[ANSTHRLD] England Royal Titles

HerrDetlef herrdetlef at gmail.com
Thu Nov 18 15:31:38 PST 2010


Actually, while she was married, Lady Diana's official title was "HRH The
Princess of Wales". Before her marriage, she was known as Lady Diana
Spencer, which was merely a courtesy title she used by virtue of her
father's being Earl Spencer.

After her divorce, she was known as "Diana, Princess of Wales." Since she
never remarried, she retained this title until her death. But she was never
officially "Princess Diana".

Because you are quite right. The only women whose given names figure into
their titles are those women who are born princesses, such as Princess
Beatrice of York and Princess Eugenie of York. The Princess Royal was known
as HRH The Princess Anne until Queen Mary's daughter Princess Mary died (I
cannot remember the year off-hand, but the title goes to the Sovereign's
oldest daughter if it is not already occupied).

If Kate and William are married before Her Majesty creates Prince William a
Royal Duke, Kate's title will be "HRH Princess William of Wales," in
parallel with another wife of a junior member of a royal house, HRH Princess
Michael of Kent (whose maiden name is Marie Christine von Reibnitz). Once
Prince William is made a Royal Duke, Kate's official title will be "HRH The
Duchess of (whatever royal duchy Her Majesty bestows on her grandson)".

My favorite tracing of titles in a member of the Royal Family is Queen Mary
(wife of King George V), whose titles were:

--Her Serene Highness Princess Victoria Mary of Teck (from her birth in
1867, after her father HSH The Duke of Teck, who had to be created an HSH
because of his father's morganatic marriage to a countess--in 19th-century
Germany, only children of two legally-married HRH's had any legal right to
the style HRH themselve; nobody could be created an HRH)
--Her Royal Highness the Duchess of York (upon her marriage to Prince
George, who had already been created Duke of York by that time)
--Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall and York (upon her
father-in-law's succession as King of Great Britain and her husband's
succession as Heir Apparent to the Throne)
--Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales (upon her husband's creation as
Prince of Wales)
--Her Majesty the Queen (upon her father-in-law's death and her husband's
succession as King of Great Britain, but signed as "Mary, Regina" or "Mary,
Queen" as a matter of necessity on documents that would survive their reign,
in order to clarify WHICH Queen of Great Britain)
and finally
--Her Majesty Queen Mary (upon her husband's death in 1936, until her own
death in 1953)

>From her marriage to the Duke of York until her husband's death, her given
name did not figure into her official title.

Of course, I'm salivating at all this talk about titles and styles because
I've found it a fascinating subject for years, and even more now so since
I'm reading James Pope-Hennessy's biography of Queen Mary. I'm just now to
the part of the book where World War II has begun; I'm almost finished.
Off to nap! Then laundry and cooking, before tomorrow's drive to
Bordermarch!

Detlef von Marburg
On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 2:44 PM, Tim McDaniel <tmcd at panix.com> wrote:

> On Thu, 18 Nov 2010, Hillary Greenslade <hillaryrg at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Interesting articles on possible future titles of the soon-to-be wife of
>> Prince
>> William:
>>
>>
>> http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_newsroom/20101117/wl_yblog_newsroom/what-to-call-kate
>>
>
> "Once married, Kate Middleton will unofficially become 'Princess
> Catherine.'"  Please note that this unofficial notion is incorrect:
> "Princess [her given name]" is only for ladies who are born a
> princess.  Compare the correct versions, "HRH The Princess Anne, the
> Princess Royal" (I'm pretty sure that's correct), versus "HRH Lady
> Diana, the Princess of Wales" (while she was married).
>
> Danyell de Lincoln
> --
> Tim McDaniel, tmcd at panix.com
>
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