Op-Ed: Royals and Titles

I feel the need to explain Royal Titles.

Don’t ask why, just come with me and read this one.

British Title Rules:

1.       Letters patent issued in 1917 (and still remaining in force today) assign a princely status and the style of Royal Highness to all male-line children & grandchildren of a monarch.

Examples:

a.       Prince Charles is the Prince of Wales. Therefore, at birth his sons were also titled Prince of Wales. However, since Prince William was created Duke of Cambridge, William’s children will be Prince/Princess of Cambridge once Prince Charles ascends the throne. Prior to this, Prince William’s children will be given the styles of Duke’s children (Lady{daughters}/Viscount{eldest son}/Lord {younger sons} {Name} Mountbatten-Windsor).

b.      Prince Andrew is Prince Andrew, Duke of York. Because he has a dukedom of somewhere, his daughters are Princesses of York.

c.       Princess Anne, The Princess Royal’s children aren’t entitled to any sort of style because their father does not have any title or style and he refused one upon marriage.

2.       If a bride (such as Catherine Middleton or Lady Diana Spencer or HSH Princess Caroline of Monaco) comes from royal status of her own rights (Princess Caroline), she is granted the same rank as her husband, but if she isn’t (Catherine  & Diana), she is granted the feminine version of her husband’s title. Think of the title as Mrs. When a woman marries, she isn’t ordinarially addressed as Mrs. Amber Brown, is she when her husband is involved? For example, a letter to both isn’t addressed Mr. Joe Brown and Mrs. Amber Brown, is it? NO. It’s addressed Mr. & Mrs. Joe Brown. British titles are like that too.

Examples:

a.        When HSH Princess Caroline of Monaco married Prince Ernst-August of Hanover, who is legally a British prince, she became HRH Princess Caroline of Hanover, not HRH Princess Ernst-August of Hanover, but when he married Chantal Hochuli in the 1980s, she had been considered HRH Princess Ernst-August of Hanover, because she never was a princess in her own rights.

b.      When Sophie Rhys-Jones married Prince Edward, her title became HRH Prince Edward Antony Richard Louis, Countess of Wessex.

c.       When Catherine Middleton became the wife of Prince William, she legally gained the title Her Royal Highness Princess William Arthur Phillip Louis, Duchess of Cambridge.

d.      When Camilla Parker-Bowels joined the British Royal Family in 2005, she became:  The Princess Charles Philip Arthur George, Princess of Wales and Countess of Chester, Duchess of Cornwall, Duchess of Rothesay, Countess of Carrick, Baroness of Renfrew, Lady of the Isles, Princess of Scotland and the same with Prince Charles’s first wife, Lady Diana Spencer.

e.      Princess Michael of Kent. She is the wife of Prince Michael of Kent. Because he was not given a dukedom and she was not a princess in her own right, she is styled as a princess of Kent with her husband’s name.

Get it? 

Good.

 Not that difficult to understand. It’s not rocket science.

Now with the only other one I know the rules for: Monaco.

Monaco Princely Family members are given titles as favors of the Prince. If the Prince wishes to give you a title, he can, and no title of them is hereditary or are there courtesy titles to children of parents of nobility nor does it have anything to do with the male line.

For example:

1.       When Princesses Caroline & Stephanie’s children were born, they requested that their father not grant the titles Prince/Princess to their children in efforts to give them semi-normal lives. Given the fact that Prince Albert was ahead of them both and everyone thought he would eventually marry and have children of his own that would eventually put Prince Rainier's daughters and their children on the back burner, Prince Rainier agreed with both of his daughters' requests and did not give their children titles.

2.       When Princess Antoinette, Baroness of Massy died last March, her only son did not inherit the Barony of Massy. Nor did her daughter, Baroness Elisabeth-Anne. Baroness Elisabeth-Anne is a baroness by her first husband, Baron Bernard Taubert-Natta.

Now that you’ve read this, you won’t go around referring to Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge as Princess Kate or calling the Casiraghis and Ducruets Prince or Princess of Monaco, will you?

I hope not.