If Britain’s Prince William and Catherine Middleton have a daughter — and let’s face it, much of the world is itching for these two to start procreating — she one day could be queen, according to a proposed change in the U.K. rules of royal succession unveiled Friday.

Leaders of the 16 countries that recognize the British monarch as head of state have agreed that a firstborn daughter ought to be able to ascend the throne even if she has younger brothers. That agreement would reverse rules that have prevailed for centuries, and will now make its way through the legal process of all countries ruled by Queen Elizabeth II, among them Australia, Canada and a number of small island nations .

The government leaders of the 16 “realms” are also determined to scrap an antiquated law that forbids the monarch to marry a Catholic.

“The idea that a younger son should become monarch instead of an elder daughter simply because he’s a man or that a future monarch can marry someone of any faith except a Catholic — this way of thinking is at odds with the modern countries that we’ve all become,” British Prime Minister David Cameron said Friday in Perth, Australia, at a conference of Commonwealth countries.

He didn’t say whether “modern countries” should still have lawyers who wear funny wigs in court.

The legislation, whose final approval is widely expected, would apply to all descendants of Prince Charles, current

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