after the wedding of Catherine (Kate) Middleton with Prince William.

This kind of a question does come in the minds of the people whenever a royal coronation takes place, and this time it has come up again (though in a subdued manner) with Prince William becoming the Duke of Cambridge and wife Kate the Duchess.

Even during the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana in 1981, there was buzz that Charles would take over as king soon.

But till today, Charles mother, 85-year Queen Elizabeth II is still playing an active role in the monarchy. And Charles, at 62 years, is waiting in the wings to become king.

After Diana had died, Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles in 2005 and this had again sparked speculation that the queen may bypass him and anoint William as king. But even that is unlikely to happen.

So, what is the point of whipping up passion, speculating and trying to guess who would be king or queen, when power does not come with it?

This kind of argument is probably the idea of TV channels or the print media to scale up television ratings or newspaper sales by trying to draw viewers/readers with speculative stories.

The British government provides the monarchy an annual grant of pound 40 million (in dollar terms, it is nearly $70 million) and the lingering European crisis prompted the grand wedding to be what we would call “subtly frugal affair” amid a show of pomp.

The Prince and Kate’s wedding ceremony was held at the Westminster Abbey on Friday in an opulent show of British pageantry that grabbed eyeballs worldwide.

There were one million well-wishers amid military bands wearing black bearskin hats and the royal cavalry escorting the vibrant couple in a 1902 open-topped state landau carriage after the ceremony.

The newly-weds later appeared before the public on the balcony of Queen Elizabeth’s Buckingham Palace in central London where they sealed their union with two kisses, showing a great future lies ahead of them unlike Diana and Charles, whose facial expressions indicated that a rift was developing right from the beginning.

Besides the royal family members, other distinguished guests included British Prime Minister David Cameron, ace footballer David Beckham and wife Victoria, singer Elton John, the Sultan of Brunei, Spain’s Prince Felipe and a prince from Saudi Arabia.

Prince William had put speculation over the succession issue to rest quite some time back, stating that he was not keen to be king as long as his father (Charles) is alive, and in the latest development, William has postponed his honeymoon with Kate (the location of which has been kept a secret) and will be rejoining his military duties as a pilot for now.